ROUTE 1066: Monday 26 October 2026
Just a week to go now until I start my ROUTE 1066 walk – close enough for me to begin taking a furtive peek or two at the weather forecast for Pevensey Bay, Battle and Hastings at the start of November! But what a weekend it has been. I can’t thank you all enough for the various supportive messages that I have had from all around the town and from further afield – from family, friends, neighbours, and from some caring folk that I have never met. Thank you!
But I am just a small part of this fabulous campaign to SAVE CASTLE FIELDS, and over the last few weeks I have been supported so much in my walk planning by James Moir and the team in so many areas – from media coverage, website and printing design right through to motivation and encouragement for my walk. The Castle Fields campaign is flying now, with the total donations approaching £295,000 of the £500,000 required to acquire the whole 30 acres of the historic Castle Fields site, and so to secure its legacy now and for the future.
The Sunday Times article is indicative of the national (and indeed international) interest that there is preserving our historical legacy in the face of increasing pressure for building development. I found the online comments on the SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign fascinating: an overwhelming majority supporting the cause, but a significant minority arguing in favour of the provision of much-needed housing development, even on historically-sensitive sites. These views all have to be accommodated and a balance found between heritage and societal need: a complex task for us all – politicians, planners and residents alike – in finding compromises that preserve our culture whilst meeting contemporary challenges. I don’t have the answers to any of these dilemmas, local, or wider, so I will just keep walking and enjoying the delights of the outdoors!
Thank you once again to everyone who is supporting the my ROUTE 1066 walk and the SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign in whatever way. Of course, for all of the media coverage the most important conduit for spreading the message is the grapevine. So please pass on the word of our important cause – and also about my Blog, to all those family and friends who might enjoy following my walk through these posts. I will be Blogging daily here once I start walking next Monday, and I am also on Instagram @nickletjog
Thank you for following my ROUTE 1066 journey – re-tracing the steps of William the Conqueror in 1066 on his 360-mile campaign trail from Pevensey Bay, via Berkhamsted, and on to Westminster Abbey. If you are following my Blog, enjoying the ramble, and would like to help us to SAVE CASTLE FIELDS for future generations by pledging £39 to sponsor a 3×3-metre square of the land, then please click on this link:
THANK YOU ALL FOR SUPPORTING MY ROUTE 1066 WALK, AND FOR HELPING TO PRESERVE THE LEGACY OF CASTLE FIELDS
I just wanted to finish today’s Blog with a quote from a loyal follower of the SAVE CASTLE FIELDS campaign – these words were included in the recent Castle Fields Newsletter, and I suspect that they capture the feelings of many supporters: “I do congratulate you on the almost super-human efforts being made in driving forward a virtually continuous stream of imaginative fund-raising initiatives. Impressively professional, and seemingly meeting with well-deserved success too – though that’s not to underestimate the scale of the task that still remains. But I do believe that as the finishing-deadline comes increasingly in sight the pace of contribution will accelerate from ‘steady trot’ to ‘gallop’.”
My Blog heading today ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ is of course the title of a classic Motown Records number, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1966. Originally recorded by The Miracles, the song was first released by Gladys Knight & the Pips the following year, reaching the top of the US Billboard R&B chart. However, on my ROUTE 1066 playlist I am going with the 1968 version by Marvin Gaye from his album ‘In The Groove’: when the song was released as a single in October 1968 the record hit the top of the US pop charts for seven weeks and became the biggest-selling hit on the Motown family of labels up to that date.
