Senlac Hill (or Senlac Ridge) is the generally accepted location in which Harold Godwinson deployed his army for the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It is located near what is now the town of Battle, East Sussex. The name Senlac was popularised by the Victorian historian E. A. Freeman, based solely on a description of the battle by the Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis. Freeman went on to suggest that the Normans nicknamed the area Blood lake as a pun on the English Sand lake. It is probable that Orderic would have known the English name for Senlac, as he spent his early life in England since he had been born to an English mother. His education, towards the end of his time in England, was from an English monk. However, Freeman's hypothesis has been criticised by other historians since it relies purely on the evidence from Orderic Vitalis. Orderic was born nine years after the Battle of Hastings, and earlier chroniclers did not use the name Senlac. Origin The name Senlac was introduced into English history by the Victorian historian E.A. Freeman, whose only source for it was the Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis. Freeman suggested that Senlac was the correct name of the Battle of Hastings site since the name of the hill was Senlac and was near a stream that was called Santlache. Orderic described Harold's forces as assembling for the battle ad locum, qui Senlac antiquitus vocabatur and the battle itself as being fought in campo Senlac. Blood lake Orderic was born in Atcham, Shropshire, England, the eldest son of a French priest, Odeler of Orléans and an English mother. When Orderic was five, his parents sent him to an English monk with the name of Siward, who kept a school in the Abbey of SS Peter and Paul, at Shrewsbury. Although Orderic moved to a monastery in Normandy at the age of ten, he seems to have maintained his links with England. Freeman concluded that it was perfectly possible for Orderic to have known the English name of the ridge. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey described what it called Malfosse, a large ditch that opened up during the course of the battle (some sources say after the battle) in which many soldiers of both sides fell and were trampled to death, the result being "rivulets of blood as far as one could see". In fact,