July 24 Hunting Woolf near Brighton

Towards Brighton.  Ditchling Beacon, Monks House (V Woolf etc),  Charleston House (more Bloomsbury), Brighton

I started off with a run to the West of the lifeboat station.  To my surprise I found lots of exposed sand a few hundred metres into the run.  It turned out to be quite good running, although the frequent groynes made it a bit challenging at times.  

After getting to the Coast Guard tower – effectively at the edge of the huge caravan Park – I turned back inland and found a nice old village: the folk who lived there must have hated the appearance of the caravan park.

I decided to go back with my binoculars to check for waders and my camera to photo algae 

( especially that growing on the groynes).  

There were few birds, possibly because the dog-walkers were  out in large numbers.  I asked one of them if the sand was usual and apparently it was: this just seems to have been the first time I have been there at this stage of the tide.  She commented that the area where we were was often lined with  Twitchers in the migration season, and certainly Selsey Bill is mentioned as a good sea watching spot in my 'Where-to' book.  In a subsequent conversation I was told about 'Mr Seal' who is often seen in the afternoon in this area.

After breakfast we took off to the East along the A27.  This seems to be one of the two trunk roads South of the Thames (the other being about 20miles North). so if you wish to drive East- West or vice versa this is effectively the only game in town.  It is fine while 2 lanes each way (although tail-back can arise rapidly at roundabouts) but when you get to places like Worthing - which ended up being nominated, and elected as the place on this trip most likely to get the tube when the earth is given an enema - where the road drops back to 1 lane it becomes stop start even in the middle of the day.  At one point there were signs about road works, but it appeaered that rather then carving an additional lane out of the 4m wide nature strip they were making a garden!   I was amused by the name of this area which appeared to be Sompting (faith and begob, to be sure!). 

We found the small road to Devils Dyke which was our first objective for the day.  I wondered why these geological features are always called Devil's?  'Perhaps it is because they are usually downwards orienting – I shall have to check for mountains etc where the name refers to god! In the 3 or 4 miles from the highway to the site we passed 2 golf courses – a little devoid of trees but with brilliant views over to the Channel .  The walk alongside the Dyke was very pleasant.  Apart from the Dyke itself

there were lots of flowers and insects, some photographs of which are in the thematic pages below.  Towards the end of the walk we found a few rabbits – the first since Brum -  and a bouncy fox.  The latter caused me to think that I have yet to see a dead badger, whereas on our previous trip, not that far West, the roads were lined with potential shaving brushes.  Has the infamous cull had an effect already?  (Roadkilled badgers did appear in Shropshire and I was told that the cull was now a test project being undertaken near Cirencester.)

This walk was part of the South Downs Way which is one of the Long Walks that have been developed in the UK.  Several of the other punters we crossed  with seemed to be carrying packs for serious walking. 

Our next objective, Ditchling Beacon, was also on this route.  At the car park was a NT notice 

explaining that this area had been given to the Trust in memory of a WW 2 pilot who had lost his life in the area, which made me realise that this was looking over the Weald where much of the Battle of Britain took place.  There were great views from the Beacon, 

which was the reason it was a beacon, so that the bonfires could be seen from a long way off (if, for example a bunch of supporters of the Real Madrid Bowls Club were spotted on the horizon). Again there were many flowers but no orchids (a photographer told us they had 'gone over' in this area). 

We then trotted off to Lewes from where we headed to Rodmell to check out the Monks House,  at  one time the abode of Virginia Woolf VW - such usage in this post refers to her, not our car!).  Parking was an issue (as everywhere) but we managed.  

A head of VW 

was in the garden of the Manor referring to the place where her ashes had been placed under an old elm tree (rather than the magnolia in situ).   Apparently the elm trees were long gone and the plaque had been shifted to a different position.  There were a lot of interesting things made by members of the Bloomsbury Set around the house   This portrait of VW

was done by her sister, Vanessa.  As usually seems to be the case with NT the volunteers were very helpful and interesting.  In one room there were a bunch of books but only a few, VW's set of Shakespeare  were original.  At some point Leonard Woolf's library of some 7,000 volumes had been sold to Washington State U so had been replaced by some “books by the metre” samples to fill the shelves!

The village of Rodmell was full of interesting looking houses as exemplified by the Rectory.

The small stall seems to be some locals raising money for their village projects.

Our final stop was Charleston Farmhouse which was also linked to the Bloomsbury's.  This is run by a Private Trust rather than NT.  When we got there found we had to do a tour – for which we would have to wait for an hour and a half, so we passed on that and just had a look round the garden.  It is surprising that they talked about the place being unusually busy while the car park wasn't full: I suspect more private sector jobsworthiness.    We were allowed to go and look at some posters one of which included a "family tree" of the Bloomsbury Set.  If you click on this image to see it larger you will understand why there are quotes around the word family!  

The drive home was OK,as far as anything involving Worthing can be "OK", with good views pf Arundel Castle and Cathedral from the highway.

On the way Frances commented on the number of Ford Transits we were seeing on the way.  So it was interesting when we got home to hear that the Transit factory was closing.  On the breakfast program the next day they commented that the production was shifting to Turkey and there would be no Ford production in the UK.

Frances and I trotted off to look for Mr Seal.  As we approached the designated area I noticed a large grey lump on the beach.

This was Mr Seal and a guy wearing a polo shirt announcing he was a Mammal watcher (or similar) explained that its name was Trevor

and it was somewhat controversial since he has been known to bite folk who behave stupidly around him.  He just lay around peacefully while we were there, and all the punters were well behaved – possibly because an official was present.

On the way back I noticed a Heritage sign about Gibbet Field.  An English form of 'Encourager les autres”.  I also remembered to photograph one of the yuccas growing in a garden near the cottage. 

Beers: Freeminer ”GoldMiner”  Normal pleasant bitter;  Shepherd Neame “Spitfire – fuller boided and very pleasant.  Labelled “The Bottle of Britain”with photos of a couple of RAF types.

Bird of the Day: Yellowhammers at Ditchling

Building of the day: Rodmell rectory

Garden of the Day: The Monks House

Bad taste of the Day: Waiting for tours at Charleston Farmhouse

View of the Day: Devils Dyke, narrowly over Ditchling Beacon

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July 28 Three March towns

Ludlow, Leominster and Hereford.  I had hoped to go to Brecon as well but due to the Black Mountains getting in the way that looked like too long a drive.  Looking  back, as will be evident from today's report that view was spot on the money.

The rain stopped sometime during the night and I had a good nights kip.  When I woke I decided to watch the BBC News and was just in time to cop the Sports news.  This started off with a track meet where Jessica Ennis (if you can remember who she is I suspect you're English) finished the race.  She got interviewed extensively, while Sally Pearson (if you can remember who she is I suspect you're Australian) who won, didn't even get shown crossing the line.  Usain Bolt (you don't have to be Jamaican to know who he is) running in a relay race got less coverage that Sir Bradley Wiggins did for finishing in the peleton in the first stage of the tour of Poland (run in Italy for goodness sake).

They then moved on to the weather.  Some places on the East Coast had scored 3” overnight, .  The forecast for the rest of the week sounded typical of an English Summer: sunny spells with scattered thundery showers.  (I've just realised this is my first reference to the weather, a remarkable outcome from spending a week in the UK.  This probably reflects it being beautiful weather all the time we were in Selsey.)

The basic plan today was to go down to Hereford about 25 miles (ie 40 km) South, check that out and comeback North calling in at Leominster, Berrington Hall and Ludlow en route.  That is pretty much what happened.  Again putting in a parenthesis, I will offer a few comments about the official view of driving in the UK:

• there are many, many signs about speed cameras.  Possibly 25% of these seem to be associated with actual cameras, the rest are just propaganda.  However I take note of them and drop to the speed limit unlike other folk who scream past.  Today we went past a camera and the guy who had just overtaken me must have been doing at least 10mph over the limit, but he didn't even brake. 
• That caused me to think of stats from our last visit that >50% of speeding fines, license withdrawals are ignored.
• There are a lot of other signs exhorting one to slow down (for an intersection, a crest, a case of indigestion).  Obviously they have never read the story of the boy who called wolf!
• At one point today I was doing 50, overtaking someone doing 35 in an unlimited area, when a sign flashed “Slow Down”at me as they had an advisory (I think) 40 limit for an upcoming bend.  Distracting garbage!

 We started by looking at the old church in Tugford.

A simple building but with some charms.  I noted that they had deliberately only mowed half the graveyard allowing the remainder to be 'natural'.  A few cemetery trusts in Australia could learn from this. The main war memorials are in that thematic page, but this manuscript appealed . 

So did these old fertility symbols: only 2 others known in Shropshire!

We basically hammered down the road to Hereford, and into the free TESCO parking lot, to get to the cathedral before the 11am Matins.   This was obviously a well known ploy as they had started business with a Eucharist at 10am.  The singing was quite good so at 10:15 we sat in the pew until we realised at about 10:30, on page 3 of 9 in the Order of Service, that this was going to be a long service so wandered off.  Like many towns in the area Hereford was well served with planter boxes.

We started with the museum where a roman pavement was mounted on the wall

and spoke to some folk who gave us a small, but very useful, map and told us how to get to the River Wye and pointed out that en route we'd pass the site of Nell Gwynn's house.  The plaque their made no reference to her involvement in the citrus trade, nor who sired the first Duke of St Albans. 

We crossed the River Wye and reconnected with Edward Elgar due to an episode - in some way incorporated in the Enigma Variations - with a friend's bulldog jumping in the River. 

Some Mute swans were sunning themselves on the banks of the Wye,

Back to the Cathedral and quickly in between the Eucharist finishing at about 11:15 and Matins kicking off at 11:30.  An excellent cathedral – not quite up to Worcester standards but with much good glass

The second image is of the "Thomas Denny Windows".  The artist responsible for this appears to have started his career in glass more or less by accident in 1983 and now has windows in 30+ churches across the UK.   There were also many interesting memorials sampled in the appropriate post.

After this we wandered around Hereford finding several interesting items.  I have restricted my burden on your download limit to this, reflecting the origin of my favourite breed of beef in this County.

Back to Leominster where there seemed to be two specially interesting buildings according to the guidebook.  In fact it was a bit better than that with a good mural 

titled "The Friendship Tree" painted by Sally Johnson and Mike Johnson..   The Priory Church was interesting for having a Norman/Romanesque old bit and a later addition heading towards a Perpendicular/Gothic feel.  A service was just finishing but a nice lady still welcomed us (while her male colleague turned off all the lights)!  Here is an image.

The other officially interesting building was the Guildhall.  The image would reflect the level of  interest better if the gardener's truck wasn't in the way (but they were working on a Sunday so lets not be too hard on them).

Then to the NT's Berrington Hall. 

A very interesting building with park grounds in which Capability Brown had been involved: towards the end of our visit I inspected the haha  (which by definition is invisible from the house but is indicated by the faint line on this side of the foreground tuft of grass).

Looking at the depth of this effort I decided that the Pratchett character “Bloody Stupid Johnstone” (whose hahas killed many people by excessive depth) was not a great deal away from the reality of the better known Mr Brown. 

On the next stretch of the drive I noticed my first dead badger of the trip.  I presume it was a road fatality not part of the cull being taken to reduce a claimed TB situation.  On the last trip the roads around Bristol had basically been surfaced with dead badgers but they have been less evident this trip (so far).  

Ludlow then got looked at and rated as a very nice town.  

The Church of St Lawrence was mind-boggling, especially when 'only' a Parish Church.  I have no objection to the view of the church architecture person who described it as the Cathedral of the Marches.

There were many very interesting war memorials in this church and they are all ....  I will also show this sample of the workings of a carillion (of interest to me because I had never realised how they worked in the past).

Then, tired but happy, we wandered home, attempting to buy some stuff from the Ludlow Brewery but no-one was interested in serving me.

Tonight's beer was BV Stout from Mayfields Brewery in Herefordshire.  A good stout even if named after Black Vaughn who seems to have been a very naughty boy in 1469 (and later, when his ghost wreaked havoc).  It did a good job of settling my digestion down before asking it to deal with an excellent pork pie, courtesy of – wait for it – Tescoes.

Bird of the Day: Nuthatch seen at Tugford

Building of the day: St Lawrence Church in Ludlow but Hereford Cathedral had put in a big effort in the final quarter and only missed out narrowly.

Garden of the Day:  Walled garden at Berrington Hall

Bad taste of the Day:  poor service at the Ludlow Brewery

View of the Day:  The parkland at Berrigton.

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