The B&B (pictured above) was well located on the road that marked the exact boundary between the two towns (Brighton and Hove), and you would not have known the difference save for a sign on a building at the end of the road announcing the boundary. Upstairs It had two bedrooms both with an ensuite and downstairs a powder room kitchen lounge room and a dining table in the middle. Enough room for us but no garage. The missing garage came as quite a shock. The hiring of the car was based on the B&B having “private parking”. Our strategy was to spend the day traveling around and hope to find a space at night when it was free to park on the streets. Mick and Terri had joined us.
Mick had in his younger days worked in or owned a garage at the end of the street with a “lady of the night” working from the building across the road and the Robin Hood Pub on the opposite corner. The garage has gone, and the Lady has moved on but the pub was still there.
I had prepared an itinerary and planned to drag Terri and Mick around. Despite the itinerary we got side tracked on our way to Battle Abbey and Battlefield. We visited Beach Head and the suburbs of Eastbourne to allow Mick to catch up with an old friend. The wind was howling this day and sea mist blanked out the sun. The coastline is a continuation of the white cliffs of Dover and towered over the beach. It’s known for its dramatic, 531-foot (162-meter) high cliffs being the highest chalk cliffs in England and offers stunning views of the coastline and the English Channel. Beachy Head is part of the Seven Sisters Country Park. The visitor centre measures the distance from the edge of the cliffs to the centre and predicts that the centre will be lost over the cliff by 2050. We drove to the highest point and stepped out to take photos and were close to being blown away. The first picture is the visitors centre which will one day be in the sea as they lose a portion of the cliffs each year. The little lighthouse is further along the coast until you come to the highest point which is the last photo.
We moved on through Eastbourne to the town of Battle and parked behind Battle Abbey at the monastery car park. Terri had put the money in the meter and we moved onto the Abbey which was closed – it was Sunday. Disappointed we walked through the village and found somewhere warm for lunch. We paid no further attention to the parking meter until we received a rude email from the car hire people. We paid the administration fee but never received the fine – its in the mail. The first two pictures are Eastbourne Pier and its “shop” followed by the advertisement for a re-enactment of the battle on the carpark wall in Battle. The last picture is the phone box outside the Abbey from which King Harold rang home to tell his Queen he may be late for dinner. The battle with William in 1066 AD took place in this area.
With the Abbey closed our afternoon was free so we headed to Lewes and Lewes Castle and Museum of Sussex Archaeology. The town was buzzing, and the only parking space was the council car park near the river Ouse 500m away from the castle and museum. The castle is largely a ruin with a castle gate and some other buildings remaining. Still, it was very interesting. Lewes Castle is a medieval Norman castle originally called Bray Castle. it occupies a commanding position guarding the gap in the South Downs cut by the River Ouse and occupied by the towns of Lewes and Cliffe. It stands on a man-made mount just to the north of the high street in Lewes and is constructed from local limestone and flint blocks. The Barbican gate is mostly intact and can be accessed. The sign on the wall in the photo below tells the passerby that ten of the seventeen protestant martyrs were imprisoned in the vault below this building and burned at the stake a few metres from this site in 1555 to 1557.
This tour ended our day, and we returned to Hove to find a car space, a place to eat and a warm space to retire.
My niece Louise, who is presently managing the race days for Formula 1 Racing around the world, took time out of her busy schedule to come down by train to Hove and arrange for more of my relatives to meet us. Louise, Trish (Terri’s sister and my cousin) and her daughter Sarah arranged for dinner at the Connaught Hotel in the heart of Hove. We parked in the Aldi parking station and walked on to the Connaught Hotel – large and noisy hotel and a table of 7.
We also managed to fit in a visit to Ditchling a very small village with a lot of history. Even so the place was busy with visitors, and we ended up parking in a puddle in a dead-end lane – the only park we could find. It brought into the churchyard and as is typical of English churches we also passed through the cemetery finding a very quaint grave with its own font. Some of the buildings look to be from the Tudor era but the pub was warm and cozy. On the way to Ditchling we passed through some pretty country as you will see below. In the village itself the church stood out as the centre of the village and the buildings all to be very early or Georgian built.
After spending the morning in Ditchling we returned to Hove and the “Nevell” an old haunt for Mick and we met up with one of Terri’s sons for a drink and get together. The following day we continued our visits to beach side towns and the photos following show a mariners church where the sailors went to sea after visiting the church.
We had a lovely time renewing friendships meeting more of my father’s family in the UK and visiting new things in Brighton Hove. Our time in Brighton Hove had come to an end and we had the discussion as to when we might catch up again before we headed off to Truro in Cornwall. We had not visited places like Port Issac where Doc Martin had his practice (the TV show) and King Arthur’s alleged castle at Tintagel. The drive would take over 4.5 hours so we scheduled a stopover in Dorchester for a break and some lunch.
Read on in my next blog “THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – BRIGHTON HOVE UK/ CORNWALL UK.
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