What this is

An independent record of one small town and the sea that left it.

Winchelsea was drowned on its first site, rebuilt on the ridge above in the 1280s to a plan of thirty-nine numbered quarters, and then abandoned by the water that had justified the whole enterprise. Two thirds of the plan was never built on. This site is filed the way the town was surveyed, because that is the shortest honest description of the place: a complete plan, partly occupied.

What it is not

Not a council, a tourist board or an official body, and not affiliated with any organisation described here. There are no opening hours, prices, bookings or event listings on this site, and there will not be. If you need those, the bodies that hold them publish them.

People live here

The quarters that were built on are somebody's street. No photograph here identifies a private house, and there are no addresses. Where a piece describes a building, it describes what can be seen from public ground or what is already published in the record.

Dates

Historical years appear where the evidence carries them — a rental, a surge, a raid. Nothing on this site is stamped with a publication date, because none of it is news.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, say so. Corrections are made silently and gratefully.