The South Downs are a range of chalk hills in southern England. This is an area we had not explored, so it was nice to spend some time there this last week.
Bignor Roman Villa
On our way to our accommodation we passed Bignor Roman villa and stopped to take a look. Last year were were at nearby Fishbourne palace that has some amazing mosaics. Bignor is on a smaller scale, but still impressive.
This villa was discovered by a farmer in 1811. It was a tourist attraction back then and thatched buildings were erected over it back then.
These buildings are listed as historically important. The site is still owned by the same family. It does not have mains electricity and there are issues with getting solar power without spoiling the location. They are only open in the summer.
It is not a huge site, but still interesting. Only parts of the original villa are preserved. There is a basic cafe there.
New Place Manor
We were staying at New Place Manor in Pulborough, which is not quite as old at only about 800 years.
This places has been a family home in recent years and gets rented out for holidays, We had the whole place for our group of twelve with plenty of bedrooms and use of the garden with swimming pool and tennis court.
The house has been modified and extended over the years. It has the largest Tudor fireplace of its type in the country in the main lounge. Yes, there are several lounges too. Queen Elizabeth I visited at some point and may have passed through these gates. You come in the other side now and her path would be blocked by the koi pond.
The house has been very nicely renovated with expensive fittings such as copper baths, an Aga cooker and four (!) dishwashers. The place is currently for sale for a bargain £3million.
Petworth House
We had a day out at Petworth House. This is a stately home with extensive gardens and the obligatory grand house. The art collection there is amazing and shows how rich the owners were. They have lots of paintings by JMW Turner. The room below has wooden carvings all over the wall. Over the fireplace is a portrait of Henry VIII by Holbein.
Every room is full of art and they have a whole gallery wing for some of the collections. I am no art expert, but I enjoyed some works by Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake. They also have a very old globe that shows people were not daft back then.
The Pig Restaurant
As it was a special family event we had a meal at The Pig. This is a very nice restaurant hidden down some narrow country roads.
We had booked a private room where they serve you a feast from options you select on the menu. The food was excellent.
There is a vineyard next door and they have a big kitchen garden where a lot of the food is grown.
There is plenty more to explore in this part of England. We passed Arundel Castle, but did not have time to go in. There are lots more Roman remains too. The villages are full of quaint old houses. We shall have to go back and see more.
 |
The man behind: | @tenkminnows: Helping good Hivers level up @proofofbrian: A bot that checks for tag typos #BritList: A monthly list of Hivers in the UK |
Looks nice there and interesting, I like the Roman Villa remains especially.
Might like to go there myself one day. I've been to the area but more for walking than sightseeing.
See you Wednesday hopefully, but I don't know what time yet.
Both the villas we've visited around there are worth checking out. It's amazing that this stuff was just under the ground for hundreds of years, but now it needs preserving. I saw that Bill Bailey was hiking the South Downs that week. The scenery is impressive and there are some quaint villages.
!LUV
Reminded of this family that bought a Castle 🏰 and rent rooms in airbnb
In that part of the country you could spend a lot of money on a fairly bland house as it is generally expensive. If you take on an old place then you have to expect to spend more on keeping it liveable and things like heating will be expensive. We got a nice experience there.
I would love to stay in a place like that. We did once or twice in the past, down in Cornwall. We love Sussex, it’s a gorgeous county with lots to offer.
This was not a cheap trip, but my parents treated us. If you have a big group then it can be a better deal than a post hotel. Years ago we stayed in one of the buildings at Hampton Court. It is certainly something to remember.
!BEER
We’ve often talked about biking in with ten of us at a nice retreat in the Cotswolds or similar.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @nicklewis, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Do you want to win SOME BEER together with your friends and draw the
BEERKING.View or trade
BEER.Hey @nicklewis, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Did you know that <a href='https://dcity.io/cityyou can use BEER at dCity game to buy cards to rule the world.
I got Spartacus vibes in the first few photos!
Well the Romans were very active in England 2000 years ago. They left a lot of buildings and artifacts behind.
This is really nice!
Around there is the sort of countryside you might imagine for England. It felt quite peaceful and I had fun with the family.
!BEER
View or trade
BEER.Hey @ssekulji, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!If you like BEER and want to support us please consider voting @louis.witness on HIVE and on HIVE Engine.
Done.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @ssekulji, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @steevc for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.You can check out this post and your own profile on the map. Be part of the Worldmappin Community and join our Discord Channel to get in touch with other travelers, ask questions or just be updated on our latest features.
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Travel Digest #2635.
Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Petworth House looks the best of all the attractions, it reminds me villas here
the first 2 looks like less curated, they could do well with more investment on them
It must have been an incredible experience to stroll through those ancient traces of Roman life!
@steevc, I paid out 1.709 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 12 comments in this discussion thread.
A sensational place to visit, it has some incredible tourist attractions, everything looks great.
Congratulations @steevc! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next payout target is 98000 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because post and comment rewards can be split into HP and HBD
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP