G & J away from home

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Rye Harbour Again

Eventually we had to get back in the Gary-bus and head back to Rye Harbour to meet up with the members of the Monica Edwards Appreciation Society who were having their twice-yearly meeting on Saturday and Sunday. (When we had discovered this it had required some arrangement of our plans for the next couple of days but meeting up with like-minded people had seemed like an opportunity too good to miss for the sake of a half a day.)

Tidal highs in the river

Beth had booked to go with the M.E.A.S. folk on the boat ride down the river and along the coast, seeing the locations from the water.

Beth dons her lifejacket

Ready to go

Gary, Marianne, and I were just going to loiter while Beth was away on her boat trip but an offer from M.E.A.S. member Bridget made us abandon the loitering in favour of a guided walk across the marsh to Camber Castle (fictional Cloudsey Castle).  It was a long walk (contributing to my best ever total of 17,000 'steps' recorded by the pedometer for the day) over lush grassland - now dry in summer but apparently appropriately marshy during winter.  Close up it wasn't as flat as I imagined, but slightly bumpy.  Well done on the horses for managing all the galloping around they apparently did over the terrain.  (Parts of the marsh are closed off now as a nature reserve.)

We entered the marsh via the location of Castle farm and then walked over and around the castle itself  Gary correctly identified it as one of Henry VIII's buildings - bonus points for him!  Apparently by the time it was built the need for it had passed and it was never used.  It is incredibly weathered and easy to see how Meryon might have climbed the walls in Strangers to the Marsh.

Camber Castle

Gary's been reading up about the castle (which used to be on the coast but the coastline here has moved markedly) and tells me that it was built between 1512 and 1514 and that the gun ports were filled in in 1650 (!). English Heritage bought the castle in 1967.

Inside the castle

Bridget our guide

On the walk back from the castle the day heated up and little but the atmosphere became oppressive, almost eerie.  I suppose thunder was brewing somewhere, but it felt very exposed on the huge expanse of almost entirely silent marsh.

When we got back to Rye Harbour we stopped for a quick (and well-deserved) drink at the William the Conqueror pub and then adjourned back to our B&B which was hosting the afternoon tea.  Before we ate Joyce, the event organiser, played a tape recording that the then almost blind Monica Edwards had made as a reply to a taped letter she had been sent by a fan.  It was amazing to hear the voice of one of 'our' authors who are usually far too long gone for that sort of record.

When we finally hit to road it was an agonizingly slow trip through the Hastings area but once past the single, short section of roadworks we were away and reached Arundel without any further delays.  I don't know about the others but this little chicken was more than ready for her bed after such a big day.

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