A View away from the Trees: Littlehampton Revisited

It is not often we go away on a real holiday, it must be about 4 or 5 years since we last did so. We therefore decided that now was about the right time to spend a little time away and so we plumped for somewhere not too distant as my passport has expired. It costs a small fortune to get a new passport these days and the exchange rate for the pound has been pretty poor in most other countries lately.

We eventually decided to go to a place which we have often frequented in the past, especially when the children were young, as it was then our nearest seaside resort, Costa Del Littlehampton. We discovered it only takes between an hour and an hour and a half to get there as it it is only about 50 miles from home, so it seemed an ideal destination.

Arun Sands Hotel

We booked to stay at Arun Sands Hotel on River Terrace, which is about 5 minutes walk from the River Arun harbour front and about the same distance from the beach and funfair. In fact, it is virtually opposite the boating pool by the funfair. We arrived on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon and found free parking right outside our hotel on River Terrace. Having parked the car we went off to the beach until we were able to gain access to our hotel at 4.00 pm. It was a bit windy but very busy on the beach and we spent a short time getting into holiday mode before booking in at the hotel.

Littlehampton Beach

Once we booked in to Arun Sands we were impressed by its comfort and convenience, being so close to everything we needed, the beach, the harbour, the shops. In the evening we walked into the town via the harbour and looked to see how many shops were closed and how many were still flourishing. Woolworths was empty, of course, as was Gamleys, the toy shop we used to visit with the children at the entrance to the arcade. Otherwise, most of the shops in the town centre still seemed to be functioning as normal. A return to the town centre the following morning confirmed that it is quite a busy town and enjoying a lively trade with the local inhabitants and the tourists alike. We looked round Sussex Stationers bookshop, the Oxfam shop and did some food shopping. Later on we enjoyed sitting on a bench overlooking the River Arun by the hrabour and watching children fishing for crabs over the harbour fence using lines. This seemed to keep the youngsters and parents (in some cases grandparents) preoccupied for hours at a time and was quite good fun to watch. I'm not sure what they do with the tiny crabs they catch once they have swum around the tupperware container or bucket for a while, I expect they release them back into the river?

We enjoyed some real seaside cod and chips from one of the local shops by the harbour side and then went to spend some more time on the beach as the weather was nice and sunny if a bit on the windy side. We stayed there until about 6.00 pm when we returned to our comfortable hotel. After a bite to eat we spent the evening reading and watching news on TV and some other programmes. After so much fresh air we slept very well and awoke in time for a good English breakfast of bacon and eggs with toast and all the trimmings. We then went to meet my mother who had driven down from Elstead, Surrey to meet us at 10.30 and spend the day with us. We took her for a walk into town and showed her the various features which she hadn't seen for many years. She used to live in Littlehampton before I was born and moved away to Hastings in the early 1950s, which is where I was born.

My mother had not visited Littlehampton since about 2000 and noticed quite a few changes, notably the waterfront houses by the marina and the new Harvester restaurant and East Beach Cafe on the seafront. We went to have lunch at the new Harvester retaurant which was very pleasant and the service was good despite it being quite busy and their having trouble with the main card reading machine. After our late lunch we had a walk towards the Norfolk Road end of the seafront and sat on a bench opposite the miniature railway station from where the train sets off to Mewsbury Park. We sat and reminisced about old times and visits to Littlehampton and the things we used to get up to, the huge picnics, the swimming and building of sandcastles on the lovely Littlehampton sand. It never ceases to amaze me how far the tide goes out at Littlehampton, you wonder if it is ever going to find its way back again!

East Beach Cafe

We went for a cup of tea at the relatively new East Beach Cafe. Here is a brief article about it which appeared in the Guardian on 23rd. July, 2007, a few months after it opened.

"Strange. That's the word for it." So says ex-Royal Navy stoker Hardy, now driver of the electric train that plies the Littlehampton seafront, 80p each way. A bingo-winged passenger agrees: "Jolly beautiful, though - and good for the borough."

Thomas Heatherwick is a modern English free-thinking designer in the old-fashioned vein. He has gained renown for designs that cunningly combine the bleeding obvious with the outright inspired. His clients, the Murray family, live in Littlehampton, a pleasant, old-fashioned Sussex town-next-the-sea that was, until now, famous for not all that much. Now the two have come together to bring us the mould-breaking East Beach Cafe that's strange to some, striking to most, and the blueprint of coastal cafes to come, both in terms of cuisine and architecture.

After the showier charms of neigbouring Arundel and Bognor Regis, Littlehampton is a modestly prim, fruit-on-the-sideboard-and-nobody-ill-in-the-house sort of place. The wind carries a bright iodised tang; there are primary-coloured beach huts; the beach is mostly big stones and cracked shells; and - oh yes - there are seaman Hardy's 10-minute sea-front train trips.

The road into town swings you past perfectly nice homes of no single architectural style: arts and crafts, Tudorbethan, Edwardian masquerading as Victorian, 1980s bland brick. Where better than here to build a stretched, rippled, sharp-and-smooth, oxidised steel structure? Seen from the car park behind, East Beach Cafe seems initially to have been shorn from the walls of a New Mexico canyon. Adobe-brown, sculptural and arresting, it is, in the Great British tradition, carefully ignored by the caravanners and day-trippers paying and displaying.

Climb the few steps to one side, and there's a Teas For The Beach servery tacked on to one end and a spare, decked terrace, sheltered by an L-shaped perspex windbreak. There is a queue for the cafe. From the minute you walk in, you know that East Beach is not just right-on and right now, but smells right, looks right and feels right. The punters are determinedly non-trendy — last Tuesday lunchtime the place was packed with a crowd of all ages, incomes and styles. There was also none of the smug metro attitude that often accompanies smart new openings as everyone was too busy enjoying the food, drink and view.

East Beach Cafe's menu achieves the smart trick of keeping everyone happy. There are bacon butties with good local bacon and good local bread. Buttered field mushrooms on toast for those mornings when you need comforting. Fish and chips, of the impeccably fresh and crisply executed kind. Bowls of mussels and big juicy burgers. Dover sole with caramelised endives if you're feeling posh. Muesli for brunch, Pinot Grigio for lunch, Pimms for sunsets. Dark and Stormy - demerera rum and ginger beer cocktails - for when it's, you know, dark and stormy.

The place opened less than a month ago, the kitchen's already on song, and the room, which feels like sitting inside a light-filled seashell, is delightful. The only thing that's strange is that there aren't already hundreds of East Beach Cafes to brighten our coastline and breathe fresh life into our Ryanair-depleted resorts.

We sat out on some decking in some metal chairs provided and enjoyed our tea before returning to the West end of the seafront and then to the harbour front where we sat and did some more reminiscing and putting the world to rights. My mother eventually left about 6.30 for her hour long drive back to Elstead and we went back to our hotel for another evening of relaxing reading and watching some news on TV.

The Wednesday turned out to be the hottest day of the week, with temperatures soaring to 29C inland and probably about 26C where we were on the South coast. We went on to the beach for most of the day where I think there were probably about 3 times as many people as the previous day. We got quite sunburnt during the course of the day and made sure that we drank quite regularly to avoid dehydration. We had a lot of people all round us and many seemed to have come just for a day trip rather than a holiday. In fact, in our hotel, nobody was booked in for more than four nights, we were the longest staying, having booked in for 7 nights! Were we brave or stupid? I don't care, we really enjoyed it as a break!

On Thursday we decided it was time to explore some other places within easy striking distance of Littlehampton. We set off in the direction of Arundel and went round the bypass then headed off right towards Amberley. We drove through Amberley and headed onwards through Storrington and then set off back in the Littlehampton direction. Instead of going back to Littlehampton we carried on along the A27 which became busier as we got towards Chichester, we then headed off in the direction of Selsey.

A Selsey Beach House

Selsey Lifeboat Station

At Selsey there was a large free car park right by the beach where we left the car and went for a walk along the seafront. After a picnic lunch in the car (the weather was cloudy, windy and cool) we drove back to Littlehampton via Bognor, where we drove past the new Ocean Hotel.

Ocean Hotel, Bognor

Here is a short article they published in The Sun about this new hotel on 24th. January, 2009

As the credit crunch forces many of us to forego foreign breaks, this new resort could not have come at a better time. It has 200 stylish rooms, a modern restaurant and bar, plus an ultra-luxe spa.

It follows the success of the Shoreline Hotel, which opened at Bognor in 2007 and has been a huge hit. The Ocean takes the chic-on-the-cheap concept even further, with accommodation that is perfect for families.

All rooms have funky colour-change lighting in a floor-to-ceiling headboard behind the double bed, plus flat-screen TVs, squishy modern chairs and floor-to-ceiling windows.

More than 75 per cent of them have private balconies overlooking the award-winning beach or rolling South Downs.

In family rooms, a separate kids' den has another flat-screen TV and two full-size single beds with blue glowlighting. Many family rooms also have a sofabed.

Other treats at the hotel include room service and a family-friendly restaurant and coffee bar. It's pricier than Butlins' traditional self-catering apartments - but great value.

A room for two adults, and two kids aged two to 14, with South Downs views, for seven nights this summer, is from £1,120. That's based on Butlins' Schools Out summer deal, from August 21.

Camp revamp ... Butlins' stylish new Ocean Hotel

The same room for three nights at October half-term is just £408. And the full-on facilities of Butlins are a few minutes' walk from the hotel.

New for 2009 are live shows from Looney Tunes characters, from May half-term onward. At the Urban Academy teenagers can learn breakdancing, street-dancing, beat-boxing or Cheerleading, the latest keep-fit craze from New York.

And the High Ropes Aerial Trekking Course was such a hit at Butlins' Minehead resort last year that it is being introduced at Bognor in 2009.

Butlins boss Richard Bates told me this week: "The modern-era Butlins is a unique mix of quality accommodation and entertainment that guests love.

"And 97 per cent say we offer brilliant value for money. With the amount of choice on offer this is going to be the year to be here."

The next day, which was Friday, we spent another nice day exploring Littlehampton town centre and harbour and spent some time on the beach. We had another nice fish and chip lunch outdoors by the harbour and the cod was up to its usual wonderful standard.

Arundel

On the Saturday we went for a day trip to Arundel which is only about a ten minute drive from Littlehampton. Here we enjoyed browsing round a large antique and second-hand shop, a wonderful bookshop on four floors and a shop selling artistic prints and copperplate etchings. We bought 2 fine copperplate etchings of ships for which we got a good discount. We then had chocolate fudge cake and coffee in a medium sized coffee shop which was absolutely delicious. There was an open air festival going on for the day in Arundel so we also enjoyed some live rock music and watching jugglers in action in the High Street. Arundel is a beautiful West Sussex town which is well worth a visit. For those who haven't been there before there is a large castle and a cathedral which are interesting to visit.

Arundel Castle viewed from the River Arun

Arundel Cathedral

Sadly, on the Sunday we had to return home from Littlehampton. However, we made the most of our holiday by travelling inland via the beautiful Bury Hill through Petworth to visit some relatives in Woking. We stopped for a short while in Petworth and then continued on our leisurely journey along the A283, admiring the beauty of the West Sussex and Surrey countryside and small towns and villages en route.

Bury Hill, West Sussex

Petworth

Although I said it was sad to leave Littlehampton, it is always pleasant to return home after a time away, even if it was a relatively short holiday. I hope to write my next posting 'from the trees' as usual.

The Seven Sisters, another local attraction

It has been another week of mixed weather here in the Willingdon Trees and I have not been out very much this week, it's been a time for catching up with news and doing some odd jobs like looking at my accounts and emails, rather boring really. So, by way of a change I thought I would draw your attention to another local attraction which is within a very short distance of where I live, the 'Seven Sisters'. The road which leads off the road where I live is named after this local beauty spot, Seven Sisters Road, so I am often reminded of this remarkable feature even though I may not visit it very frequently.

The 'Seven Sisters' are a famous series of chalk cliffs which face onto the English Channel to the West of Eastbourne, between Eastbourne and Seaford. They form part of the South Downs and are situated within the Seven Sisters Country Park. The Seven Sisters are remnants of dry valleys in the chalk South Downs which are gradually being eroded by the sea.

As you are probably aware by now, a large part of the South Downs between Eastbourne and Winchester have now been designated as a national park. Defra has announced that a hearing will be held on 18th. August at the Chatsworth Hotel in Steyne to consider any objections and representations relating to the six additional areas proposed as part of the National Park at the end of March 2009. Final decisions have yet to be made about the boundaries and extent of the park.

The Seven Sisters Country Park covers 280 hectares of chalk cliffs, meandering river valley and open chalk grassland. It is very popular with people living in the area and visiting from further afield and is used to indulge in a number of different outdoor activities including walking, bird watching, cycling and canoeing. My children (who are 28 and 26) enjoy going there especially for the cycling and canoeing. When I visit it is usually for the purpose of walking and bird watching. Again, like Eastbourne pier, it is one of those local delights which I should visit again in the near future.

Meanwhile, back here in the Trees I'm going to continue with my blogging, accounts and mountains of reading. I hope the Summer weather hasn't come to an end yet, it's too early to think about the arrival of Autumn!

Another Summer Saturday and a Wedding

We have been getting some nice sunshine lately in the Willingdon Trees but the wind seems to have rather got the upper hand, especially today when if felt quite cool walking around in town and even inland.

Views of Eastbourne Town Hall

We had the joyful experience of attending a wedding today, of two of Hazel's colleagues. The actual wedding ceremony was held in Eastbourne Town Hall, where we were treated to some nice George Gershwin piano solos very well played and which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a treat for me not to have to actually be playing on this occasion! The room where the ceremony was held was quite imposing but it wasn't really large enough for the number of people who attended. Nevertheless, it was a lovely occasion and it was really good to see such a large representation of friends and relatives of the bride and groom in attendance, especially these days when people seem to be so busy with their own agendas.

Following the wedding ceremony we proceeded to Alfriston where the reception was due to take place at the War Memorial Hall which is situated by the Cuckmere river right next door to the Parish Church. This brought back to me memories of when I lasted visited Alfriston to play the organ in this church. It was during the time when the Cuckmere had burst its banks and it was only possible to get into Alfriston via one of the back roads which hadn't been immersed in water. It was quite an unusual sight to see car rooves peeping out above water in the main car park. My main concern at the time was as to whether or not I would get out of the church after the service before my car was also submerged in water or the other roads were blocked by water, it was still raining heavily at the time. I discovered that a member of the choir owned a bed and breakfast establishment in the village and they were prepared to take me in if the need should arise. Fortunately I managed to get out of Alfriston all right before the water rose any higher.

Parish Church, Alfriston

What a contrast it was there today, the Cuckmere was reduced to a mere trickle and the cows and calves were grazing peacefully in the field next to the river. There were a lot of serious walkers and hikers out on the path which runs alongside the Cuckmere and a more peaceful rural scene would be hard to envisage. It's hard to believe that this lovely rural treasure is only about 4 or 5 miles from my home in Willingdon Trees! I hardly ever seem to get out and about to enjoy such delights, I really must make more effort.

Alfriston War Memorial Hall

View from War Memorial Hall towards the Cuckmere

The wedding reception went really well and we enjoyed some really nice music sung and played by a young lady soloist accompanied by a talented pianist. They performed mainly jazz standards and songs from musicals, including 'What a Wonderful World', 'Bewitched' and 'Someone to watch over me', the sort of songs I always enjoy hearing. We had a wonderful buffet with lots of different food to choose from and some nice wine and champagne. We departed before the evening entertainment began, which was going to be more like a disco/dance, something that we tend to leave for the youngsters to enjoy. On returning home about 6.15p.m. it was still a pleasant Summer evening and the wind had dropped a little bit.

I hope that now the school Summer holidays have begun we will get some nice hot days minus the strong winds that seem to have been so prevalent lately. If you are going away I hope you enjoy your Summer break, and for those of you who are staying at home why not try to visit some of the local rural villages like Alfriston? This is just one of many local villages that I hope to explore in the near future.

Eastbourne Pier

I know that it's not exactly situated in Willingdon Trees, but I came across a short feature about one of our local attractions, Eastbourne Pier, in which it is described as a 'Victorian Pleasure Symbol'. The article reads as follows.

Victorian Pleasure Symbols

'At the height of their popularity during Victorian times, more than 100 piers lined the British coast. The coming of the age of the train (I know, I had to wait ages for a train the other day, [inserted by me!]) brought the coast closer to the travelling population, while the passing of the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 provided the working classes with the opportunity to make day trips to the beach. With its promise of fun and provision, the pleasure pier quickly became the focal point of the nation's coastal resorts.

After the Second World War, during which time Britain's piers were sectioned (the removal of a large span to prevent their use as a landing point for a German invasion), many piers weren't repaired and remained closed. Their popularity declined further during the 1960s and '70s as Briton's developed a taste for overseas package holidays. Dwindling audiences saw the closure of end-of-pier theatres, while other piers were destroyed by fire and storms. Despite these setbacks, 55 piers remain along the British coast.'

There is an 'obscura', i.e. a bowl shaped object which works like a telescope inside the dome you can see on the above photo. When it was re-opened a number of years ago, a pick-pocket was spotted using the obscura and his progress was followed to enable the police to catch him. Was this the first CCTV camera to be seen in Eastbourne?

I don't know about you, but it is a long time since I last took a walk along the pier. It's only about 3 miles from where I live but it is very rarely that I actually go on the pier. When I do, it reminds me of our courting days c.1975 when we used to go to socialize in whatever establishment had replaced the original dance or music hall venue. There was some modern kind of drinking and dancing going on which would no doubt have been a culture shock to the Victorians if they had travelled forward in time to their much loved and frequented pleasure symbol. Now it is nice to take a leisurely stroll, breathe in the salt sea air and watch the seagulls and starlings wheeling around. I hope that the pier has a long future and is well maintained as an important historical Victorian treasure and Eastbourne landmark.

Meanwhile, I really do hope to get down there again soon.

'I must go down to the seas again,

The lonely sea and the sky,

I've left my vest and socks there,

I wonder if they're dry?'

John Masefied (adapted, I think by Spike Milligan).

A Summer Saturday

It looks as though our lovely heatwave really has come to an untimely end. I am quite keen on hot weather although I know some of you are not so enamoured with it. I heard recently that it takes our bodies 3 weeks to adjust to hot temperatures, at that rate we very rarely have the opportunity to get used to it.

Anyway, enough about the weather. I was working until about 2.15 today, after which we went to look at bathroom suites available for DIY fitting. My son is training to be a plumber and he is hopefully going to fit it for us with the supervision of someone we know who has more experience. It should be an interesting exercise.

On the news front, it was quite interesting to hear Barack Obama's speeches in Ghana today. He was obviously quite touched by the fact that his ancestors came from Africa and he encouraged the Ghanians to take control of their future and destinies. It was quite stirring stuff, especially during this prolonged recession which is set to have more of a lasting impact on the third world countries rather than the more affluent Western world.

Back to more local issues, Summer is the time of year when roadworks are carried out more widely. We are due to have some roadworks in our road starting on Monday, I haven't checked to see how long they anticipate them lasting. I will have to allow more time if I am travelling in that direction in the course of my work or other appointments. It would be interesting to know how much it costs our local economy in terms of increased costs to businesses due to travelling delays, after all time is money, as they say. I haven't checked to see how many roadworks are taking place in the Eastbourne area at the moment, perhaps you have them in your locality?Don't forget to allow extra time for travelling if you have to negotiate them, it may save road rage and frustration.

I do hope that the warmer and sunnier weather returns for when the schools finish their term in just over a week from now. We are planning to have a short holiday break a little distance away on the South coast. I think many people are having holidays which don't involve travelling abroad this year. If I was to make a list of the places I have never been to in the British Isles it would be a very lengthy one! There are even quite a lot of places even close to home which I have not explored thoroughly. Remember, if we visit places in our own vicinity we are helping local traders and businesses which is helpful to our own national economic recovery. A lot of the local concerns rely quite heavily on the holiday, tourist and leisure custom they receive.

For those of you on holiday, either local residents or visiting from elsewhere, enjoy the break and I hope you benefit greatly from the change and rest.

Here in Willingdon Trees, Eastbourne, East Sussex the weather has changed dramatically over the last few days. We have gone from a heatwave through thunderstorms to cloudy and showery weather and temperatures quite a bit lower, more comfortable for work! In Hollington, Hastings, they had floods with 10 foot depth water when a small river overflowed near a culvert. I felt really sorry for those who were trying to clean up the mess when their homes were flooded.

For those of you who live in the Eastbourne area, there are a number of local issues for which I would like to know some answers. Does anyone know when the new Aldi in Hampden Park is due to open? When was it that the travellers camped in the car park near the Somerfield (soon to be Aldi) empty store? Has anyone looked at the possibility of using Brightkite as a way of keeping in touch with each other in our local community? On the last question, it appears that you can only post messages of 140 characters or less, like Twitter.

From a personal point of view, I quite like the instantaneous nature of Twitter and Friendfeed and have only discovered the usefulness of Facebook in the last few weeks, even though I opened my account on it quite a while ago. However, one of the reasons I am now writing this blog and several other postings is because I now feel the need for something of a somewhat less fragmentary nature.

I have lived in Willingdon Trees for nearly 10 years now, and one of the things that I notice is how little contact I have with other people in the neighbourhood. I talk to both my next door neighbours (I live in a detached house) but I don't know my neighbours next door but one on either sides. I live on the edge of the Willingdon Trees estate and have rarely entered into the estate itself during the last 10 years. I talk to the people I meet in the local convenience shop and I know a few other people through my work contacts. I wonder how many of you in your own local setting are in a similar situation? I believe that I may in a sense be experiencing the alienation of which Karl Marx spoke in his political theory.

This sense of semi-isolation is, I believe a result of us living so close geographically to one another and perhaps wanting to have our own sense of space (yes, I am signed up to MySpace as well!). There are various ways we can overcome this without being unbelievably extrovert or if you have a tendency to introversion like me. We can become members of local community clubs and groups which meet regularly, perhaps churches or choirs. I used to beinvolved in both of these mentioned activities, the problem was, yes, you guessed, they were not in my local community.

I know that what I should do is practise what I preach and join something in order to get out of my semi-isolation. However, being of a post-modern bent and bordering on becoming a middle-aged social media and technical geek, I have taken to using my broadband internet to get in touch. This is something that I previously thought I would never do, but in many ways I have come to see the tremendous potential of the internet as a means of communication. I tried using the internet first about 12 years ago and was totally underwhelmed by the number of websites available and the lack of useful which could be obtained. I gave up on it after several attempts and only came back to internet use less than a year ago. The transformation since the early days is unbelievable, information is freely accessible and so much is free to the user.

I am beginning to see that the internet can be used very effectively for keeping in touch with people a great distance away from each other, but I believe it is an ideal medium for communicating to one another in a more local setting. I hope that many of us will catch the vision

to put the possibilities into action.