wHEREVER YOU ARE, IT’S NEVER TOO FAR …
White Star L iners are from the Sussex and have never had any desire to leave.
Kipling (author not baker) said we are given one place to love above all others as the whole world is too big to get your head around. He was very happy his was Sussex by-the-Sea.
So are we.
There is usually something beautiful, weird or (happily) a pub just over the next brow of the Sussex Downs or just over the next stile you are clambering over. There are also ancient stories to be dug up, hiding behind the treelines, fading into sea or, again, in the pub. There are songs here too…
Over the years Harv has taken thousands of photos of our little part of the Universe. Many from where we grew up and others from a little further from source. Some will be shared over time below. He doesn’t promise they are any good but they are all in the WSL song blender somewhere and may be of some small interest.
Welcome to Sussex.
Much Love,
WS
xo
This long-forgotten trough is at the bottom of a little incline in a field behind the park in Partridge Green. We used to sledge here when it snowed…both times…It never snows as much as you want when you are young.
This is an overflow pipe in the ‘Secret Woods’ in Partridge Green. Secret because you had to crawl through a hedge to get in. Once Jim and I found a discarded Ouija Board here. That was weird. Here it seems the pipe is spilling disco water, which is also weird.
This is the bog in the wittily named ‘The Woods’ in Partridge Green. It seemed a lot bigger when we were kids and if you could successfully ride your bike over the plank you felt like a Goonie.
These balloons advertising ‘Red hot amazing deals’ probably weren’t put here for passing ramblers or cows. Can’t remember exactly where this is or what they were advertising. Insightful stuff I know.
This is an Oak Tree in the middle of a field in Partridge Green. It is my favourite tree and I’ve always liked the way it claws at the sky in Winter.
This is my favourite view in the world. Have a pint of Harvey’s at the Shepard and Dog pub in Fulking then head up Saddlescombe Road and look right. You can’t miss it. It’s a slightly lesser loved view of Devil’s Dyke. Devil’s Dyke is apparently the longest, deepest, and widest dry valley in the UK. It was also, according to doubtless verified sources, carved by the Devil as trench to the Sea so he could flood the nearby villages. He was stopped mid-dig by a lady lighting a candle and a Cockrel crowing as he thought it was daybreak and it seems he could only dig at night.
This is Brighton Beach looking towards West Pier. I took this when I was living in Brighton many years ago. I don’t know who the girl is in the bottom left but I’ve often wondered what her story is, I always thought she seemed quite sad. I hope she is doing well.
This another one in St. Leonard’s Forest. The old tales say that St. Leonard was a Hermit who fought and killed a dragon in the woods. He was wounded in the fight and everywhere a drop of his blood fell, white lillies grew. Which is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.
This is at the top of the Downs looking towards the Sea. Not much to add here really. As Leonard Cohen said ‘God is Alive, Magic is Afoot’ or, as I said a bit less poetically, ‘It’s in the Sky’.
This is the Wilmington Yew Tree. It is 400 years older than the 12th Century church it is next to. It is propped up by wooden crutches as all the people who lived in the village for all those centuries could not bring themselves to let it split, collapse and die. My dad lived in Wilmington in the 1950s and remembers helping to make a crutch. Well played Dad. As an added bonus the Yew tree is watched over by the Long Man of Wilmington who is chalked on the hill just down the road.
This is the Mick Mills Mile in St. Leonard’s Forest near Horsham. I used to walk my dog here. What did Mick Mills do here? Well, according to legend, the Devil appeared to claim his soul and Mick said he would race him down this one-mile track for it. Mick won. No soul for the Devil that day.
