The Practical and the Medieval

Yesterday I had a little adventure that combined practicality with sightseeing. We needed to buy Dentastix dog treats, because someone (me) forgot to pack them. We've been getting by on a bag of beef liver chips that Olga likes, but we ran out. So yesterday I set off on a municipal bus for the grocery store.

The bus stop is practically right outside our cottage, and I could buy a £5 all-day pass on board. So that's what I did, and rode a winding route for half-hour or so to Tesco, in a rather downtrodden brutalist shopping center near Eastbourne.

Inside, I felt like I'd stepped back into 1986 -- Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" was playing over the sound system. I grabbed what I needed and checked out, and then visited a couple of nearby charity shops. I was amused that I found a mug from Sea World in Orlando among the detritus there. Florida follows me everywhere.

I left the mug behind, but for £1 I bought a DVD of the first couple of seasons of "The Inbetweeners," a puerile comedy that I nonetheless like. I bought it mainly because I'd failed to get a bag in Tesco and needed something to carry my dog treats, peanut butter and blueberries. Then I went back and waited for the return bus and began some sightseeing.

I got off the bus in the village of Westham, where St. Mary's Church has sign out front that says, "Sharing Jesus' story since 1080." How many churches can say that?

Inside, among more traditional stained glass, I found an interesting window dedicated to the memory of Lt. Col. Charles William Owen and his wife Mary Elizabeth, who died back in the 1920s. Apparently Owen was a physician in the Indian Medical Service.

Perhaps his wife was a nurse? Is that her? I'm not sure.

Anyway, from there I walked through streets lined with rose-draped cottages and baskets of flowers to medieval Pevensey Castle.

Here's a panoramic shot from one of the castle's towers, showing the outer bailey at left, surrounded by the ruins of a Roman wall, and the inner courtyard at right, with the foundation of a chapel in the center. Apparently the castle used to be right on the coast, before the surrounding marshes were drained to make farmland. (I guess where we're staying was all underwater back then.) It was a Roman and then a Saxon fortress until the invasion of William the Conqueror, and afterwards played an important role in a long series of conflicts all the way up through World War II. (Its history is quite extensive; if you want more detail you can read about it here.)

I got an audio guide and spent about an hour wandering among the ruins, examining windowless dungeons and excavated Roman hairpins. Let me tell you, it may seem that our modern society is mired in unfairness -- and indeed it is in many ways -- but at least we're not lowering people into oubliettes to starve. Medieval life was brutal. Humanity really has made progress.
 

From there I visited St. Nicolas Church in Pevensey, which in its existing form dates from the 1200s, although there were apparently churches on the site before that.

According to the church's Wikipedia page, "The three Lancet window openings above the High Altar are perfect examples of their period c.1200." Both of these churches are still in use. I sat in St. Nicolas, enjoying the silence, for about half an hour before catching the bus back to our flat with my bag of groceries and my puerile DVD.

Dave, who had stayed behind with Olga, said she was quite stressed at my absence. But she was happy to get some Dentastix!