Monday 4the June
We caught the best part of the day for our morning walk as the sun actually made an appearance. That was short lived though as by the time we got home the cloud had set in and the temperature dropped. The markets weren’t suiting my system this morning and so we decided to use the time to visit the medieval Pevensey Castle. This was a 30 min drive westward towards Brighton and we set off by about 10.30 am.
Pevensey Castle has a history stretching back 16 Centuries; it began in the 3rd Century as a Roman fort and was the location where William the Conqueror landed in 1066. A Norman Castle was built within the Roman walls shortly after the Conquest and this came under siege numerous times over the years but was never taken. It’s most recent use was during WWII as an American and Canadian outpost to defend this part of the coast but no shots were fired. Our English Heritage pass granted access here and we collected the audio guide and spent about an hour looking at the key features still visible within the medieval Castle area. The most interesting item on display from my perspective was all of the huge round boulders used as catapults to defend the Castle. These were made of stone and date back to the medieval period. I could imagine the damage these would do once hurled over the Castle walls!
Mark had spotted Bexhill on his recent bike ride as an area worth checking out and, given this was on our way home, we peeled off to have a better look. We parked near the beach and checked out the Promenade before walking some of the nearby streets to explore the shops. Quite a few were closed on Monday but we did come across a Witherspoon’s restaurant, these were the same folk who ran RVP, and so we decided to make this our lunch stop. They even had exactly the same menu as RVP from Ramsgate and so we ordered the same lunch to share that we had back there; a lentil curry.
Bexhill is a funny little seaside town with the same abundance of charity shops and funeral homes that we noted in Ramsgate. A lot of the shops looked like they could do with either a bit of renovating or at least a good clean though. Here, and like Ramsgate, there seemed to be a lot of hidden potential for the many premises along these beach-side lane ways but, perhaps, like Ramsgate, the demand just isn’t there. All of these coastal towns highlight to me just how lucky we are at home to have such an abundance of diverse and quality shops near our beach-side home.
Our trip home included a stop off at Tesco’s and we were home by 3 pm for a night of dining in.
