Fulking about at Fulking and Steyning.

After what seemed like an eternity of hiding in the house, Friday was a nice day; crisp and bright. I wasn't too ill and so we went out - down onto the Brighton road and heading for the South Downs.

First of all we stopped at Devils Dyke;

Which is a dramatic valley cut into The Downs by melt waters when this area was covered in permafrost millions of years ago.

It's hard to see it now but in the 19th century this was one of the biggest tourist attractions - one Whitsun bank holiday saw 30 000 people here. There was (at different times) a funicular railway, a railway and a cable car, funfairs, restaurants and music.

All gone now and I didn't feel able to walk up the valley - a bit too much up and down for me these days!

Then we drove to Fulking which hides at the foot of The Downs, the sun playing with the shadows and light;

In "The Meaning of Liff"  the comic writers  Douglas Adams and John Lloyd defined "Fulking" as "pretending not to be in when the carol singers come round."

We drove on and passed a medieval farm with a large flint barn;

And stopped off at Steyning, a little market town;

And then we went back to Fulking, late in the afternoon, because it seemed such a shame not to have clambered up to the top of the hill;

This is Robyn's photo of where we were heading - the notch by the side of the pylon.

Oh dear, it looks further than it did earlier on;

We did make it up to the top, the hill carved by 'Drove Roads', sunken paths worn down into the chalk by centuries of sheep being driven along the South Downs way to market; 

As usual up on The Downs, you can see for ever, as far as The Surrey Hills;

Can you spot my little car, the only one on the road? 

The view along the ridge is just a dream;

The wind charges over the ridge from the sea and any trees that survive are ground down by it;

Robyn took this one - I actually made it!

A splendid lung clearing day and when it was over we headed down to Littlehampton for Fred's Fish and Chips, the second best fish and chips I've ever had.

Rather optimistically we took home a loyalty card!

It's quite a long drive for a meal.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Littlehampton.

This is where we stopped off for lunch; it's a tiny park next to the River Arun and overlooking Arundel castle;

The ruin in the foreground is the old Priory which dates from the year 1000 . We were very suspicious that the castle (which is supposed to be the same age) looked in such good repair. It looked a bit 'Hollywood' to us.

The last time I'd passed through Arundel was about 25 years ago when it was a sleepy little town by the side of the castle.

It was easy to park and an attractive place to visit.

Not this time and in the end we didn't go in; I was fairly annoyed with the outrageous car park and since then I did a little research on the castle and the town.

The 'Medieval' castle was in fact continuously rebuilt and remodelled from the 18th century onwards with the works only finishing in 1900 - it looks like it too.

The Howard family (that's the Duke of Norfolk) live there and they turned the castle into a family trust; outrageously it's a 'charity' which means the wealthy parasites don't pay any taxes on their home or on the family business.

The car park belongs to them and they've made sure that there's nowhere in the town where you can park for longer than an hour.

The car park? That costs £5 (unless you only want to stay for a couple of hours and that wouldn't be enough).

What got me really angry was that after all that you had to pay to use the toilets - as if they don't make enough money out of us already.

Don't believe me?

The normal entry to the castle ranges from £9 to £18 but you don't get a lot for £9!

If we'd gone in when we were there it would have been £23 because they had 'Jousting' displays......and none of the cheaper options were available.

The greedy Howard family have a cheek; they would have got £51 out of us, with the parking.

 But that wouldn't have been enough for them.

The government gives 'charities' the right to claim the tax back on donations made to them, it's called 'gift aid' and it's meant to boost income to hard pressed charities.

The Duke of Norfolk is very keen on 'Gift Aid' and would have liked us to choose that option when we were paying; if we had it would have cost us £25-30 each.

That's £55-60p with the parking.

Take a look at 'Tripadvisor', it's not just me that thinks the Duke is having us over.

There was a quiet little 'English' revolution going on.

The toilet users were holding the doors open for others as they left so as to deprive the nasty Duke and his extravagant family of their toilet money.

In the end, when we'd finished our lunch we went to Littlehampton, a quiet little seaside town.

This is the picture Robyn took from her phone;

I couldn't believe it; the last time I'd been there was about 25 years ago and it was a depressed, dead, miserable dead end.

It was magical - we were lucky that the Sun was shining and there was a delightful breeze.

There was seaweed and sand!

There was a brand new waterfront and a little pier and for once all the new building worked; charming waterside flats and houses in pastel shades and a mix of designs that really worked for an old harbour;

There were lots of people crabbing in the sunshine;

I was really puzzled why anyone would fish for Harbour crabs, I didn't think you could eat them and they were never much use for bait - in fact later we saw them being released back into the water.

Robyn had a paddle and I went looking for 'seaglass' but King Neptune was hanging on to his jewels this time.

It was a glorious, deep breath taking, head clearing, joy-making afternoon.

There were some great clouds;

There were also some really strong currents - the working boats were using the rising tide to shoot up the river to the harbour.

When we were driving down from Amberley I was foolish enough to argue with Robyn about whether the Arun was tidal; just look at the force of that water; it is!

I liked 'Hubris House', which was a little eccentric; the windows were covered up with a strange collection of prints and pictures.

And yes, that is a nude lady in the top window and a Dalmation and her puppy on the window sill.

Well why not?



We had a choice of Fish and Chip shops; we chose 'Fred's' and I can only say that it's entered my all time top three (that may be a future Blog) chip shops;

 

 

Is it possible for fish to be too fresh?

 

The chips were the best I have ever had - they use proper vegetable oil and local potatoes.

 

 

Then we had ice cream!

 

And I used the Amusement Arcade toilets to do my injection.

 

Pretty much the end to a perfect day.

 

Just don't put money into the pockets of the Howard family!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com