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 the 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 we 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

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
Part 5: Lewes and Charleston (coming soon)

Lost and Forgotten - Things Big and Little that Disappeared for Centuries

It is Hard to Believe What People can Lose

I rarely lose my car keys (not that the latest iteration has a ‘key’ as such) because I always put them in the same place. Not so my glasses or my glasses' case, these two objects seemingly wander round at will and very rarely together; and Lynne occasionally uses the landline to hunt down her errant mobile. These are commonplace experiences.

Of course our glasses, phones and that pen you put down a minute ago which now seems to have dived into the Bermuda pentangle are not really lost, merely mislaid. Lost means you never see them again, like the carved and painted wooden witch that disappeared on one of our moves.

The Staffordshire Hoard

Visted in Birmingham May 2017 and twice subsequently
Visited Stoke-on-Trent February 2020

Lost and Forgotten is the next notch up in the hierarchy of the vanished. Sometime in the 7th century someone buried a hoard of precious objects in a field near Lichfield. Perhaps the burier came back but could not find them, perhaps they perished in the emergency that prompted the burial, we shall never know. They lay lost and forgotten for well over a thousand years, until July 2009 when Terry Herbert came along with his metal detector. Metal detectorist and landowner shared £3.3m and the Birmingham and Potteries Museums now share the hoard. It is worth seeing if you are in the area, but no rush, it won’t get lost again - not in the foreseeable future, anyway.

Gold sword hilt with cloisssoné garnet inlay, still with Staffordshire soil attached
Photo, Daniel Buxton, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, part of the Portableantiquites project

The hoard may well have been loot, most of it is high status weaponry and armour, that had been broken up before burial.

Gold cheek piece from a helmet
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent

Reconstruction of the helmet
Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent

During conservation many of the pieces were digitally fitted back together in an elaborate 3D golden jigsaw, enabling the construction of replicas of several of the artefacts as they would have been in their prime.

Fishbourne Roman Palace, West Sussex

Visited September 2008

Houses cannot be mislayed, but they can be lost and forgotten. Fishbourne Roman Palace was built around 75 CE only 32 years after the conquest of Britain started and 12 years before its completion. It was not just a Roman villa, it really was a palace, the size of Nero’s Golden House in Rome and the largest known Roman residence north of the Alps.

Fishbourne Roman Palace - Model from the Fishbourne Museum
Photo by Immanuel Giel who has helpfully placed it in the Public Domain

It may have been built for King Tiberius Claudius Togidubnus of the local Atrebates tribe who were among the first to spot the benefits of sucking up to the Romans – and of adopting Roman names. Grand as his palace may have been his successors made it grander, replacing the black and white mosaics with coloured tiles. The palace burnt down in 275 and was abandoned and eventually forgotten.

Underfloor heating - one of the benefits of being nice to the Romans, Fishbourne Roman Palace

It was rediscovered in 1960 when Aubrey Barrett was digging a ditch for a new water main. Unearthing a massive foundation wall, he reported his find to local archaeologists, and after eight years of painstaking excavations Fishbourne opened to the public.

The walls and ceilings may have gone, the garden might be a modern planting….

The 'Roman Garden', Fishbourne

…but the original mosaics look almost as fresh now as they did nearly 2000 years ago.

Boy riding a dolphin, one of several mosaics, in fine condition and in situ, Fishbourne Roman Palace

Houei Tomo (or Houaytomo), Laos

Visted November 2015

Wat Phou has never been lost; originally a Hindu Khmer temple complex of unknown antiquity, it converted to Buddhism, along with the rest of the Khmer Empire in the late 12th century, became a centre for Theravada Buddhism, and remains so today. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it lies in the remote corner of Southern Laos that is on the west side of the Mekong.

Houei Tomo is a few kilometres north of Si Phan Dong, a short walk from a side road off Route 13. It is a day’s travel from Wat Phou by foot and ferry and its temple, known as Oup (or Oum) Mong (or Muang or Muong) is thought to have been a 10th century pilgrims’ rest house. It fell into disuse with the demise of the Khmer Empire in the 14th century and was reclaimed by the jungle.

The only standing builing in Houei Tomo

Rediscovered in the early 20th century by a French explorer, it is has yet to be thoroughly investigated, but above ground there is not much to see; one recognisable building and a few walls and foundations….

Walls and foundations, Houei Tomo

…and a lot of moss-covered stones.

Moss covered stones which once must have had a purpose, Houei Tomo

We had the place to ourselves; quiet, tranquil and just a little mysterious.

Stepwell, Patan, Gujarat, India

Visited March 2019

Stepwells can be found in various parts of India, but the finest and most elaborate are in Gujarat, and the finest in Gujarat is the Ran Ki Vav (The Queen’s Stepwell) in the town of Patan.

Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The concept is simple, instead of dropping a bucket on a chain into a well, a much larger excavation is made and Jack and Jill go down the steps to fetch their pail of water.

Descending the Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The largest stepwells (Ran Ki Vav is 27m deep and 64m long) are elaborate, the descent passing through a series of richly decorated storeys, each supported by elaborately carved stone pillars. This is not just a well, it is a place for celebrations and religious observances; Ran Ki Vav has been described as a ‘inverted temple’.

Carvings in the Ran Ki Vav, Patan

Ancient texts suggest Ran Ki Vav was built between 1063 and 1083 on the orders of Queen Udyamati, widow of the Chaulukya King Bhima I. But small kingdoms and their dynasties came and went in medieval India. The Gujarat Chaulukyas ran out of time in 1244, a new dynasty means a new capital and Patan and its stepwell declined in importance. Regular flooding of the nearby Saraswati River deposited more and more silt, eventually filling the stepwell, so despite its size it was lost and forgotten by the end of the middle ages.

Carvings of female figures, Ran Ki Vav, Patan

The well was rediscovered in 1940 and was the subject of a major excavation and restoration by the Indian Archaeological Survey in the 1980s.

Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil at Dur-Untash, Khuzestan Province, Iran

Visited July 2000

Heading for Ahvaz and the tip of the Persian Gulf, we lunched in Shush – a chicken sausage fried on a griddle and chucked in a bun - before taking a thirty-kilometre detour to Chogha Zanbil. We followed a straight road that apparently arrowed deep into the desert, but as we topped the rise before the village, we saw green, wooded land to the east along the banks of the Dez River.

Shush, Khuzestan, Iran

The mighty ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil now standing alone in the desert, was once the centrepiece of the Elamite religious city of Dur Untash. Migrating from the mountains of the north the Elamites adapted well to life on the plains, but their gods were less happy. Deities must be made to feel at home or they stop sending the rain and making the crops grow, so around 1300 BCE (± 50 years) King Untash-Napirisha constructed them an artificial mountain. The ziggurat was originally some 53m high but was lowered from five storeys to three when Dur-Untash was sacked by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in 640 BCE.

The Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, Khuzestan, Iran

It is hard to believe this huge edifice could disappear beneath the sand, but it was lost and forgotten for 2,000 years. It was rediscovered in 1935 during an Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP, now BP-Amoco) aerial survey searching for oil bearing rock formations. My father worked for Anglo-Iranian from 1945 to 51, which accounts for me being born in Abadan beside the Persian Gulf in 1950, so I feel personally responsible for this one.

Lynne and I at the Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, Khuezestan, Iran

I might also add, this was the hottest place we have ever been, and having survived a summer in Khartoum, and visited Death Valley in July (with no air-con in car or tent) I know whereof I speak. Even N, our driver/guide, a native of Tehran where an average July day reaches 34° said: “If I knew your telephone number before you came and you say you want to come here, I would have called you and asked you why. This is not hot, this is fire.” The Iranian dress code made the situation worse for Lynne, for all must heed the wise words of the late Ayatollah Khomenei. On the other hand, arriving in the hottest month of the year at the hottest time of day guarantees 1) that the ticket seller will question your sanity and 2) you will have the place to yourself.

Lynne and the wise words of the Ayatollah, Tomb of Daniel, Shush

The City of Sumharam, Oman

Visited November 2018

Sand is good at swallowing things, a giant ziggurat is easy, so why not a whole city.

Sumharam from the edge of the inland plateau

Southern Oman produces most of the world’s frankincense, the sap of the Boswellia tree that oozes through cuts in the bark and dries in the sun. In antiquity, it was much sought-after and extremely expensive, the sort of gift you would give to kings, princes or a son of God.

Lynne and a frankincense tree, the edge of the plateau north of Salalah

In the 1st century BCE the Kingdom of Hadhramaut, which ruled what is now eastern Yemen and south western Oman, identified a large natural harbour to the east of their territory….

Sumharam harbour - though there is now a sand bar across the mouth

…and beside it built the port of Sumharam to control the international frankincense trade.

The defensive zig-zag entrance to Sumharam

The city thrived for several centuries but nothing lasts for ever, Sumharam eventually declined, was deserted and buried by the sands. It was rediscovered in the 1890s by British explorer and archaeologist James Theodore Bent. American excavations in the 1950s and those of the Italian Mission to Oman more recently have established the ground plan of the settlement and found evidence for contacts with the Ḥaḑramite homeland to the west, India and the Mediterranean.

Among the old stones, Sumharam

One of the larger buildings became known early on as The Queen of Sheba’s palace - every archaeological site in and around Yemen has been associated with her at some time or another. The Queen of Sheba is a problematic figure, but if she did exist, she would have met the equally problematic King Solomon several centuries before Sumharam was founded.

Two of the world’s major tourist attractions also come into the ‘lost and found’ category. Well known as they may be a I cannot omit them entirely.

Angkor, Cambodia

Visited February 2014

Angkor Wat is well known, but it is only the centrepiece of Angkor, a vast medieval site and possibly the biggest city in the world in its day. Angkor is immensely important to Cambodians, who see their history as having three periods pre-Angkorian, Angkorian and post-Angkorian.

Angkor Wat on the Cambodian Flag

In 802 CE a local king called Jayavarman II conquered the whole of what is now Cambodia. He moved his court to Angkor, built the first temple and set about creating the Khmer Empire. Suryavarman II (1113 - 1150), the builder of Angkor Wat, kicked off the golden period which ended in 1219 with the death of Jayavarman VII. He had been a prolific builder but after his reign no further stone temples were built; perhaps the switch from Hinduism to Buddhism discouraged temple building or maybe local resources were exhausted.

Angkor Wat

Angkor was sacked by the Thais in 1431 and a down-sized Khmer Empire moved its capital south. They re-inhabited Angkor from 1570 to 1594, but then left it to the jungle and forgot about it. Jungles hide things differently from sand, but equally effectively; Angkor was re-discovered by French missionary Charles-Emille Bouillevaux in 1858.

Ta Prohm was built in 1186 by Jayavarman VII. Once a Buddhist monastery, it is a vast rambling complex and makes the point about jungle encroachment quite spectacularly.

Ta Prohm, Angkor

It is known as the ‘Jungle Temple’ and featured in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider…

To Prohm, Angkor

…though the lizard men and tyrannosaurus rexs (tyrannosauri reges?) that apparently populate the jungle in the game Lara Croft: Relic Run were notable for their absence.

Ta Prohm, Angkor

and finally,

The Terra Cotta Warriors, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China

Visited July 2004

Ying Zheng became King of Qin, one of seven warring Chinese States in 247 BCE aged 13. Before he was 40, he had united the seven states and declared himself Qin Shi Huang (First Emperor of Qin). He founded the city of Chang’an (now Xi’an), built the first Great Wall of China and ruled his vast empire until his death in 210.

He started building his mausoleum when he came to the throne of Qin – a strange occupation for a 13-year-old – and was buried under a mound at the foot of Mount Li. According to historian Sima Qian the tomb included replicas of palaces and scenic towers, rare utensils and wonderful objects, 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of the heavenly bodies and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in. Sima Qian’s probably fanciful account was written over a century after the event – and mentioned no terracotta warriors.

I am standing in front of a marker which claims it is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang
In the background is the mound under which he us allegedy buried. That is why I look confused

For centuries, occasional reports mentioned pieces of terracotta figures and fragments of roofing tiles being discovered locally. In March 1974 farmers digging a well near the Emperor's tomb hauled up substantial quantities of terracotta heads. They reported their finds to the authorities and subsequent excavations revealed the Terracotta Army we know today.

Newly pieced together terracotts warriors
Apologies for the poor quality photos. Digital cameras are excellent in low light, but I did not have one in 2004 (few did), flash was strictly forbidden so long hand held exposures were the only option.

The three main pits are believed to contain over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses. Non-military figures - officials, acrobats and strongmen – have been found in separate pits.

The main pit of the terracotta warriors.

The Shaanxi Regional Museum in Xi’an has many examples of grave goods from the period. Men of power and influence regularly took small armies, their houses and servants, even farmyards with strutting cockerels and snuffling pigs, to their graves with them, but they are dolls’ house size. Only Qin Shi Huang had an army of full-sized soldiers, horses and chariots; only Qin Shi Huang had as many soldiers as a real army. What an ego!

Horses and reconstructed terracotta warriors

Having established a ‘ten thousand generation dynasty’, Qin Shi Huang might have been disappointed that his son Qin Er Shi (lit: Second Generation Qin) lasted three years. He was overthrown by Liu Bang who founded the Han dynasty which would survive 400 years.

... but for a final thought: a further category exists; Lost, Forgotten and Never Found. I would struggle to produce a post on them.