Monday, April 09, 2007
7th April Ashdown Forest and Hartfield. Part 2
From Gill's Lap, the high point in Ashdown Forest we drove down to the village of Hartfield.
It was close to this village that A A Milne lived. He used the area as a backdrop for his Winnie the Pooh books. I remember a walk some years ago when we walked from Hartfield to Pooh Sticks Bridge.
There is just one shop that exists for the tourist trade - and Winnie the Pooh draws people from all over the world. Pooh Corner sells every possible item related to the books and there is a tea shop.
The garden was sheltered and we sat outside with a pot of tea and some cake.
There must be a great interest in Winnie the Pooh amongst people from The Orient - both the young women in the picture were from the far East.
Happy, but still windswept after our walk on the hill.
There were so many things to choose from in the shop and many things looked very appealing. But my days of collecting things about Winnie the Pooh are now over. I still have some things on a shelf upstairs in a spare bedroom. But where is my Piglet? One Christmas Bill gave me a sewing kit to make my own Piglet and I looked for it when we got home and he was nowhere to be seen.
Village communities have at their core a church, a pub and a shop (if the people are lucky enough to still have one).
Village communities have at their core a church, a pub and a shop (if the people are lucky enough to still have one).
Hartfield has a general store - a Spar shop, and 2 pubs.
Above is The Hay Waggon. The timbered building is very typical of this area.
This pub is The Anchor. Just like The Hay Waggon it has a balcony.
The cottages in the village street were lovely. We carefully avoided having parked cars in the pictures.
One way to avoid the traffic was to cast our eyes upwards - the timber cladding, the old windows and the lovely tiled roofs were delightful.
This is Lychgate Cottage at the entrance to the churchyard. Under the far upstairs window is an archway forming the gateway to the church - the lychgate.
Village churches have a great charm and we love to visit them. Their history and atmosphere is always fascinating.
Daffodils in the churchyard.
I assumed that the church might be busy with the ladies of the parish preparing the flowers for Easter Day - always glorious after the sombre days of Lent. In fact they had finished and the floral decorations were superb. Unfortunately I chose not to use flash to capture the beauty and so none are worth showing.
I am sad not to share the font with you - all around the top of the font were little jars of primroses.
This shows the doorway to the church with a floral display in the porch. We were told that this one was created by a disabled lady who felt that she could manage this decoration from her wheelchair.
