July 20 Castles and Rooks

Arundel, Wildfowl place.  Pulborough (RSPB towards Storrington), Petworth House – Archaeological event.)

Awake fairly early so did some typing while supping coffee and then off for a walk along the shingle to the West.  Many dog walkers around early in the morning and all friendly.

We walked back down the main drag, noting a seagull sitting on a chimney and wondering if they are the Pom equivalent of the Storks in Continental Europe)

and this sign about police bait and wondering if it was entrapment for thieves or an anti-corruption initiative aimed at Mr Plod.

We stopped in at the busy bakery for fruit buns and, talking of the police and their tastes, doughnuts.  Yummo.  they got visitd on  daily basis from then on.

After a digestion break we took off towards Arundel.  A first issue was Ernie's descendant: you remember the Benny Hill song about the fastest milkman in the west.  The version we found was the slowest milkman in the South: 10mph at best along a B-road with lots of traffic.  After being forced to follow him for about 2 miles we got by.   Here is a picture of this model of lassitude delivering the gold-top in the little road opposite Gull Cottage.

The next roundabout involved a slight navigational disaster which did have the good effect of getting Bognor Regis out of our system.  When pronouncing this name emphasise the “Bog”: way worse than Selsey (or Bateman's Bay)!

On arrival in Arundel we faced a common problem.  Where the heck do you park?  We found somewhere about 500m out of the centre which was way in front of the game.  When we left we found people parked about 2km out!  Our first point of call was the Catholic Cathedral where a service was going on so we didn't hang out for long.

We crossed the road to the Anglican Church of St Nicholas (being upgraded/repaired but still very interesting)

This backed on to the Fitzalan chapel, accessible from the Castle but visible dimly from St Nicks

We passed on going in to the (huge) Castle

 and went to the centre of the town where a Farmers Market was the order of the day.  Frances found a stall selling excellent artisanal meat pies after pointing me at the stall where the Arundel Brewery was offering free beer!  OK: after I had bought a polo shirt and a pack of three beers

perhaps it wasn't really free, but I was going to visit the brewery and buy those things anyway.  The Town Crier

 – I suspect not Dawn French moonlighting – was making a noise, as employed to do.

We wandered around the town a little and returned to look more closely at the Cathedral

– very Gothic and surprisingly free of pleas for money.  Then on down Mill Lane – a lovely avenue of trees - towards the Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust place – people were still parking in the road here and walking back to the town!  This was well set up, but there were few interesting birds other than the captive breeding populations.   These Black-necked Swan cygnets were attractive – definitely not Ugly Ducklings.

The final stop for the day was Petworth House reached by a circuitous route because I followed the truck signs rather than those through the town.  This was the home of the Percy family and its descendants. Things got tricky in 1837 when the only heir was illegitimate and thus couldn't inherit the title but did get the huge money.  Of course with that much money a new title was eventually found for him.  There were a lot of punters present and a lot of stuff for them to see.  This began with a bunch of folk demonstrating medieval  jobs.  I think this bloke was a doctor, but all his talk was about stools  so I referred to him as a turdologist.

I was particularly interested in an archaeological dig happening in the the Park.  This was a 9 day project and part of the first efforts by East Sussex County Council to understand the history of the area.   An excellent  talk was given by their archaeologist to explain what they were up to, and what they now understand.

It seemed the area had originally been owned by the Crown and 'Enery VIII had had a place here for hunting etc.  This was then acquired by the Duke of Northumberland who turned out to have a republican bent or a least an unconventional view as to who should be Monarch (he supported this role going to the Duke of Northumberland).  Queen Lizzie 1 disagreed and the Duke became both unenthroned and headless.  His descendants were restricted to the South of England.  Thus they had lots of money and could only spend it on Petworth.

The main way they spent the money was getting Capability Brown to do do some landscaping which basically involved completely changing the landscape.  His approach was:

• decide what shape he wanted for the land;
• remove and store the turf and topsoil;
• muck around with the rock underneath to achieve the required shape (often shifting many tons of material);
•  return the soil and turf.

This plays hob with the things that archaeologists wish to study.  At the end of the talk our guide commented that they try to minimise their digging as it basically destroys what is there.  They try to leave as much as possible for later more advanced people to study.  He commented that 20 years ago no-one would have been able to do the research to identify the recently discovered corpse of Richard III, and who knows what possibilities might exist in 20 years time.

I then joined Frances in looking around the House, free as we are members of the National Trust of NSW, which had a massive collection of paintings by many famous folk.

Turner was very well represented and the focus of interpretive signs in many rooms.  I also noted a few Joshua Reynolds, several Gainsboroughs and a Titian.

We then went for a stroll out to the Lake (totally invented by Capability Brown) marvelling at the number of people exercising their dogs.  The NT is quite relaxed about this as long as the dogs are controlled and not allowed to chase the deer.  My goodness, couldn't the NSW Sparks and Wildfires Service learn something from them!

At various points during the day we actually saw some rooks (a form of corvid that travels and. particularly, nests in very large groups).  So it was a very chessfull day.

On returning home (we passed on an RSPB reserve near Pulborough as the day had been rather full) I heard a roaring sound in the sky.  The rise and fall sounded like aerobatics but it didn't sound quite right for a Pitts Special.  Cast a pebble at the corvids: it was a Spitfire!  I had been hoping to see one of these at Goodwood (about 10 miles inland where a guy has set up a Spitfire flying school) but this was great.  All it needed was a Messerschmidt 109 chasing it (or, being patriotic, for it to chase).

The evening finished with a bottle of Duchy Organic Ale (thank you, young Wales) and a glass of Argentinan Malbec from the Off licence.

Bird of the Day: Robin at Arundel

Building of the day: Petworth House

Garden of the Day: Rhodedendrons leading up to Petworth

Bad taste of the Day: the crawling milkman

View of the Day: Mill Lane in Arundel

Back to the Index page