We’ve had some glorious sunny days recently, and I’ve been reminded of a visit to Sussex a few years ago now. This is what I wrote a couple of years ago:
We went down to Sussex to Winchelsea Beach where my husband and a band he had been playing with for all his adult life – and quite a few teen-age years as well, had a gig in a wonderful pub, the Ship. I’d not been there before, although I think we may have driven through the area many years ago on a miserable wintry day… we hadn’t stopped to site-see, too jolly chilly. However, when we went down to Winchelsea Beach on this occasion the weather was wonderful. We had all travelled from away, most of the band from north Surrey, us from Somerset. We checked into the hotel where we were all staying, and then went to the venue.
The Ship is a great pub, with an interesting style – being so close to the sea it has a nautical theme… and when we were there it had a door into a butcher’s shop… in fact they had a sheep roast, like a hog roast but with a whole sheep. We heard a story at the time that the owners had wanted to have nautical artefacts and bought a job lot which they thought would be a few assorted pictures, maybe a porthole or two, a few knotted ropes, a bit of rigging etc… what turned up was a pantechnicon carrying an extraordinary collection including lifeboats and a funnel… By the time we visited all was beautifully and interestingly arranged.
While we were there we visited Rye, and the town of Winchelsea, and Hastings and the Romney Marshes and Dungeness… we were on the way home when we stopped there and the mist had come in and it was spooky and a bit creepy with the power station and the lighthouse…
However, the thing I remember most is the band inside the pub rehearsing (and sampling the beer) and us wives and partners sitting outside on some decking, our shorts and shirt sleeves rolled up as far as they could, lounging back basking in the glorious sunshine… we all ended up with sunburned noses… in October!!
https://www.shipwinchelseabeach.com/
Lois Elsden 