Back to the East Sussex Page
- The Royal Connection
- East Sussex Eats
- East Sussex VIPs
- Richard Remembers
- Owlbut's Birdwatch
England has 39 historic counties.
These were the ones in use in 1899. For our journey we are using the ones in use now. However for our royal connection we are combining the two Sussex counties,
west and east, into the old historic county of Sussex but only for the Royal Connection. In other words whether you are on this page or the other Sussex one, for
this section you will read the same story.
This is because our royal connection is with the fact that Sussex has a dukedom. There is a Duke of Sussex. You probably know that Prince Harry and
his wife, Meghan, were created Duke and Duchess of Sussex on 19 May 2018, the date of their wedding. Their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born
on 6 May 2019, is the heir to the dukedom.
There was only one other Duke of Sussex and that was Prince Augustus Frederick, the sixth son of King George III. He was made Duke of Sussex on 24
November 1801. The title became extinct on his death in 1843. There are only 5 other counties who have a royal duke; Cornwall, Cambridge, York, Gloucestershire and Kent.
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Sussex Pond Pudding was first recorded
in a book of 1672 so it's been around a long time. As with many dishes from olden days there are considerable differences and arguments about the way to make
the pudding. It is generally agreed that this pudding is made of suet pastry filled with butter and sugar and then boiled for several hours. Modern versions
of the pudding have a whole lemon enclosed in the pastry, which sounds a bit interesting to me.
During the cooking process the filling ingredients create a thick sauce which runs out when the pudding is cut. This then forms a pool around the
plate, creating a "pond" around the edges of the pudding, hence pond pudding. If the plate you are serving on doesn't have a nice lip around the
edge you would probably create Sussex overflow pudding.
There are some variants which include apples as part of the filling and some which include currants. Presumably you could include both. Have fun.
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Seven random people who were born in East Sussex in the last 100 years:-
Holly Willoughby (TV Presenter), Teresa May (Politician), Alex Costello (Singer), Samantha Womack (Actor), Katie Price (Model/TV Personality),
Kim Sears (Artist/Illustrator) and Suggs (Singer/Songwriter).
East Sussex stretches from the
above-mentioned non-port of Rye to just west of Brighton, one of England's best known resorts. To be honest I was not impressed by the beaches here but
there are some amazing views, though not in my top ten. Just west of Rye is Winchelsea, which is on the coast, was the place for my second seaside holiday in 1955 and has a very
pebbly beach. Further along you come to Hastings and the thing I remember here was a lot of tall, wooden buildings which, I was told, were where the
fishermen dried their nets. Who was I to argue and are they still there?
Bexhill comes next, unmemorable (maybe) and then Pevensey Bay where William, the soon-to-be Conqueror, landed in 1066. It is said that on
landing, William slipped and his soldiers thought that was a bad omen. But William stood up with a handful of sand, spat the rest out of his mouth,
and said "Look I have grasped the soil of England already", which made everyone feel better, except William who had the taste of seaweed in his mouth
for a few hours.
Next comes Eastbourne which I remember very well. One because it is a pleasant town with a bandstand and a Martello Tower but two because of an
incident that happened at the end of our first trip. We decided, as it was June, that rather than stay in a holiday house we would take our tent.
We did, set it up and I crawled around the base of said quite large tent hammering in the pegs holding the ropes. I hammered in the last one and went
to stand up but couldn't. My back had totally locked. I was stuck bent double. To cut a long story short, and put me out of my pain as soon as possible,
we abandoned the tent idea, stayed with friends overnight where I still actually slept on the floor and next morning I could almost stand though walking
was really painful. Not wishing to ruin everyone's time I said I was fine although a quick glance would show I couldn't move at more than a snail's pace.
We went down the promenade and there were some amusements and my then 8-year-old son asked to go on the go-karts. He couldn't without an adult and his
mother wasn't willing. I never like to disappoint children, especially my own, so I said I'd go with him. All adults present, we were with friends
remember, tutted, raised their eyebrows to the heavens and said I was an idiot. As this was not news to me, I lowered myself with some difficulty
into the go-kart, Dave got in alongside me, and off we went for twenty laps. The surface was the rough side of very bumpy and each bump sent a massive
pain up my back. At the end, we stopped and I climbed out and was immediately able to walk normally again. What had locked, was now unlocked and the
"idiot" didn't look quite so stupid and my son had his fun. The back has locked a few times since, more often as I get older, I was 37 when
this first one happened, but I've never been near Eastbourne so have had to use other non-medically approved methods.
Leaving Eastbourne, upright and pain-free, we continue west to Beachy Head and just on from there the Seven Sisters, 7 (really?) white
chalk cliffs towering up to 500 feet in places. Theses, and Beachy Head, are the amazing views I mentioned at the start of this piece. I hate heights
but I am told the view over Beachy Head is fantastic.
Then, just before we leave East Sussex for West, we arrive at Brighton. In 1750 a Doctor Russell said bathing in the sea at Brighton, or
Brighthelmstone as it then was, cured all manner of illnesses. His idea proved very popular and, in 1783, the then Prince of Wales, later George IV,
who was suffering from a glandular swelling in the neck, came to Brighton. He loved it so much that he decided to live there. He first rented a small
farmhouse but, royalty being royalty, he then had the Royal Pavilion built for him. That Oriental-style building is still there and can be visited
today.
But there is one very important question that I need someone to answer. I am utterly convinced that somewhere along the Sussex coast, it
may be east, it maybe be west, there is a building along the seafront that looks like a cruise liner. I cannot remember where it is and, in an
exception to my normal rules, I even tried googling it. Nothing. I think it might be Worthing or it could be Bexhill. Help.
Oh, and while I think of it, and I'm now pretty sure this building is in Bexhill, Bexhill is known as the home of British Motor Racing
as, in 1902, the 8th Earl De La Warr had encouraged the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland to organise the Great Whitsuntide Motor Races.
The earl had created a Bicycle Boulevard on the seafront in 1896 and he turned this into a one-kilometre motor racing course and, as it was his own
private land, it was exempt from the national speed limit of 12 miles per hour. The 1902 races were won by French driver Leon Serpollet in his steam
car Easter Egg, which reached a speed of 54 miles an hour.
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As far as the UK goes, the oystercatcher has been badly named because they seldom eat oysters. They will mainly eat cockles
and mussels and, if they are inland, they are happy just to eat worms. They can be found on almost all of England's coasts and some now breed inland. In winter birds
from Norway join our English birds. There are about 110,00 breeding pairs and some 340,000 birds wintering here.
Oystercatchers are hard to miss. They are large black and white birds with a long orange-red powerful beak and pinky red legs. They use the beak
to either prise open a mussel or smash through the shell of a cockle. In flight, they have an obvious white wing-stripe, a black tail and a white rump that
extends as a 'V' between the wings. You often hear them before you see them, thanks to their loud peeping call.
Oystercatchers are between 40 and 45 cms in length, have a wingspan of between 80 to 86 cms and weigh anywhere between 430 and 650 grams.
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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 21 October 2024
