Showing posts with label UK-England-Sussex (East). Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK-England-Sussex (East). Show all posts

Monday, 21 July 2025

East Sussex (7) Winnie-The-Pooh and Standen

This is a new post, though it covers the events of the 26th of February 2025
It will be moved to its appropriate chronological position soon

Ashdown Forest, Home of the Great Bear, and a 19th Century Country House

A Brief Orientation


East Sussex
After yesterday’s visit to Brighton our stay with my sister Erica and husband Peter, who live in Heathfield in East Sussex, continued with a visit to the Ashdown Forest. The forest, 8 km north-west of Crowborough, was the home of Winnie-The-Pooh. From there we went to Standen, a National Trust property west of Forest Row and just within the boundary of East Sussex.

The County of East Sussex
Ashdown is 5km NW of Crowborough (a third of the way to East Grinstead). Standen is west of Forest Row, just inside the county boundary

Ashdown Forest


AA Milne, Winnie-The-Pooh and Christopher Robin


AA Milne in 1922
Photo:Emil Otto Hoppé (Pub Dom)
In 1925, AA Milne was a well-established playwright and author of humorous articles when he bought Cotchford Farm in East Sussex. It was intended as a weekend and holiday cottage for Milne, his wife and their only child, five-year-old Christopher Robin. What he originally planned to write in these rural surroundings is unknown, but the birth of his son had already inspired When we were Very Young, a book of poems for children. In 1926 he published Winnie-The-Pooh, ten stories about his son, his son’s bear and their friends. The tales were set near Cotchford in the 500 Acre Wood, part of the Ashdown Forest, renamed the Hundred Aker Wood in the book. Another book of poems, Now we are Six, marked Christopher Robin reaching that landmark age and finally, in 1928, there were ten more stories collected as The House at Pooh Corner. The final story ends poignantly with Christopher Robin saying 'goodbye' before leaving the wood.

The Hundred Aker Wood

In reality he put away his soft toys and went to boarding school. Sending nine-year-old children away to school is cruel and is far less common now that it was in Milne’s day, but the Milne family, like most of their class, had been doing this for generations. His father's books were well known by his schoolmates, making Milne a target for relentless bullying. He came to resent Christopher Robin and, by extension, his father. They were later reconciled, and he found his place in life as Chris Milne, Dartmouth bookseller.

The Pooh books and the two books of poems rather swallowed AA Milne's career. They were extraordinarily successful and today are his only works still in print – which is, I suppose, four more than most writers of his generation.

I knew nothing of this darker side when the Pooh books were bought for me in 1955. They are first editions - though from the 46th and 35th reprints of the two books, so hardly valuable (at least in a monetary sense.) They are tatty, because they were much loved and they were frequently read to me and then by me and then to and by my sister. They started my relationship with The Great Bear (as I like to think of him) which has lasted 70 years.

Towards an Enchanted Place

Peter drove us to the Ashdown Forest and stopped in the Pooh Car Park. From there an unlikely looking group of volunteers for enchantment made their way down the path.

Up for enchantment? L to R Me, my sister Erica, her husband Peter

The grey February day with passing showers, was not promising but then somebody spotted Piglet’s House.

Piglet's House

Is this, though the real Piglet’s House? The only information we have comes from the illustrations (he called them decorations) of EH Shephard, who was there at the time – unlike the outrageous fakers of the Disney Corporation. He includes a broken sign saying ‘Trespassers Will’, because Piglet’s grandfather had been called Trespassers William, but here the sign has been mended, changed shape and hung above the door. I have my doubts.

Piglet's House

Here is another photo of Piglet’s House with my sister for scale. She makes it look ‘deceptively spacious’, to quote every estate agent who has ever lived.

Erica visits piglet

A little further on is Owl’s House…

Owl's House

… which you might like to compare with the original.

Owl's Real House - rather more accessible

I had my doubts, but when you see random pots of Hunny in the trees and know the Great Bear would never be so careless, these doubts begin to crystallise (just like Hunny).

Hunny left in trees

Then, with the rain spattering down, we reached the stream at the bottom of the hill, turned right, and there was the Pooh Sticks bridge.

Pooh Sticks Bridge

I was, of course, being disingenuous earlier, EH Shepard’s illustrations/decorations do not inform us about Piglet’s house, they define the dwellings of Piglet, Owl and the others. When the reality we see in the trees differs from the art, then it is the reality that is wrong – but they were constructed by people who cared enough to do it, and not for financial gain. They should be applauded.

But the Pooh Sticks bridge introduces another form of reality. The bridge we see today is the same bridge that stood here 100 years ago – give or take the repairs and renovations required to keep a wooden bridge over a muddy stream in good condition for a century. Shepard did not need to imagine the bridge, but did have to imagine a bear, a piglet, a baby kangaroo and a rabbit who have just dropped sticks into the stream.

Pooh and Rabbit play Pooh Sticks

Getting a couple of pensioners to imitate them is easy. Shepard, I notice, gave more interesting expressions to Pooh and Rabbit with a few strokes of a pen, than we managed with our actual faces.

Less adept players of the game

During Pooh and Rabbit’s game, Looking very calm very dignified, with his legs in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge.

Eeyore emerges from under the Pooh Sticks bridge

“It's Eeyore!” cried Roo, terribly excited.

“Is that so?” said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy and turning slowly round three times. “I wondered.”

I include that snippet of Eeyore being delightfully Eeyore-ish, because when it was read to me in nineteen fiftysomething I learned a new word. Eddy was, I thought, a grand and exciting word and I treasured it. It also allowed me to show my favourite illustration of Eeyore.

While we were at the bridge two young people, a man and a woman in their early 20s, came down the path towards us and politely inquired the way to Pooh’s house. We pointed them in the right direction. It is ridiculous to imagine you know anything about people you have met for no more than a minute, but… they gave the impression of being foreign students cast up on this dank and misty island (not everyday, but certainly this day) in a quest for knowledge. They spoke good English, but it was not their first language. Indeed, they probably did not share a first language, but they had come together to this place to search out the origins of Winnie-The-Pooh. The Great Bear embraces the world.

Pooh’s house is over the bridge and further down the path. We passed the students (or not-students) making the return journey.

Pooh's House

I will forgive the muddiness of the scene; this is February while the Hundred Aker wood enjoyed the sunshine of perpetual summer. I could be picky about some positionings and spellings, but EH Shepard has drawn Pooh sitting outside on a comfy log, implying the door opens inwards, which is somewhat impractical if you live in a tree trunk.

Pooh's House

The Wonder that is Pooh

As the final story in Winnie-The-Pooh (the first of the two books) comes to its end

Pooh and Piglet walked home thoughtfully together in the golden evening, and for a long time they were silent.

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “What's the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What's for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh is my sort of bear. Excitement and adventures are all well and good, but first things first.

Milne’s writing is crisp and simple, the words jogging along, one after another. There is plenty humour directed at children, Pooh attacked by bees while dangling from a balloon, or trapped in rabbits burrow by his ever-increasing girth, but even the slapstick is elegantly restrained. The characters are fully formed and three-dimensional. When Pooh and Piglet plan their heffalump trap they argue about the best bait for catching heffalumps. Pooh, naturally, says honey, Piglet acorns. As they argue Piglet realises that if he wins, he will have to provide the acorns, and if Pooh wins, he must provide the honey. Piglet quickly switches sides. As he does so Pooh realises the same thing, but too late, he has been caught out. He takes it on the chin, as a gentleman should. The characters have frailties, Piglet’s occasional selfishness, Owl’s permanent self-importance, Eeyore’s moroseness, but malice is unknown in the Hundred Aker Wood.

EH Shepard in 1932
Howard Coster (Fair Use)

Milne’s voice contains a smile that is sardonic, yet very gentle; a knowing nod to the adults over the heads of the children. The writing is very British, understated and still feels surprisingly modern, Nothing in the two books seems dated – except the way Christopher Robin dresses, and that looked odd in 1956. In the final story, when Christopher Robin leaves the wood, the animals gather to say goodbye and send him off with ‘a rissolution.’ They all want to express their feelings, as does Christopher Robin but they cannot trust their emotions. One after another, they clear their throats to speak but say nothing, and one by one all, except Pooh, drift away. And I shall drift away there (without deigning to deal with the blasphemies of the Disney Corporation) but I must make a final mention of illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard who unfailingly places the cherry in just the right spot on Milne's artfully baked cake.

Standen House

Leaving Ashdown Forest we headed for Standen House, a National Trust property some 20 minutes to the west, and like the Forest, situated in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Lunchtime had arrived so we visited the café in search of a little smackerel, as Pooh would have said.

Philip Webb 1873
Charles Fairfax Murray (Pub Dom)
In 1890, wealthy solicitor James Beale and his wife Margaret bought a 12-acre estate, consisting of three farms. One of them, Standen farm, gave its name to their new country house. Standen was a weekend retreat for themselves and for (or from?) their seven children. Later it became their retirement home.

The house was designed by Philip Webb, a founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, and built between 1891 and 1893. He integrated the medieval farm building into the vernacular design using local sandstone, local bricks, tile-hanging, pebble-dash and timber all chosen to harmonize with the landscape. My photo shows only one wing - there is more piled on top to the left. Perhaps it is just me, but I am unconvinced the building harmonises with itself, never mind the landscape.


Standen

Margaret Beale took charge of the interior. She commissioned wallpapers, carpets, textiles and furniture mostly from William Morris & Co, all reflecting the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Original William Morris wallpaper, Standen

Philip Webb built in modern comforts, like central heating and off-grid electricity provided by a Donkey Engine. The house certainly looks more comfortable than most older National Trust properties. Visitors see the house dressed for a weekend stay in 1925 and the parlour looks comfortable enough, in an early 20th century way,

The parlour, Standen

The conservatory looks a little cluttered…

The conservatory, Standen

…but I would like a billiards room like this.

Billiards Room, Standen

The Larkspur bedroom was re-papered in 1937 with William Morris Larkspur wallpaper. It also featured a built-in wardrobe, uncommon for the time, with an external mirror, designed for the Beales’ eldest daughter Amy.

The Larkspur Room

James Beale used to sometimes see clients at Standen. He had an office with a door into the house for himself and another for clients with access only to the outside. He is still there, but only as a sketch by one of his daughters.

James Beale's Office, Standen (and a National Trust Volunteer)

The hillside garden behind the house is, I read, spectacular. William Morris said a ‘house should be clothed by its garden,’ but gardens are not at their best in February, and certainly not on a miserable day like today. We chose not to wander round it in the rain.

Are we having fun yet?

James Beale died in 1912. Margaret remained here until 1936, followed by her daughter Margaret (“Maggie”) and youngest daughter Helen. The house remained largely unaltered over decades and Helen Beale, who had been involved in nursing during WWI and later the WRNS, bequeathed Standen to the National Trust in 1972

East Sussex

Part 1:Bodiam and Rye (2020)
Part 2:Bateman's, Firle Beacon and the Long Man of Wilmington (2021)
Part 3: Battle and Hastings (2021)
Part 4: Rottingdean and The Devil's Dyke (2024)
Part 5: Lewes and Charleston (2024) (coming soon)
Part 6: Brighton Pavilion (2025) (coming soon)
Part 7: Winnie-The-Pooh and Standen (2025)

Tuesday, 6 February 2024

East Sussex (4) Rottingdean and The Devil's Dyke

A Seaside Village and a Geological Oddity

Although we now live 220 miles apart, I have seen more of my sister Erica in the last few years than for a long time. That is good, I enjoy her company and that of Peter, her new(ish) husband. We went to stay for a few days and this post covers the places we visited.

East Sussex
Peter and Erica live in Heathfield, pretty much in the centre of East Sussex. On previous visits we have explored the east of the county (links at end of post), this time we looked west. Lewes (next post), the County Town of East Sussex can be seen on the map southwest of Heathfield and continuing in the same direction brings you to the coast at Rottingdean

The County of East Sussex
Heathfield to Rottingdean is approximately 25 miles (40 km)

The map misleadingly shows Brighton and Hove as discrete dots. They are much larger than that and in 1997 were combined as a single unitary authority. In January 2001 they became the City of Brighton and Hove. By far the largest population centre in East Sussex, the city has 275,00 citizens and occupies the whole south west corner of the county, encompassing Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean.

Rottingdean


Brighton & Hove
In the Kingdom of the South Saxons (now ‘Sussex’) in the late 5th century CE a group of Saxons following a man called Rota settled near the coast at the end of a dry valley, probably displacing the previous Romano-British inhabitants. The dean (valley) of the people of Rota had become Rotingeden in the Domesday Book (1086) and tried out various spellings over subsequent centuries before settling on Rottingdean. Yes, they had choices, and they chose Rottingdean!

Despite its name, Rottingdean is a pretty village in the local style…

Rottingdean

…with vernacular buildings of various ages sitting harmoniously together, though perhaps not looking their best on a cold, blustery February day.

Rottingdean

The main street ends at the beach where a seething, angry sea with an evident desire to invade the land, was thwarted only by a vicious undertow.

Rottingdean Beach

An undercliff path heads off to Brighton Marina, 3km away, and on a better day….

Rottingdean Undercliff Walk

The Grange

But it was not a better day so we headed inland. Rottingdean has more than just vernacular architecture, The Grange was built to replace the existing vicarage in the mid-1700s.

The Grange, Rottingdean

The Reverend Thomas Hooker lived here from 1792 to 1838. A popular and charismatic figure, he established the first village school and supported his parishioners in any way he could. Tea and brandy were highly taxed, and after a bad harvest the poor could make enough money to survive by smuggling these commodities into the country for the benefit if their richer neighbours. The Rev Hooker acted as an outrider for the local smuggling gang.

The Grange passed into private hands in the late 1800s, just as Rottingdean was becoming an artistic colony. In 1920 the owners employed Sir Edwyn Lutyens to enlarge and remodel the house, and Gertrude Jekyll to redesign the garden.

In 1992, a charity now called Rottingdean Heritage took over The Grange and maintain the building as a local museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closed on a Tuesday, but I am assured it is excellent on other days of the week.

St Margaret's Church

Built on the site of an earlier Saxon church, St Margaret’s dates from around 1400 with a heavy makeover by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1856. Like many churches locally and elsewhere in south east England it is built of flint with a stone dressing.

St Margaret's Rottingdean

The church is not particularly memorable, inside or out….

St Margaret's Interior

… except for the stained-glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones and built by William Morris. 

William Morris/Edward Burne-Jones stained glass

Burne-Jones was among the first artists to move to Rottingdean, and his ashes are interred in St Margaret’s cemetery, as are those of his wife Georgiana. Georgiana was one of the four remarkable Macdonald sisters; Alice was the mother of Rudyard Kipling, Agnes was a talented pianist and married Edward Poynter, later President of the Royal Academy, and Louisa was a writer and the mother of future prime minster Stanley Baldwin. What they could have achieved in their own right if women were less constrained can only be guessed at.

Peter, who has a wide musical taste and knowledge, was keen to tell us that Gary Moore is also buried here. Who he? I asked. Gary Moore (1953-2011) was an Irish blues/jazz/rock guitarist who might have achieved more success if he had decided which sort of music he wanted to play. He worked with Phil Lynott and was best known for repeatedly joining and then leaving Thin Lizzy.

Edward Burne-Jones and Rudyard Kipling

In 1880 Edward and Georgiana Burne-Jones brought Prospect House, the left-hand property of the trio below as a holiday home. Shortly afterwards they bought Aubrey Cottage, the middle dwelling, knocked the two together and renamed them North End House. They divided their time between Rottingdean and London until Burne-Jones died in 1898. Georgiana died in 1920, and in 1923 the new owners of North End House, Sir Roderick Jones and his wife, novelist Enid Bagnold, added Gothic Cottage on the right to the other two.

North End House, Rottingdean

They are now separate properties again with the former Gothic Cottage inappropriately named North End House.

In 1897, their nephew, Rudyard Kipling moved to Rottingdean and rented The Elms, a difficult house to photograph.

The Elms, Rottingdean

Kipling’s Garden is lovingly tended by volunteers...

Kipling's Garden, Rottingdean

… and is adjacent to Rottingdean Croquet club. I know of no other village with a croquet club.

Rottingdean Croquet Club

In 1902 the Kiplings moved to Batemans, some 30 miles away, where they spent the rest of their lives. Batemans features in East Sussex (2): Batemans, Firle Beacon and the Long Man of Wilmington.

Those who looked closely at the photos (i.e. almost nobody) might have noticed the walls in the churchyard, Kipling's Garden and several ordinary houses. Such walls are common in these parts but I have not seen anything quite like them elsewhere - perhaps they are unique to Sussex.

A closer look at a Sussex wall

The Devil’s Dyke


West Sussex
Mid Sussex District
Driving north and west around Brighton and Hove brought us to the Devil’s Dyke, just over the boundary into West Sussex. The South Downs are a range of low, rounded chalk hills stretching across East and West Sussex and into Hampshire. 1,627 km² (628 sq miles) of these hills were designated a National Park in 2010. Earlier national parks consisted of rugged terrain, but the South Downs are welcoming, well-mannered hillsides, as would be expected in the genteel south east of England.

The South Downs National Park with Brighton & Hove and the Devil's Dyke Marked
Map by Nilfanion using OS OpenData

The Devil’s Dyke Today

The road climbs onto a scarp, not quite at the southern edge of the downs. There was drizzle in the air and a cold blustery wind, so we moved swiftly from car to pub (the Devil’s Dyke, obviously) where a light lunch seemed appropriate.

Then we had to face the rigours of sight-seeing. Looking down the scarp, there should be (I think) a view all the way to the sea, but not today.

Looking towards the sea, though visibility was limited

The Devil’s Dyke itself is a steep sided dry valley on the other side of the scarp. It may not be the Grand Canyon, but it is a fair sized hole.

The Devil's Dyke

Given that the surrounding hills are not of great height and scarps are only of moderate steepness what happened here? The official answer is that it dates from the end of the last ice age, but was created by meltwater running over saturated chalk rather than carved by ice. The thaw-freeze cycle as the world began to warm reduced the chalk to mush and the meltwater swept it away. That sounds convincing, but the whole of the South Downs is made of chalk, if it happened here, why did it not happen everywhere and level the hills?

The Devil’s Dyke 120 Years Ago

Big game hunter and traveller H.J. Hubbard bought the Dyke Estate in 1892. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway had built a branch line from Hove to the foot of the scarp in 1887, so he decided to turn Devil’s Dyke into what may have been the world’s first theme park.

He built a camera obscura, fairground rides, an observatory, two bandstands and more. The venture was phenomenally successful and on August Bank Holiday 1893, 30,000 people visited the Dyke.

In 1894 Hubbard opened the country’s first cable car to allow visitors to swing from one side of the dyke to the other 200ft above the valley floor. Three years later he added a funicular railway down into the dyke.

Funicular Railway, Devil's Dyke (Public Domain)

Success is ever ephemeral. In 1909 both the cable car and funicular railway ceased operation. Now there are just concrete footings to be seen and the remains of some of the amusements

Some of Hubbard's remains

The Devil’s Dyke Folk Lore

As I do not fully understand the geological creation of the dyke (my fault, not doubt), here is an alternative story. In the late 7th century, long after Rota had become established in his dean, the Kingdom of Sussex converted to Christianity. Being the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to convert, it caused the Devil much heartache. He decided to dig a channel from the sea to the heart of Sussex and drown its inhabitants.

Seeing the Devil making steady progress with his scheme, the holy hermit Cuthman of Steyning approached the Devil with a wager. If the Devil could complete his channel in one night, he could have Cuthman’s soul, if not he would go away and leave Sussex in peace.

St Cuthman of Steyning, by Penny Reeve (2000)
Photo:NeddySeagoon, used under Creative Commons

The Devil set to with a will, his mighty spade throwing up the surrounding hills, Chanctonbury Ring, Firle Beacon (see East Sussex (2)) and more while one spectacular heave sent the land that is now the Isle of Wight spinning into the sea. Cuthman bided his time. At midnight he lit a candle and placed it in his window, thus persuading the local cockerels that dawn had arrived. They started crowing, and the Devil, thinking he had lost his wager, threw down his shovel and stalked off for a massive sulk.

That is not very convincing, I struggle to believe the Devil was that easy to fool. If you click on Kanyakumari, my post about the southernmost town of India, you will find the story of Shiva being tricked out of marriage by the same device. Folk tales have a charming naivety, but finding very similar stories from so far apart, maybe tells us something about human nature.

Two humps in the bottom of the valley are said to be the graves of the Devil and his wife (who knew he was married?) Encouraging as it might be to know that the Devil is dead, the bad news is that he would be brought to life should anyone run backward five times round the humps while holding their breath. I don’t think I’ll fret about it.

That was enough sight-seeing in this weather; we got into a nice warm car, and Peter drove us back to Heathfield.

East Sussex

Part 1:Bodiam and Rye (2020)
Part 2:Bateman's, Firle Beacon and the Long Man of Wilmington (2021)
Part 3: Battle and Hastings (2021)
Part 4: Rottingdean and The Devil's Dyke (2024)
Part 5: Lewes and Charleston (2024) (coming soon)
Part 6: Brighton Pavilion (2025) (coming soon)
Part 7: Winnie-The-Pooh and Standen (2025)