Day Three - A Journey of Discovery in East Sussex
My brother John and I had discussions in the morning where to go today, scanning local history books, and catching up on our family history looking at archive photographs. As we’re in 1066 Country, we decided to keep local and delve into Hastings heritage. One of John’s favoured concise tourism-history references to Sussex is by F R Banks from the 1957 Penguin Guides.
Hastings is of Saxon origin taking its name from a tribe called Haestingas who settled there as early as the 8th century. King Athelstan established one of the royal mints there in 928. On 28 September 1066 William of Normandy landed at Pevensey but soon transferred to a more defended position on West Hill at Hastings. After the battle of Hastings, fought 6 miles north west on the site of Battle Abbey, William made Hastings his principal fort. It became one of the Cinque Ports. Hastings remained a fishing and boat building centre until the second half of the 18th century, where the fashion for sea bathing first came in.
So late morning we motored off to this ancient town, parked the car on West Hill and walked leisurely over the open green space admiring the stunning views below and over to East Hill. To tell you the truth, just sitting on a bench, drinking our orange juice and chatting about the hillside lifts and the town’s history was all we needed at that time on a perfect day.
We decided against taking the hill lift downwards and took the car instead and meandered down some of the old streets of the town where we could, and then walking along the front and to the hard-to-get-to places. Reminds me of the Shambles in York or the Lanes at Brighton, streets you don’t mind getting lost in and going into quaint olde curiosity shops, high class junk or antiquarian shops.
Back home for tea and supper.
Then we put three fold up chairs in the car boot and drove to Bexhill beachfront beyond the De La Warr Pavilion and parked.
We sunk and scrunched into the pebbles and found a nice spot to sit and watch the sun go down while we
chatted about old times and how John and Christine met
There were just a few families around and some packing up their paddle boards, towels and picnic bags. Their smiling faces said it all. What a grand day at the seaside!
I hope you enjoyed our Day Three and if so please click the blue ‘Like’ button and write any comments below if you wish. See you tomorrow for our next day’s adventure in East Sussex! Marysia Zipser Website ART - CULTURE - TOURISM - Home Facebook Art Culture Tourism - International - Home Facebook /marysia.zipser.7/ Twitter Art-Culture-Tourism (@MarysiaZipser) LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysia-zipser- Email marysia@artculturetourism.co.uk
Updated: May 8, 2024
Day Two - A Journey of Discovery in East Sussex
After coming downstairs to get some coffee, I heard some tapping on the house front door. Peering through the glass panels, I could make out a large seagull standing on the doorstep.
“Christine!” I shouted up, “you’ve got a visitor at the front door”.
“Oh, that’s Horace, he’s a regular here at food times. I’m coming down.”
He tapped again, so I opened the door and said, “Hello, nice to meet you Horace. Christine’s coming to give you breakfast.”
Christine rustled up some food in the kitchen for him which was a bowl of dried cat food with fishy flavours, and placed it outside on a mat for him. He duly ate it up, and then waddled off. She said he comes at regular meal times but if Alba, a neighbouring cat, is lurking around, he’ll stay away. “We have foxes and badgers who come for food at night times, so there’s always something here to eat and water to drink to satisfy them.”
Not only does Christine offer sanctuary for neighbourly birds and wild animals, she’s also got green fingers! Her small front and back garden is a delight and a welcome retreat with wisteria and clematis covered arbour. It is a lovely place to sit under the shade from the hot sunshine with a cool drink or mug of tea. See some photos of her lovely garden at the end of the blog. So today we decided to venture out to Pevensey Castle and explore all things Norman and medieval.
Please Click on the photo images to enlarge, and hover over to read captions. All photos are credited to Marysia Zipser unless otherwise captioned.
We parked our car in the shade and walked to the entrance gateway to the open grounds of Pevensey Castle. A mighty stronghold I thought as I looked up and studied its impressive stone walls. An English Heritage site which illustrates a great history lesson to all ages.
To quote from EH website Welcome to Pevensey Castle
“Evolving from Roman fort to Norman Castle, and even put back into action during the Second World War, Pevensey Castle is most famous as the landing place for William the Conqueror’s army in 1066. Today, it is a great family day out in East Sussex. Enjoy the open grounds and space to roam and explore. Admire the remains of the great square keep and towering gatehouse, or climb the walls and gaze over glorious Sussex countryside.”
“A conservation project is currently underway at Pevensey Castle. Discover how we're preserving the castle for future generations to enjoy, and see our progress for yourselves.”
It was such a fascinating walking trail and we snapped a few pics here and there through the beautiful sweeping grounds. Then we passed through one main gateway into Westham village.
What a delightful and well kept parish community of ancient houses, buildings, village green and open spaces. Apparently Westham is recorded in the Domesday Book, its name deriving from being a hamlet to the west of Pevensey Castle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westham
John said that St Mary’s Church Welcome to St Mary's, Westham was well worth a walk around so we did. We didn’t venture inside this ancient place, on this occasion. It is reputedly the first Norman church built, its earliest parts dating from the late 11th century. I loved the churchyard’s peacefulness and could have stayed much longer there under the shade of the trees and maybe sketched a few outlines. See photos below. We ambled back along the road pathways around the outer castle walls and to our car which thankfully had kept quite cool in the shade.
On arriving back at our Bexhill house, we sat down in the coolness of the garden’s arbour, drank our tea and reminisced about our day’s adventure. And to bring more smiles to our faces, we heard more taps on the front door. It was Horace in time for his teatime snack obviously noticing our house return.
Kimlee, a Beeston friend, commented on my Facebook post of the day, “Horace seems like a very polite and patient seagull. A seagull from Whitby would have bashed the door down and mugged you by now!" We just giggled! I hope you enjoyed our Day Two and if so please click the blue ‘Like’ button and write any comments below if you wish. See you tomorrow for our next day’s adventure in East Sussex!
Marysia Zipser Website ART - CULTURE - TOURISM - Home Facebook Art Culture Tourism - International - Home Facebook /marysia.zipser.7/ Twitter Art-Culture-Tourism (@MarysiaZipser) LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysia-zipser- Email marysia@artculturetourism.co.uk Below are some photos of Christine and John’s beautiful garden back and front.
Day One - Beeston-Nottingham to Bexhill-on-Sea - Great Expectations
Sunday 9th August Things were packed in my car, garden instructions left with my son Marcus (who was joining us Wednesday afternoon by train) and consecutive neighbours George and Harry. My first staycation foray into our beautiful British countryside on the East Sussex coast. Memories came flooding back of my visit when my sons were younger going to stay with Uncle John and enjoying the steam train journey to bewitching Bodium Castle and then an awesome afternoon at Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s family home. This time, I had my prepared wish list of places to visit but knew we’d consult at breakfast time depending on what venues were COVID safely open to the public and then booking our entry tickets online. Strange yet memorable times we are encountering so planning daily routes were key.
Driving down was a relatively smooth and uninterrupted traffic journey. My senses were alerted when I turned right off the M25 onto the A21 road. Village prettiness and sweeping views were attractive side glances as I headed downwards towards Bexhill. At 3.45pm I turned into the town’s De La Warr Pavilion car park and stopped. Another drink of water and a munch of sandwich and then I climbed out and stretched my body, breathed in several gulps of sea air and walked to the pavilion beachfront. I’ve always loved this place since childhood on the South coast with Mum, Dad and my two brothers. My elder brother John has made Bexhill his home after thirty odd years, after being an Art & Design student at Leicester Polytechnic (now DMU) in the early 1960s and now a Pentecostal pastor. He’s also a regular visitor to the DWLP for concerts and exhibitions, keeping me updated on all their activities, so I was really looking forward to discovering more cultural leisure spots on this visit.
For the record, I enjoyed my ‘Humanities’ years at University of Nottingham, as a mature student, and do recommend to those wishing to follow the Heritage Tourism pathway, that they pursue this course of learning. Several modules spring to mind at this point that accentuate my passions - Sense of Place, the Culture of Leisure, Medieval Castles of England & Wales and the Crusades (both with Dr Pamela Marshall), Modernist Architecture, William Morris and Arts & Crafts Movement, the Bloomsbury Group, and so many intertwining English Literature studies, all relevant to this region. Every subject studied flows nicely into a circle of knowledge that prepares one on any journey of discovery.
As I walked towards the front of the pavilion De La Warr Pavilion - Bexhill On Sea, East Sussex and admired more of this stunning sea front, my ears pricked up to hear an eloquent voice from on high. I know those dulcet ones I thought. I strolled to the entrance and then saw a What’s On poster. Ah, of course...it belonged to Eddie Izzard!
I sat down at the patio cafe/bar, listened intently to Eddie and took a few photographs. From my photo, you can just see him in his red dress and ponytail swishing on the roof terrace relating his work-in-progress solo reading / performance of Charles Dickens’ classic epic Great Expectations.
His show, as the poster and social media say, is 'to celebrate the reopening of the DLWP, LIVE from the rooftop in COVID safe conditions. The show will go ahead come rain or shine. A tale of convicts, mystery, friendship, rivalry, unrequited love, revenge and redemption'. All profits going to the DLWP. For those of you due here this week, please book your tickets as quick as you can, a real treat! His show continues until Sunday 23rd August so go onto https://www.dlwp.com/event/eddie-izzard-greatexpectations20/ or https://eddieizzard.com/en/shows
Well, what a welcome for me at Bexhill is all I can say! I happily drove off to John and Christine’s home a few minutes away where I enjoyed my first evening of family get-togetherness. So much to talk about with great expectations to come. Now I’ve got you hooked and booked, please enjoy my next instalment of East Sussex journey of discovery blogs over the following seven days... To close my Day One, here is a pertinent extract from ‘Great Expectations’
“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Marysia Zipser Find me on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn
Website ART - CULTURE - TOURISM - Home Facebook Art Culture Tourism - International - Home Facebook /marysia.zipser.7/ Twitter Art-Culture-Tourism (@MarysiaZipser) LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marysia-zipser- Email marysia@artculturetourism.co.uk Below are some example paperback covers of Great Expectations.
