The Village Store - Firle, Sussex December 26 2012 12:30 pm
I lived and worked in Sussex for nearly 30 years so spending Christmas there is hardly a new experience. But it was a real treat after so many years to be back there for family festivities. And the ritual of a good Boxing Day walk before lunch - nearly two hours of traipsing over sodden countryside - was a hearty pleasure and worked up a good appetite for the Christmas leftovers.......
We decided to go to Firle where we had lived for a couple of years forty two years ago before buying an old farmhouse in Barcombe Mills. It was, and remains, a delightful feudal village - essentially unchanged. It was also at one time or another home to Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell, Katharine Mansfield and John Maynard Keynes.
St Peter's, Firle December 26 2012
A walk past St Peter's church was a nostalgic moment. We lived in a small house just off to the left of the picture above- I walked up that path every day all those years ago. Vanessa Bell, Quentin Bell and Duncan Grant are all buried in the church yard.
The Ram Inn was and remains a favorite and extremely successful place of refreshment. It has kept up with the times and draws its customers from a wide area around, including many of course from nearby Glyndebourne.
I am now back in London and will be publishing my COT 2011 chapter tomorrow morning.
Comments