A Bit of Winchelsea History

Extract from: The History of Winchelsea, One of the Ancient Towns Added to the Cinque Ports, by William Durrant Cooper

Published in 1850

Pages 37 – 39

Of the three original gateways , two are standing , the
STRAND GATE , formerly leading to the harbour , but now
leading by the new Military road to Rye , and the NEW GATE ,
leading on the south of Icklesham to Pett and Fairlight :
these were three quarters of a mile apart . The present roads
to Rye and across the marsh to Icklesham and Hastings were
formed at a much more recent period . We give an engraving
of these two gates . The original PIPEWELL or LAND GATE ,
now known as the FERRY GATE , led over the Ferry to the
then direct road to Rye , which was by way of Udimore .
This gate , which was situated one quarter of a mile north
west of the Strand Gate , has been re – built , and we shall have
occasion to notice the present gate hereafter .
Besides the two churches of ST . THOMAS ( the choir of
which is standing ) and ST . GILES within , and of ST . LEONARD
without the walls , the house of the GRAY FRIARS , and the
hospital of ST . BARTHOLOMEWw , which had existed in the
old town , were transferred to the new . There were also
hospitals of ST . JOHN , and of the HOLY ROOD : ¹ and there

was afterwards added , in the reign of Edw . II , a house of the
Dominicans BLACK FRIARS , or Friars Predicant . All of
which we shall describe in the chapter on Ecclesiastical
Foundations . Without New Gate stood the HOLY CROSS of
Winchelsea .
There were within the walls , two greens or open spaces ,
one of twelve acres called the KING’S GREEN , on the road
from the church of St. Thomas towards New Gate , and the
other called Cook’s GREEN , above the hanging of the hill , at
the north – east side of the town , near the Strand Gate .
Water , so scarce at Rye , was amply supplied to this town
from six open wells : -viz . , PIPE WELL , situate near the Ferry ,
close by the entrance of the town by the former Rye road :
ST . KATHERINE’S WELL , situate half way up the hill leading
from Rye , and below Cook’s Green , the water of which is
slightly chalybeate : the STRAND WELL , on the hanging of
the hill ( above the former tan yard ) destroyed a few years
since by the falling in of the cliff : the FRIARS ‘ WELL , now
enclosed , situated in a field recently called the Peartree
Wellfield , to the east of the Gray Friars ; the NEW WELL on
the outside of New Gate ; and the VALE WELL , now called
ST . LEONARD’S WELL , at the north – west of the town , under
the old castle , of whose waters the popular belief yet re
mains , that when once drunken the drinker never leaves
Winchelsea , that is , that wherever he roams his heart is still
there ; each drinker realising Goldsmith’s lines ,

In all my wand’rings round this world of care ,
I still had hopes , my strong vexations past ,
Here to return – and die at home at last .

The well – doing of the inhabitants was further secured by
two market places , called Monday’s Market and Little Mon

day’s Market , and by several Windmills . One was in the
liberty of St. Leonard , near the spot on which a windmill
now exists . Two others were within the grounds afterwards
of the Black Friars , one being near the King’s Green . There
was a stone mill near Pipewell , and a windmill in the parish of
St. Giles , in a place then called ” Le Bochery , ” now called
the Great Millbank , which , on 1st May , 1407 , Richard Lon
denays , of Brede , son of Robert de Londenays , then late of
Winchelsea , and his wife , who was sister and heiress of
William Oxenbridge , enfeoffed to John Gyles , of Winchelsea ,
miller , of whom it was purchased in 1434 , by John Godfrey ,
and came through Matilda , widow of Simon Farncombe , the
heiress of the Godfreys , in 1477 , to the abbey of Battle.