Normans Bay is a coastal hamlet in the Pevensey Levels area of East Sussex, England. Contrary to popular belief it does not take its name from the Norman conquest of England of 1066, and the area occupied by Normans Bay was under water at the time. The forces of William the Conqueror are believed to have landed at nearby Pevensey although there has been some dispute about this.
Normans Bay is near the popular seaside resorts of Eastbourne and Brighton to the west and Bexhill-on-Sea to the east, with a regular train service on the hour during the day and evening. It is served by Normans Bay railway station. The nearest bus service is in Pevensey Bay.
Some points of interest include a sand and shingle beach, a Napoleonic defence tower, two caravan sites and a large inn. The main village is surrounded by mostly dry marshland to the north, in which lay the land remains of an ancient settlement known as Northeye, which is thought to have gradually been abandoned when the sea retreated (though there is some speculation about this).
In 2005 divers trying to free a lobster pot discovered a large anchor and cannons offshore. This was at first thought to be the remains of the English warship HMS Resolution, which sunk there in 1703. [1] However, ongoing research suggests the wreck might be that of the Dutch warship Wapen van Utrecht, sunk during the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690. [2]
East Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by the counties of Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey for a short distance to the north-west.
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located five miles (8 km) north-east of Eastbourne, one mile (1.6 km) inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish. It was here that William the Conqueror made the landing in his invasion of England in 1066 after crossing the English Channel from Normandy.
HMS Scylla (F71) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy (RN). She was built at Devonport Royal Dockyard, the last RN frigate to be built there as of 2016. Scylla was commissioned in 1970, taken out of service in 1993 in accordance with Options for Change, and sunk as an artificial reef in 2004 off Whitsand Bay, Cornwall.
HMS A1 was the Royal Navy's first British-designed submarine, and their first to suffer fatal casualties.
Pett is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Hastings on the edge of Pett Level, the one-time marshes stretching along the coast of Rye Bay.
Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors. Built around 290 AD and known to the Romans as Anderitum, the fort appears to have been the base for a fleet called the Classis Anderidaensis. The reasons for its construction are unclear; long thought to have been part of a Roman defensive system to guard the British and Gallic coasts against Saxon pirates, it has more recently been suggested that Anderitum and the other Saxon Shore forts were built by a usurper in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent Rome from reimposing its control over Britain.
HMS Resolution was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Harwich Dockyard on 6 December 1667. She was one of only three third-rate vessels designed and built by the noted maritime architect Sir Anthony Deane.
The Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provides protection for designated shipwrecks.
Pevensey Levels is a 3,603.2-hectare (8,904-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Bexhill-on-Sea and Hailsham in East Sussex. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, a Ramsar site and a Special Area of Conservation. An area of 183.5 hectares is a national nature reserve and an area of 150 hectares is a nature reserve called Pevensey Marshes which is managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust.
Coronation was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard as part of the '30 great ships programme' of 1677, and launched in 1685. She was lost in a storm off Rame Head, Cornwall on 3 September 1691 and is designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
SMS Karlsruhe was a light cruiser of the Königsberg class, built for the Kaiserliche Marine during World War I. She was named after the earlier Karlsruhe, which had sunk in November 1914, from an accidental explosion. The new cruiser was laid down in 1914 at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel, launched in January 1916, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in November 1916. Armed with eight 15 cm SK L/45 guns, the ship had a top speed of 27.5 kn.
Sussex is a historic county and cultural region in the south of England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, north-east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West Sussex and East Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove. The city of Brighton & Hove was created a unitary authority in 1997, and was granted City status in 2000. Until then Chichester had been Sussex's only city. By convention, Chichester is Sussex's capital city and Lewes is Sussex's county town.
Wreck Alley also known as "Sunken Harbor" is an area a few miles off the coast of Mission Beach, San Diego, California with several ships intentionally sunk as artificial reefs and as Scuba diving attractions for wreck divers.
SMS Brummer was a minelaying light cruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine; she was the lead ship of her class. Her sister ship was Bremse. Brummer was laid down at AG Vulcan's shipyard in Stettin, Germany. in 1915 and launched on 11 December 1915 and completed on 2 April 1916. Armed with a main battery of four 15-centimeter (5.9 in) guns in single mounts, she carried 400 mines.
The Maritime history of England involves events including shipping, ports, navigation, and seamen, as well as marine sciences, exploration, trade, and maritime themes in the arts of England. Until the advent of air transport and the creation of the Channel Tunnel, marine transport was the only way of reaching the rest of Europe from England and for this reason, maritime trade and naval power have always had great importance. Prior to the Acts of Union in 1707, the maritime history of the British Isles was largely dominated by England.
An armed boarding steamer was a merchantman that the British Royal Navy converted to a warship during the First World War. AB steamers or vessels had the role of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels. The boarding party would inspect the foreign ship to determine whether to detain the ship and send it into port or permit it to go on its way.
HMS M2 was a Royal Navy submarine monitor completed in 1919, converted in 1927 into a submarine aircraft carrier. She was wrecked in Lyme Bay, Dorset, Britain, on 26 January 1932. She was one of three M-class boats completed.
The Shipwreck Museum is an independent charitable museum in the historic Old Town of Hastings, UK. The museum has artefacts from many ships wrecked in the English Channel from the Goodwin Sands in Kent to Pevensey Bay in East Sussex, including the Amsterdam, a Dutch East Indiaman of 1749, and the Anne of 1690, a warship of Charles II. There are also exhibits of fossils found in the local area.
Saltwick Bay is a north-east facing bay approximately one mile (1.6 km) to the east of Whitby, on the east coast of North Yorkshire, England. The bay contains the Saltwick Nab alum quarries, listed under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The bay is part of the Saltwick Formation and known for its collections of fossils. The SS Rohilla hospital ship sank in the bay in 1914, and the fishing trawler Admiral Van Tromp was shipwrecked there in 1976. The bay is accessible through Whitby Holiday Park.
Coordinates: 50°49′33″N0°23′34″E / 50.8257°N 0.3929°E