The Three Bs part one

 The great escape happened on Wednesday....yes we made it out of Horsham. That fact alone called for a celebratory decaff latte in Spoons....living the high life again, but hey it's budget friendly and David can't have caffeine at the moment so it felt like a win. Usually he doesn't get the luxury of choice when it comes to decaff beverages. Enough...I digress.

First B is for Burgess Hill.

I strongly suspect that if I said to people who know the area that I had chosen to spend the day here I'd have garnered a similar reaction i.e a raised eyebrow aa when I went to Crawley last year. It's not known for being one of the pretty Sussex towns. A lot of it is Victorian and grew as it became a commuter town for being on the London to Brighton line. That train connection remains important and they're still using the original station from 1877. The part this type of public transport plays in the history of the place is commemorated by this rather natty bench.

The town is actually 17th century and is thought to be named after a local farming family called the Burgeys who appear on the tax rolls in the 13th century. It had a flourishing tile and brick industry which is showcased well by the parish church of St John The Evangelist [consecrated in 1863]. It has many lovely details in its construction. Over my many years of church crawling I have learnt to expect the unexpected and this time it was a model of an organ made from cardboard tubes and wooden clothes pegs for the keyboard. I have without guilt chopped of St John's head as I wanted to focus on the amazing level of stitching in the eagle that accompanied him. I even found myself a couple of dinky little dragons on the bell.

The local crafters had been busy and the band stand was swathed in Easter themed crochet work.

The sculpture is called 'Stone Garden' and is by David Parfitt and Jane Syblilla Fordham. It consists of 10 pieces representing a tree and plant forms made of Bath stone and set within a picked out garden shape. Tricky to capture it in all its entirety, but I hope that it gives you some idea.

I love this one. The Burgess Hill Theatre Club has been going since 1935 and puts on three plays plus a panto every year. It actively encourages new playwrights to bring their work to them to perform and seeks out members from within the community. If Am Dram is your thing you're well provided for here. 

Although I can't explain to you why, I do like to to take a quick look at any war memorial I come across. It's rare, but good to see that the sacrifice of the non humans is also remembered and I'm very pro the different coloured poppies now available to mark this.

A spot of colour to end on. The centre of the town does feel a bit run down these days [as many places do], but we were only here briefly [we were after binoculars for David and it was mission accomplished] and we met some very friendly folk. It seems to have lots of good community initiatives set up and some fabulous green spaces one of which I blogged about here https://gnatbottomedtowers.blogspot.com/2018/02/on-green-circle.html. We had time to visit another whilst we were over here. Next blog post coming up.....

Arilx