The twenty-sixth Battle Conference, held in Pyke House and Battle Abbey from 24 to 28 July 2003, allowed us to celebrate the publication, timely as always, of the conference's twenty-fifth annual volume of proceedings. To mark this milestone the conference opened with a reception on the terrace of Battle Abbey overlooking the battlefield; we then adjourned to the Library of Battle Abbey to listen to the R. Allen Brown Memorial Lecture delivered by Richard Barber. To him, as managing director of Boydell & Brewer, the conference's debt had been incalculable, going back to the very beginning when, according to Allen Brown's preface to the first (1978) volume, he ‘went far beyond a publisher's call of duty in seeing this volume through the press’. There followed a special dinner in the magnificent Abbot's Hall. From 1979 to 1998 the opening reception had always been held in the Abbot's Hall, so we are very grateful indeed to Roger Clark, headmaster of Battle Abbey School, for giving us permission to re-invent and improve tradition. Thanks are also due to Jackie Perry for her help in organising a memorable evening.

In addition to speakers and delegates, among those present, by invitation of the trustees of the R. Allen Brown Memorial Trust, were Mrs Vivian Brown, representatives of the Battle and District Historical Society and of the Battle Local History Museum, as well as some of those who have played key roles in the Conference's history; in particular Gillian Murten, without whose help the conference might not have survived its early years (see Editor's prefaces to volumes 1 to 10), and Julie Walker, Principal of Hastings College of Arts and Technology.