I did another walk today, one that walked about 12 km through several cities in West Sussex, visiting churches and a castle. The walk itself had a couple hiccups, the least of which was the rain that started about 2/3 through the walk and caused some very wet feet on my part. Boo. But, before that, it was very pleasant.
I started the walk in a city called Amberley. It's about a 1.5 hour train ride south from London (as a side, the train's destination is a sea-side town called
Bognor Regis, which I think is just the funniest name ever). I didn't spend much time in the city itself, since my walk took me right out of the city again. Although if I ever return, I would take a wander through it, since
Wikipedia tells me that there is another old church there, as well as several thatched-roof cottages.
The beginning part of the walk wasn't covered in these lovely board walks (which remind me an awful lot of the Myst computer game), so there was quite a few moments of tip-toeing through the mud.
The meadow! A marshy meadow, at that, but a meadow none the less. There were several quite exotic-look species of birds, but they were all too fast to get a photo. One little finch-type-bird was the brightest blue.
This tree was a marker along the path where I was walking. It's a pretty magnificent tree - I loved all the roots sticking out and the makeshift swing hanging there. The thought of the swing was quite tempting, but the swing itself was just a stick on the rope, so I chose against riding the swing.
This is the church of St. Leonard's in South Stoke, which isn't a city as much as it is a cluster of about 3 houses and many more sheep.
While this church was restored in the 19th century, it is essentially Norman, with an aisle-less nave.
The church itself has no electricity, and the population of it's entire parish (including non-church-attending-folk) is just 44 people.
Unfortunately I have no other information about the church, since there wasn't any information inside the church... just a lot of apples.
Welcome to the first hiccup along my train. They had closed a crossing over the train tracks which I needed to get over (at that point I didn't know that they had closed another 2 that I would need to access later), so I had to wander along the tracks until I found a suitable place to cross (they have fences around the tracks and are electric so I can't just wander over them like you can back home). I ended up finding this crossing, which is flooded to a depth of about 6 inches with muddy, poo-ey water. Fortunately some helpful person had placed three logs across the pond with which I used to cross. Thankfully I crossed successfully without ending up ankle deep in poo, but it could've gone wrong. I'm actually quite pleased that I made it across just fine. It's not so easy with a full backpack and camera bag.
This is Burpham Church, in Burpham (pronounced "Bur-fam" not "Burp-um". This church is mainly Norman (12th century), although several arches and the north wall of the church pre-date the Norman invasion.
This church had electricity, but everything was on a motion timer, so they kept shutting off right before I wanted to take a picture!
Again, not a whole lot of information in the church, so I'm making do with what I can get from their semi-informative calender.
This arch here is probably the most distinct, having the pattern and all.
At the bottom of the arches was a little carved face. I liked him. Not sure how old he was.
After leaving the church I entered only what I can describe as "Spider Forest". I have never seen so many different types of spiders, all sizes and certainly all shaped along the tiniest, narrowest little path. Some were blue with long spiky things, or had just two long legs in the front, or had little hairs on them. And, of course, the standard British House Spider:
However, despite the large number of ugly spiders, it had started to mist by then and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph some spider webs with dew on them.
Um, excuse me cow, you are between me and my castle. By this point I had stumbled across yet another rail-crossing that was blocked, and having trampled across a soggy field, I had very wet feat and wasn't all that pleased. It had, by then, stopped raining, thankfully.
That's better. That's Arundel Castle there. Although I didn't visit it (it's owned by English Heritage and expensive to visit), I did get as close as I could... but not yet. To the left of the castle you can see the Arundel Cathedral, which I visit later.
I did pass this bush, which was full of what appears to be giant spider web/nests. The desire to poke the web with a stick to find out what was inside was great, but the desire not to be covered in angry baby spiders was greater, so I left it alone.
Here's a couple other views of Arundel Castle. The photos from close up weren't very impressive, since I couldn't actually get close enough to get through the trees without having to pay.
Here's a brief history of the castle for those of you who don't want to Google it yourself. The original castle was founded on Christmas Day 1067 by Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel. He was awarded a third of Sussex with the stipulation that a new castle be built near the mouth of the Arun (river) to protect the approaches to Sussex from attack.
It's also one of the longest inhabited country houses in England. Many of the original features survive and it featured as a prominent set/backdrop in the 2009 movie "The Young Victoria".
This is the Blackfriars, which is the remains of a Dominican Priory. It was founded in the second quarter of the 13th century.
The function of the surviving south range is not clear, but since it was two-storeyed it cannot have contained the church. The friary was dissolved in 1538 and its buildings were converted to other uses: the south range for a time contained a timber yard and the west range a malthouse. Mill road was laid out across the site in 1894.
This is the parish church of St. Nicholas in Arundel. It is not known when the first church was built here in Saxon times, but the Domesday Book records that a church existed here during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). This building dates from 1380.
It is an interesting church because it is split in two. Behind the alter thing there, you can see a metal grate. This is locked and divides the Fitzalan Chapel from the rest of the church. More on that later.
This is the view through the grate into the Fitzalan Chapel. The story goes like this:
"In its early days, the part beyond the grille, now known as the Fitzalan Chapel, was the Church's Chancel and Collegiate Chapel of the College of priests. The High Altar was situated at the far end together with choir stalls and all the accoutrements for celebrating High Mass. The part in which you are standing (or taking a picture from), was the nave, with the Parish Altar set up in the South Transept. The walls were probably lime washed or decorated with murals. There were no pews or seats of any sort and the floor consisted of well-trodden earth covered with straw or rushes which were changed three times a year.
Apart from occasional quarrels as to who was responsible for certain repairs and maintenance as necessary, all went well until 1544, when King Henry VIII, as Supreme Head of the Church of England, decided to abolish all monastic establishments, and he sold the College and all its possession to Henry Fitzalan, the 12th Earl of Arundel. The key to the grille passed into his hands and the two parts of the building began their separate existences."
Now the grilled-side of part of the castle, and you'd have to pay to get into the castle to see that side, which I didn't. But I will, eventually.
The church had several mediaeval wall paintings, although most have been whitewashed over now. This is the only decipherable one that is left.
The little red cross that you see there (they are all over the church), while having been touched up over the years, date from 1380.
Here is the font, and it's made of Sussex marble. It is probably the oldest relic in the building, dating from again, 1380.
I left that church and kept walking down the street to visit the Arundel Cathedral, which is that church you can see on the top of the hill next to the castle.
While it looks very impressive from far away, it's not all that exciting up close. It was built in 1868, which is quite modern in terms of churches, although it was still quite grandiose inside.
And really, quite bright, too, in terms of church. Much electricity in here!
Not much else to say about that church, really. Nothing super exciting about it's history, so I'll leave you with a photo of these two dudes outside.
This walk in particular was a lot of fun, although next time I will definitely bring a spare set of socks and/or shoes just in case the BBC would like to spring some unexpected rain on me again.
