The Unpronounceable Castle

Here's a shot of Olga on the beach yesterday morning, which shows what I mean about the sand -- down near the tide line, the shingle turns into hard sand that's good for walking. So if you're out on the beach at low tide, that's the place to be.

Yesterday we took a little trip away from our beachfront cottage to go to Herstmonceux Castle, a restored medieval castle about six miles away. I found it while scouting around for things to do in this area, and I talked Dave into going, though he wasn't thrilled with the idea. I felt a little like Hyacinth Bucket dragging the long-suffering Richard to yet another country estate.

But we all piled into a taxi and made the short journey, and we even brought Olga, which I'm sure Hyacinth would never have allowed.

Surrounded on at least two sides by a watery moat, the castle is owned by Queen's College in Canada and is used for events and educational programs, so the interior wasn't open to the public. But there are gardens and forests surrounding it which are good for a ramble.

The list of owners of the manor goes back to 1066, when it was owned by Edmer, a priest. Around 1200 its owner was Idonea de Herst, who married Ingelram de Monceux. (Hence the name, which, despite my post title, actually is pronounceable -- the web site says the correct way is "HERST-MON-ZOO.") Sir Roger Fiennes built the castle in the early 1400s, and it was passed down through a series of noblemen before being bought by George Naylor in 1708 for £38,000. (Nowadays, enough for a mid-range automobile.)

After the 1700s the castle's interior deteriorated and the whole thing became an ivy-covered ruin, popular with Victorian day-trippers. It was restored to its current form by the 1930s and eventually became an outpost of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

We saw this pair of peacocks wandering the gardens. Olga, who was kept on her lead the whole time, was mesmerized. We imagined her thinking: "Those are the BIGGEST PIGEONS I've ever seen!"

On a woodland trail we saw chestnut trees that were planted back in 1700 -- well before the USA existed (as I pointed out), and when Bach was still a teenager (as Dave said).

At the distant end of the gardens and fields stands this architectural folly, which looks like a little house -- as Dave said, "where they put Grandma." The interior is actually just a narrow empty room with gates onto a pleasant, enclosed back garden. There's a sign on the front door asking visitors to keep it closed so rabbits don't get in.

After wandering around for a short time and grabbing unremarkable sandwiches in the cafe, we caught a taxi for home. Here's Olga and Dave waiting for the car near the entrance to the castle grounds, where the former observatory has now become an educational science center. We saw one of the domes -- which house the telescopes -- revolve and a bunch of kids came out.

Here's a history of the Royal Greenwich Observatory's location at Herstmonceux, which is interesting. Basically, London got too crowded and light-polluted, so it moved here for several decades, and subsequently moved on. (That's the short version!)