Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to EndHolmes, Edric
History
Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to End
Holmes, Edric
Sussex (England) -- Description and travel
It will be best, however, to take the Newhaven road from Southover
which hugs the foot of the Downs and in a short two miles reaches
Iford. About half-way a turning to the right leads to the snug little
village of Kingston with the hills rising closely all round. This place
was once the property of Sir Philip Sidney. The remains of an ancient
house belonging to the Priory at Lewes are to be seen in the old
farmhouse named Swanborough which lies between Kingston and Iford. The
architecture is Perpendicular, and Early English; permission should be
obtained to examine the interesting details which, include a venerable
oak table in the kitchen. Iford Church is a Norman building with a
central tower and an Early English font.
A little over a mile farther is Rodmell with very fine Norman details
in the church, which has the rare feature of a baptistery. The early
Decorated screen is good; note also the squint with a shaft in the
centre. Here is a brass dated 1433 in memory of Agatha Broke, on the
back of which is another inscription to some one else of the
seventeenth century. The church is surrounded by magnificent trees,
and of especial note is the huge holm oak which overshadows the rest.
The village inn has on its walls a quaint and amusing collection of
precepts for its habitués which might well be duplicated elsewhere.
Southease, the next village, has another of the three round towers of
Sussex, and Piddinghoe, two miles farther, the third. These towers are
a matter of puzzled conjecture to archaeologists; all three, Lewes,
Southease and Piddinghoe are on the western bank of the Ouse. The
suggestion that they were originally beacon towers is not very
convincing, though the Ouse at the time they were built was a wider and
deeper stream, forming in fact an estuary haven. The more prosaic
explanation is that lack of stone for the quoins, which every square
flint tower must have, led the builders to adopt this form. In any
case, a beacon fire from a square tower is as effectual as from a round
one. Piddinghoe has many associations with the smuggling days which
have given birth to some quaint sayings, as "Pidd'nhoo they dig for
moonshine,"--"At Pidd'nhoo they dig for smoke," etc., but we fail to
see the point in "Magpies are shod at Pidd'nhoo."
[Illustration: NEWHAVEN CHURCH.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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