Prattle Broth

During the 18th and 19th century  whilst the blokes had the coffee houses, pubs and drawing rooms, the women were left with pots of tea and visitors with which to share a cuppa and catch up on all the news and gossip In a patriarchal society a cup of tea was dismissively referred to as prattle broth, scandal broth or cat lap. I love nothing better than catching up with a friend over a cuppa. A few years ago my friend Arty L bought me this beautiful cup and saucer as a surprise gift. We don't usually exchange presents, but she said she simply she had to get it for me because she knew I would treasure it. Too right!

Arilx

Influenced by....

During his lifetime Oliver Messel was the most famous and highest paid theatre set and costume designer in the country. His clothes were known for being eminently wearable on stage, light in weight and very practical. His work continues to ne influential and Nymans is currently exhibiting these dresses inspired by his work and created by students from Wimbledon College of Arts. Messel was a member of the family who owned Nymans before it passed into the hands of the National Trust. Beautiful.

Arilx

 

Sussex by the sea.

There are just so many towns along the Sussex coast which I have either never been to or not for aeons. Shame on me! On my birthday I managed to tick another one off the list and am now left wondering why it took me so long to visit. Destination Seaford. 

If you love being by the sea, but are not a fan of the whole 'seaside' resort and big crowds thing then this town might just be perfect for you. There are toilets and a couple of small cafes down on the front, but none of the classic attractions and not a funfair in sight. Even the parking is free. Other than oodles of blue sky what we did get down there was this beautiful memorial bench to Claire Sumners who was a local environmental activist and very highly thought of. After the bench was unveiled in 2025, there was a community beach clean held along with a celebration of her life. At the far end you come across the long Shoal community bench which weaves it way along the jetty at Splashpoint like a silver stream. Upon its seats are many fish shaped messages. Many are of too personal a message to share here I feel, but this punning one made me smile. It all felt a little fishy in tone to me🐟 Walk further up and you will see the Martello Tower which was built in 1808 and is one of 103 national examples. It cost in the region of £18k at the time and was put up to keep old Boney from invading. Nowadays it is seeing a second life as a museum, but was closed on our visit.

Having got ourselves orientated and with one of the heritage trails downloaded we headed off up into the town to continue our meanderings.

Any visit that I'm on will almost inevitably a visit to the local church. I'm such a good tourist that I had even contacted the parish office to check the opening hours😀

St Leonard's [the patron saint of sailors] was a Norman church [the arch at the bottom of the tower is one of the remaining features from that time. It was sacked by the French and then restored in 1485 with the tower rebuilt within the old walls. It retains some lovely features as well as some glorious modern additions. I thought the ancient carving of St Michael slaying the dragon most apt as I was born on St Michael's day.

Every church has its many memorials to the great and the good from the local vicinity, but this one to Dr William Pringle is of national interest because he was the first person to officially diagnose dyslexia in an article he wrote for the B.M.A in 1896. He had noted that one of his young patients was a bright lad, but had been struggling with reading and writing. Further investigations led Pringle to discover that the problem was not down to a lack of understanding, but an issue relating to visual perception.

The font is a modern one and although pleasant to look at from afar on its oak plinth it didn't exactly blow my socks off. My reaction changed upon seeing the bowl....a stunning enamelled piece made by Mel Howse💙🩵

Part of exploring always involves a cup of coffee if it's me. Opposite the church stood a cafe with this daft sign outside. We were intrigued and it was recommended to us by two of the patrons who were just leaving as we approached. Well I have to say it was one of the high spots of the day. It's small inside and was packed. The whole time we were there everyone was bantering back and forth with the owner who gave as good as he got. In the end I couldn't resist joining in and when asked if we were from around the area I admitted that we had crossed the county border. There's always a bit of rivalry between East and West and I was reminded that the West is the place where all the rejects from East Sussex and Hampshire are sent. I laughed my socks off and the coffee tasted amazing!

Here's a few of our after lunch treasures as we finished our walk. The frontage of the chemist is still the original one with that unusual contemporary combination of lamp post and dog bowl to be seen.

What a gem. We were made to feel very welcome.

Arilx

Oh the irony.

We have been doing fortnighly reptile surveys in a couple of fields at our local nature reserve for several months. Today was the last one of the season. In all that time we've seen beautiful field mice and voles, but only one slow worm. As we walked home what did we find sunning itself in the middle of the pavement....only a stunning metallic coloured baby slow worm. I didn't fancy its chances of survival there, so rescued it and released in a safer spot nearby. 

 

Arilx

Stony faced.

I love nothing better than seeing buildings either built from or faced with stone. It tells me that I am out of my local area and the minute it's flint I know that I'm either in East Sussex or within the South Downs National Park. It's rather clever the way this cottage's name has been picked out.

Spotted whilst out walking on the Downs with a friend. Have a great weekend.

Arilx

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Keeping abreast.

The good knitting folk of Warnham have not been deterred by the fact that the village postbox is now sporting a solar panel and therefore can no longer carry a topper. They've simply transferred their woolly works to one of the pillars outside the nearby church. I know not everyone is a fan, but this one carries an important visual message during Breast Cancer month.

Arilx

Not resting in peace.

Sussex has a handful of its own saints, but I suspect you won't be surprised to hear of those only one is female. We were near her base on my big recent birthday so I went to pay homage.

This is Saint Lewinna whose feast day is 24th July and as far as I am aware nobody marks it. She is said to have been a young virgin who was murdered in the 7th century by a heathen and at a time when Sussex was still transitioning to Christianity. Ours was the last county to be converted. Upon her burial accounts began to emerge of all sorts of miracles being attributed to her and by the 10th century Eadhelm, Bishop of Chichester [950-80], no doubt sensing a chance to make some money off the pilgrim industry, ordered that her remains should be exhumed. Her relics were placed within the church of St Andrew's in Bishopstone [another contender is Alfriston, but Bishopstone is thought to be the correct site] for people to come and venerate her. Her shrine was probably within in what you can now see is the porch, but was once a side chapel. I've seen porches of that size in East Anglia, but not round here.

You might imagine that Lewinna might have had a few hundred years of resting in peace at least until the time of the break with Rome under Henry VIII. Alas she was soon on the move again. According to the historical sources a monk called Balgerus was due to be sailing from Flanders to Dover, but enroute he got blown off course and wound up in Seaford on Easter Monday 1058 where he stumbled across this very church. He decided that he rather fancied having a personal relic of his own from Lewinna, but the priest refused his request. This monk though was a wily old fox and he wasn't going to give up that easily. Instead he asked if he could spend the night praying and saying mass by her shrine. He appears to have laid his morals aside at this point and managed to break into the end of her coffin from which he stole all of her bones bar a couple of small ones. These he wrapped in a red cloth and made good his escape back to St Winoc's Abbey, Bergues [near Dunkirk] from whence he came. 

By 1224 Lewinna had her very own grand and shiny new shrine in the abbey, but by 1383 it had been sacked by the allies of Charles VI of France. The shrine was stripped of all the precious metals, but the relics remained until 4th July 1558 when the abbey was burnt to the ground by French Protestants. Only one of her ribs was left which by 1905 was still within the church of St Martin's [still in the same area]. Alas this church was bombed in WWII and upon its restoration no trace of the single rib remained. Now all we have is her name and echoes of her story stretching back across a thousand years.

This is not the only reason I stopped here as it has this rather fabulous Saxon dial above the porch. Upon it is etched the name of Eadric. No one knows who this mysterious chap was, but one theory is that the cross next to him may denote that he was a bishop.

I'll show you where I spent the rest of my day in the next post.

Arilx