Winchelsea

Winchelsea is still ranked among the principal Cinque Ports, although its harbour has long been ruined. The original town began to suffer from the incursions-of the sea in the year 1250, but its final destruction took place in the year 1287, on the eve of St. Agatha. The new town was erected further inland, the ground being divided into forty squares of 2¼ acres each, and massive crypts built for the storage of French wine. But the sea, which had been its constant enemy, now deserted the town, and choked the harbour with sand and beach, that the trade was soon entirely lost, and the once important town is now little more than a village. The vast vaults, the thick walls, the embattled gateways, the ruined church, partly kept together by the ivy around it, the Friary, and the Castle of the Camber, built by Henry VIII., all attest its ancient glory and importance.