THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

ARMADA BEACON SITE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

Cissbury Ring is set on a chalk promontory on the South Downs, with good views across to Beachy Head and the west Isle of Wight. 

Archaeological evidence shows that this strategic site was also important for flint production. Some of the noticeable hollows are the remnants of Stone Age flint mines (dating back 5-6,000 years).  Over 270 Neolithic pits have been discovered. The flint was used to make tools, and there is evidence that it was exported as far away as the eastern Mediterranean. Some of the shafts to the mines were over 23 metres deep, with many galleries radiating from the base.

The Iron Age hill fort was constructed 3000 B.C .by local people as a refuge in times of threat.  There is no evidence that the area was ever attacked though.   Originally, the bank would have had a deep ditch in front and a timber fence on top, creating a formidable stronghold.   Cissbury Ring is one of a series of hill forts and with its ditch and ramparts is the second largest in England, the largest being Maiden Castle in Dorset.

Overlooking 78 miles of the Sussex coast, Cissbury is an ideal site for defence.  Archaeologists have found beach pebbles here, presumably hoarded as Iron Age sling shots.   

The hill was also an Armada beacon site.  There was a serious threat to England from King Philip II of Spain in the days of Queen Elizabeth I.   Vic Oliver the Warden of Cissbury Ring tells me that the site of the beacon was just to the east of the Neolithic fling mining area...

Other beacon sites were "Goring Beacons" and "Lancing Beacons.     The first I suppose was at Highdown Hill and the latter at Lancing Clump. 

Forewarned that the invasion was coming, in 1587 the monarch instructed Sir Thomas Palmer and Walter Covert, Deputy Lieutenants of Sussex, to make a survey of the Sussex coast as part of the preparations to repel the invaders.   It is interesting to note that the map which was for the purpose o discovering which parts of the coast required additional defences, also indicated the windmills already in existence.   It is guessed that these were intended to be commandeered and utilised as fortified posts.

This is how Sieberie Hille (Cissbury Ring) came into its own and also played a vital part in the alert for the Armada.   Lookouts scanned the horizon for the sight of their sails should they appear round the shoreline of the Isle of Wight and sail up the English Channel.

Palmer and Covert set to and the resulting map showed a straggly coastline with minimal inhabitation.  In fact, nearby Worthing was of no importance at all in those days with perhaps only a hovel or two belonging to fishermen.   The only indication of Worthing's existence on this 1587 map was a site for fire beacons — and these may have been positioned somewhere near South Street and the Steyne.   

Beacons were part of an established South Coast warning system in early Elizabethan times to warn London of the likely approach of the Spanish from the sea.   If enemy ships were sighted, setting fire to the beacons would warn lookouts manning other beacons and in this way a chain of lighted communication beacons would quickly transport the news to the capital.

Sieberie Hille had its own beacon and also Chanckberie Hille (known as Chanctonbury Ring much later) had two beacons to pass the warning inland and up country.  

The names of those who were sent to camp beside the beacon on Cissbury all those years ago scanning the horizon out to sea will never be known and the scene can only be imagined.   The Armada fleet of 130 vessels appeared in May 1588 with thousands of Spaniards aboard and intent on landing. 

The above  is a landscape watercolour by John Nixon (c.1760-1818) depicting the slopes of the Iron Age Fort of Cissbury Ring..... High Salvington Windmill in the distance above the Bost Hill track..... and St. John the Baptist Church on the right.   

John Nixon was the son of an Irish merchant based in London and he was a caricaturist and topographical sketcher.  The family business was successful and this gave John the financial freedom to take time off work in order to travel. 

The painting suggests to me that he traversed the old Coach Road (passing the Findon Windmill site) on horseback or by coach and horses .....and maybe stopped to do a quick representation of the area en route?

The figures depicted appear to me to be soldiers ....a local soldier remonstrating with a sole member of the invading Napoleonic enemy...... and my guess is that maybe the army were encamped at Soldiers Field..... this being an era when the countryside was in fear of a Napoleonic invasion.

The breach in the ramparts at Cissbury Ring was made during World War II to make way for a 100lb gun, which fired at ships at sea.  An anti-aircraft gun was sited in the hollow beside the breach.

On the lower slopes at the northern boundary, there was once a dew-pond which still provides a home for fairy shrimps. These tiny, extremely rare creatures can lie dormant for years until the pond area fills with water again and, therefore, must not be disturbed. Vulnerable to predators, they cannot survive in permanent ponds.

Continue if you would like to read  Turner and Irving Make Discoveries

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.