Amberley.

We had a roadtrip!

I'd had a few bad days and then I felt a bit better.....so we went out for the day. We went to the seaside a day before heavy rain was due to fall.

Except first, we had to go to Amberley in West Sussex - years ago when Robyn was at school she saw a silly travel show about this little village and fell in love with it.

I was dreading it! Not least because it has the world's most (almost) expensive hotel;

It's a Norman castle built in the year 1100. It has a view of the South Downs and even has it's very own Peacocks. Not really the kind of place where I feel at home.

After we took a look at the hotel, we headed down to the village which is full of thatched cottages and oak beams;

The gate into the churchyard was decorated with flowers - there must have been a wedding recently;

We also checked out the church which was started in 1100 too;

Inside they'd uncovered wall paintings that had been plastered over in the protestant reformation. Until then, as you can see, churches had been brightly painted and were full of secular music.
   

 

 

Each village had it's own band which played, often quite rowdy, music in the church. That all changed and the bands were banished, the paintings hidden under whitewash and the carved heads were defaced in an outbreak of religious intolerance.

 

At the rear of the church was a huge wall, a remnant of an older building, filled with nooks which had been taken over by doves.



All around us the flint walls were built in orderly lines which seems to be unique to this part of Sussex.

And the cottages were ablaze with 'Hollyhocks'

And these really are genuine old oak beamed cottages;

We took a look at the village pottery which has taken over a redundant chapel. 

It's all handmade and fired on the premises. Here's the workshop;

They make all kinds of country pottery to order and it's all quite charming.

I caught a glimpse of these dusty figures on the window sill and fell in love with them;

 

 

If your interested (and they have an interesting story to tell)you can link to their website here;

 

www.amberleypottery.co.uk

 

 

I must admit that if I was grumbling when we got into the village (it's really, really expensive nowadays full of luxury cars and second homes) by the time we left I was won over.

 

Robyn is telling me she has to chose where we go to from now on.

 

Hmmmmmmm!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

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