(no subject)

[poliphilo]

We drove back along the South Coast. These are pictures of Bosham Quay- just outside Chichester- where we stopped for lunch. It was an important port in Saxon times and features in the Bayeux tapestry as the place from which Harold Godwinson set sail on the ill-fated trip that saw him winding up as the "guest" of William, Duke of Normandy.





And this is the Saxon tower at Sompting- just down the road from my old school.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I sat in a muddy field and painted that church tower one Easter weekend, when I lived in Worthing, back in about 1990. It seems very old.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia says it was built around AD 960. There aren't many British buildings of any kind that are older than that.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Any older and it probably would have been made of wood and wattle and daub. It's a really odd shape.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Odd for England but common in parts of Germany. It's called a Rhenish helmet.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

That tower is incredible. Can one go up inside it?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's not open to the public but I imagine there's a staircase- or possibly ladders.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

What a marvelous tower. How I should like to see all these places in person! But we will not be going south of the Thames on our trip in August, alas.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's a shame.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

When i lived in Brighton i often went via Sompting on my journeys and past that strangely shaped tower.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I went to school just down the road from the church but this is the first time I've actually visited it.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Very interesting roof!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Unusual in Britain but not in Germany. It's a design known as a Rhenish helmet.