Categories
Architecture

Hastings East Sussex + Lady Sybil Grant

Samphire Word Salad

Hastings East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Her Ladyship again. As ever, she shares her pearls of wisdom in the 1912 literary curio Samphire. “For we say in the Cinque Ports, ‘I am going to Clapham,’ just as you might announce that you are going to Paris. Also Clapham, being a junction, serves to cloak our ultimate destination from the curiosity of our fellow townsmen.” The Cinque Ports, sometimes referred to as the “Cradle of the Royal Navy”, were a medieval confederation of English Channel ports formed to furnish ships and sailors for the King’s service. The original five included Dover, Hythe, New Romney, Sandwich and Hastings. Lady Sybil Grant demands, “Of course you know the Cinque Ports by now? In any case it is not for want of telling over and over again, in good sound style properly punctuated, and in an English above reproach. However, I am never tired of talking about them.”

Hastings Castle East Sussex View © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

West Hill Hastings East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Priory Road Hastings East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Hastings Castle East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Hastings Castle © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Hastings Castle Hill East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Categories
Architecture People

Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex + Lady Sybil Grant

The Angry Whelk

De La Warr Parade Bexhill-on-Sea Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

There’s more to Bexhill-on-Sea than the De La Warr Pavilion, y’know. Yes, the Modernist masterpiece might reign supreme but don’t forget about the string of red brick Dutch gabled bay windowed Queen Anne on speed beauties lacing the coast and the Little Athens promenade pearls. What would Lady Sybil Grant have to say? Writing in her 1912 literary curio Samphire: “Provided that we are a star we should not trouble about the relative importance of our position in the heavens.” And more to the point, “Yes, today will be fine.”

De La Warr Parade Garden Bexhill-on-Sea Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Bexhill-on-Sea Promenade Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Bexhill-on-Sea View Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley

Beach Hut Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex © Lavender's Blue Stuart Blakley