OLD WINCHELSEA 5940 1175. Borough 1283 (BF, p. 172). Possibly the mint town ‘Wencles’ c.973-9 (D.M. Metcalf, An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon and Norman Coin Finds, c.973-1086 (London, 1998), pp. 231, 236). In 1086 probably part of the manor of ‘Rameslie’ (refer also to entry for Rye, Sussex (q.v.)). The name Winchelsea is first recorded early in the twelfth century. The place soon became a busy port and town, which was destroyed by incursions of the sea between 1250 and 1288. The precise site is uncertain: the grid reference denotes a place on the modern coast east of Winchelsea and SSE of Rye (cf. W.D. Cooper, The History of Winchelsea (London, 1850), p. 1), but the site of the settlement may be further out to sea. The liberties of Old Winchelsea, presumably including a market and perhaps also a fair, passed to New Winchelsea, Sussex (q.v.), the site of which was laid in 1283 ( VCH Sussex ix, p. 63; Beresford, p. 498). See also VCH Sussex ix, p. 70. (Letters, S., 2003, Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History) online copy)
Sea and flood defences.