Christmas Letter

To read this click the letter itself and it should increase in size.

Littlehampton – November 2009

The town began as the Anglo-Saxon village of Hampton. The name Little Hampton was given to it in the fourteenth century by sailors in order to differentiate it from the larger Southampton.

The port was a royal dockyard of Henry VIII; a quay was built here in the 1670s.

Littlehampton Redoubt was built to guard the town in the 1750s.

Littlehampton used to be a resort of artists and writers, attracted by its peaceful atmosphere compared to larger towns such as Brighton. In particular Shelley and Coleridge spent a lot of time there, as well as Lord Byron who often swam in the river.

In the 1820s Littlehampton overtook Arundel, the oldest port on the Arun as the river's main harbour. Littlehampton officially became a town in 1853.

The town's first lifeboat was captained by Charles Pelham (1885-1940). In 1967 the RNLI station was opened having been funded by an appeal by the television programme Blue Peter. This was the first Blue Peter lifeboat.

Sue outside the Lifeboat Station on the River Arun. Looking south. This small fishing vessel is making heavy weather of ‘going to sea’ because of the very fast incoming tide. The only way to describe it is like water going down a plug hole. This is a view from the retractable footbridge.Worthing beach.We walked along the beach at East Preston and marvelled at the houses. Our plot on the caravan site, on a sunny day. As I write this on Friday 13th it is raining hard and the forecast is not good.One of the geocaches called ‘Open All Hours’ took us to this corner shop which Ronnie Barker used. A morning ‘cuppa’ on the seafront in WorthingWorthing pier and beach.Worthing beach – again.Here we are on the prom, at Littlehampton, with Roy and Sybil who were visiting us for the day.

When we all thought Glyn went to Spain he is actually doing a bit of moonlighting on the south coast!

We visited Arundel a couple of times. The first time was in the rain – not good - and the second on a better day seen here.

Arundel is a small hilltop town with a skyline dominated by the Castle. It was built at the end of the 11th century by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel and has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and Earls of Arundel for over 700 years.

 The Castle Towards the end of our stay in Littlehampton we had some appalling weather – high winds and oodles of rain. The toilet block has a water harvesting system for flushing the toilets and it harvested 3000 litres of water overnight. It has probably had as much again this morning as well!

A little flooding on site. Fortunately we were not affected by this large puddle.

On Friday we had rain most of the day and this was the view from our caravan window.

Saturday - the weather was better and we managed a very blustery walk.

Littlehampton pier.

We left Littlehampton, for home, a day early because the weather forecast was better for towing a caravan.

A final note: On South Today a news item showed two kite surfers jumping over Worthing Pier – to me it looked like one of the guys reached an altitude of 100 feet! Wow!

Moreton-in-Marsh

This time we are visiting Moreton-in-Marsh for 10 nights staying on the Caravan Club site on the edge of the town. I had heard that the caravan site was one of the best on the network and it didn’t disappoint.

Moreton-in-Marsh is a bustling market town, with a population of around 3,500 people, and lies on the ancient Fosse Way. Moreton is very much a "roadside" town, but it has great importance in the area due to having a railway station - quite a rarity in this area.

We passed this house every time we went into Moreton.

In the High Street.

The Old Corn Exchange in the Market Square.

   Market day – Tuesday - the following Tuesday it was bucketing with rain!

Toll board – no longer in use – obviously!

Moreton church.

One afternoon we visited the NT property – Upton House.

Upton House is a late seventeenth century house, built of the local stone, which was remodelled by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted, after his purchase of the property in 1927. The son of the founder of Shell, he was one of the great art collectors of the period. He left his collections, the house and the gardens to the National Trust in 1948

Within the house, the rooms retain the feel of the 1920s and 1930s. The colour schemes of the period provide a fine backdrop for the internationally important collections of paintings, which include works by Stubbs, Bruegel, Hogarth, Canaletto, El Greco and Bosch. Lord Bearsted's tastes are also reflected in his porcelain collection of eighteenth century Chelsea figures and Sevres tableware.

In the gardens.

We sat here for a while listening to the pianist playing in the house.

Another afternoon Sue and I were doing a circular series of geocaches and the walk took us passed Sezincote House.

Sezincote is a unique house built in the style of a Rajasthan palace.

Charles Cockerell served with the East India Company in Bombay. In 1798 he inherited the Sezincote estate from his brother John. Charles, later Sir Charles, employed his own brother, Samuel Pepys Cockerell, as architect to construct a new house and garden at Sezincote, using as a blueprint the elaborate oriental palaces of Rajasthan.

Sezincote was used by architect John Nash as a model for the extravagant Brighton Pavilion.

Stow-on-the-Wold – this is one of the few places where a decent photo can be taken without showing the parking problem.

A geocache called ‘Deers Leap’. This is where the deer can get into Batsford Arboretum grounds, but can’t get out. I have no idea what they do with the extras – Sunday Lunch perhaps?

Broadway is one of the most beautiful villages in England situated at the Gateway to the Cotswolds, England's largest designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its wide High Street lined with horse chestnut trees contains a mixture of period houses and picturesque honey coloured Cotswold stone cottages which have lured visitors for centuries.

  The High Street.

House front.

 

Olde Worlde Shoppe.

Around the next corner we saw the Gordon Russell Museum. I then remembered I had visited Broadway and had seen some of Russell's furniture many years ago. Being an ex-woodwork teacher I had an interest in this type of furniture.

Sir (Sydney) Gordon Russell (1892 – 1980) was an English designer, craftsman and educationist.

He came under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement from 1904 after his father had moved to Broadway in the Cotswolds to be hotelier at the Lygon Arms, through the Guild of Handicraft, the community of metalworkers, enamellers, wood carvers, furniture makers, and printers brought in 1902 by C. R. Ashbee from east London to Chipping Campden.

Following service in World War I, for which he was awarded the Military Cross, he became a furniture maker and designer.

During World War II he developed utility furniture as chairman of the government's Utility Furniture Design Panel.

This dresser was made for Lloyd George from 2 holly trees that came from his garden. The drawer that you see open is for his top hat.

  An award winning sideboard.

I had not realised that Russell had an all round talent for calligraphy and illustration. The photo below shows his diary for his first day on the ‘Veronese’.

Double click the photo to enlarge it.

This is the WOW factor – just look at his calligraphy!

The Lygon Arms where his father was the hotelier.

Olde Worlde Sweetie Shoppe

Snowshill Manor House, National Trust

The manor house is a typical Cotswold house, made from local stone; the main part of the house dates from the 16th century. The house was bought by Charles Paget Wade in 1919.

Today, the main attraction of the house is the display of Wade's collection. From 1900 until 1951, when he gave the Manor to the National Trust, Wade amassed an enormous collection of objects reflecting his interest in craftsmanship. The objects in the collection include 26 suits of Japanese samurai armour dating from the 17th and 19th centuries; bicycles; toys; musical instruments and more.

The letter box decorated by Paget himself. A very talented man.

The garden.

On the garden wall is a zodiac clock, or nychthemeron, coloured blue and gold.

As a finale I will share this email I had from Peter Morgan with you about the Wagon Wheels, mentioned in a previous blog.

‘They were made at Llantarnam about three miles from where I grew up.  We had a tuck shop at school and a former Labour Government Minister for Northern Ireland who I was in school with, ran the tuck shop.  Goodness knows how a profit was made because we boys used to spend break times seeing how many we could get through before the bell rang, that and the 1/3 pint milk bottles.....remember them?'

Is this the end of the Wagon Wheels saga?