August 13, 2013
My picture and the one "stolen" from Wikipedia !
This is not a birthday cake, but the Eastbourne Redoubt, one of the south coast's most historic landmarks. This Napoleonic fortress covers over 200 years of history, and is named one of the top ten military museums in the UK.
Built to defend the south coast from Napoleon's forces it still stands as a unique monument to that time and now houses the largest military collection of its kind in the south of England.
I am not at all a friend of military stuff but when I saw the Redoubt from outside just located at the sea, it looked imposing to me and I wanted to see a little more.
The whole fortress is surrounded by a ditch, where now weeds grow with pleasure.
Through this entrance I went inside
and walked all around the place, stopping at each shooting point for the canons, still standing there.
The views were very peaceful and nice to see. There were no canon shooting soldiers, but only the sea, the beach, the town and a fitness center.
When I had walked all around I went downstairs into the courtyard.
It was rather hot and most of the tourists were inside
A shooting stand was there too, where you could shoot on little flying airplanes, but nobody seemed to have any interest in shooting.
Then I went inside the museum which was very interesting to see.
There were even a few items from the Waterloo battle, the town where I live.
Britain had fought so many battles of which items were shown too. I loved the drums, but less the bed, the poor wounded soldier was certainly not very comfortable on it.
My blogfriend Hilary who lives in Eastbourne had taken me along to see the Redoubt, and while she was busy inside to attend a lecture about the Victoria Cross,
after having done my tour, I waited for her sitting at the beachfront and watched the seagulls
The "Outpost cafe" is just located inside the court, but has also a terrace outside, leading to the seafront. We had a nice cup of tea there and I had also the "General's Cream Tea", with a scone, clotted cream and strawberry jam.
I enjoyed my visit very much !
You can read the whole history of the Redoubt here
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
EASTBOURNE's REDOUBT
Posted by Gattina at Tuesday, August 13, 2013
travel, vacation, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, Turkey, Battle of Waterloo, Eastbourne Redoubt, Fortress, Napoleon, Our World
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15 comments:
Well this is an exciting thing to see
we have a similar exhibition at Fort Lennox
in Quebec.
I can't get enough of the history of this interesting place. The weedy ditch around the monument was obviously a moat in the old days. Thanks for taking me on all these interesting visits, my friend. One day I will join you in person! (((Hugs))) Jo
I was so pleased you went inside and then shared it with us. I didn't have the time to visit the museum so now I feel I have.
Hi Gattina .. what a great tour - love your photos too - and you've got that sea-green sea ..
The Redoubt is going to be 'refurbished' and restored, where earlier non-sympathetic alterations were done .. to bring it back as near as possible to its original state.
These repairs will take a few years as they're going through the process of surveying and working out what is feasible with limited resources ... but it is a great example of the redoubt style, and is the best that's open to the public.
Cheers - love the 'report' you've done .. Hilary
Ah - great pictures of Eastbourne - and nice weather too.
I love seeing historic places like that. your little tour was very interesting.
Wonderful tour, and a great treat at the end, clotted cream and strawberry jam!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Interesting place you have visited here....good that you had a clotted cream and jam treat at the end!
Very interesting place. I'm like you, not very interested at all in military stuff, but every time we do visit a fort or military monument I end up learning a great deal, so I'm always glad (somebody) dragged me there! But I don't think we've ever seen anything as imposing and really beautiful as this redoubt.
Your picture is as good as the google one.
Sign me up for that General's Cream Tea. I like reading about Napolean's era and like the Patrick O'Brian novels which include that time period. The first novel in the series is "Master and Commander." Great fortress and photos.
An interesting place that I knew nothing about.
Really, all the pictures of the fort looking beautiful, peaceful and famous to visit.
such a nice post..
Hi Gattina! Hope you are having a superb summer! Great post and superb pictures!! Well, for the beach, better cometo Prugal...
Sorry for the absence, but 2013 has been even worse than 2012... Anyhow, enjoy the blues of Grenada, and have a great vacation, if you can manage!!
All the best!
Interesting place.
That ditch must have been a moat once upon a time, to keep the enemy away.
This is such an interesting place. And it's your first visit?
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