Spring at Sissinghurst

Approaching Sissinghurst Castle, once the home of Vita Sackville-West and famed for its gardens, you see a long, low, homely looking building, almost like an overgrown farmhouse but for the tower behind it which gives it a grander air. As it turns out, the house sits on the site of a Saxon pig farm, and the oldest parts of the current buildings date from the 1530s. In the mid-18th century it was used as a prison for up to 3,000 French sailors captured during the Seven Years War. Surrounded by higgledy piggledy outbuildings which seem to have a jumble of roofs and gables, it is the centre of a world-famous garden conceived of and created by author and poet Vita Sackville-West during the 1930s and 40s. After her death and that of her husband Harold Nicolson, it passed to the National Trust.

At the moment bookings are restricted — the National Trust opens ticket sales every Friday for all their properties while lockdown restrictions are in place. Usually there are around 3,000 visitors a day to Sissinghurst but at the moment only 600 a day are allowed. It will be absolutely beautiful in early summer, and at only 1-1.5 hours’ drive from London, it’s an ideal day trip. The wider estate has some lovely woodland walks; we sat huddled in our winter coats (but enjoying gorgeous sunshine) while we had a picnic with friends, but as with many National Trust properties there are food and drink options on site (although takeaway only at the moment).

Deal, Kent

Deal on the Kent coast is a seaside town close to Dover and Ramsgate, an easy day trip from London and only 25 miles across the Channel from France, which you can see on a clear day. It has a Tudor castle (Deal Castle) overlooking the seafront, and the streets between the beach and the high street are full of charming old houses, winding lanes and quaint pubs. The couple of times we’ve visited, the streets have been quiet and a pleasure to photograph, full of pastel houses and old signs. For eating (and to stay, from 17th May), try The Rose, a boutique hotel housed in a 200-year-old pub, and for coffee and casual food we really liked Popup Cafe, down the slightly less posh end of the high street.

Jane Austen's house in Chawton

During the summer we paid a visit to Chawton Cottage, the house in Hampshire that Jane Austen moved to in 1809, and where she lived for the last eight years of her life. I’d always meant to write about it on here, because it was a wonderful experience for an Austen-lover like me, and the recent coronavirus lockdown has really brought home to me how very circumscribed the lives of women have been throughout most of history — confined mainly to their homes and villages and with only their immediate family and relatively small social circles around them. And it’s some comfort to think that confinement (and boredom!) can sometimes give rise to creativity, as it did for Jane Austen (even if in my own case the endless meal planning and preparation and childcare and homeschooling doesn’t seem to have resulted in a surge of creativity — yet!).

Before moving to Chawton, Jane Austen lived for 25 years at the rectory in Steventon where she was born, the youngest of six children. When her father retired in 1800, he moved his wife and their two daughters to rented accommodation in Bath, and her brother James inherited both the rectory and the living at Steventon.

Her father’s  sudden death in 1805 meant that Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother were effectively homeless, and spent several years either staying in rented houses or with friends and relatives. Only in 1809 did her brother Edward offer them the rent-free use of Chawton Cottage, part of an estate he had inherited along with the much grander Chawton House nearby, an Elizabethan house now run as a museum.

During her more unsettled living circumstances in the early 1800s, Jane Austen did not produce much in the way of manuscripts, unlike the 1790s, when she drafted three of her novels: Northanger Abbey (published 1818), Pride and Prejudice (published 1813), and Sense and Sensibility (published 1811). It is impossible to know to what degree her reduced output was due to unhappiness (or perhaps what we would now call depression), and how much to the more socially demanding life she must have led whilst staying in Bath and as a guest of various family members.

What we do know is that after she moved to Chawton, she produced three more manuscripts: Mansfield Park (published 1814), Emma (published 1816), and Persuasion (published posthumously in 1818) and revised the drafts of her earlier novels, which she now saw published.

The rectory in Steventon was demolished in the early 1800s, and so the house at Chawton is a wonderful resource for understanding more about Jane Austen’s domestic life. The cottage is a 17th century house situated at the crossroads leading into Chawton village (it was at one time used as an inn).

During Jane Austen’s time the gardens would have included a kitchen garden and orchard, and you can still see the bakehouse and kitchen, and the bedroom Jane shared with her sister Cassandra.

A number of Jane's personal belongings are on display in the house, including jewellery, a quilt she made herself, and the surprisingly small writing table at which she is thought to have worked.

Jane Austen’s writing desk — grandfather clock for scale!

For any Austen fans, the house and the village of Chawton are well worth a visit, and are within 1.5-2 hours drive of London so can be easily visited as a day trip.

EASTBOURNE AND THE SEVEN SISTERS CLIFFS, EAST SUSSEX

Last weekend my husband and children departed for Scotland to visit the grandparents, and I found myself alone for the first time in what felt like forever. I decided on the spur of the moment to hop in the car and drive down to the East Sussex coast. I grew up in Sydney, beside the water, and the longer I live in London, the more I miss that sense of freedom and expansiveness you feel living by the sea. I needed fresh air and big horizons, and to be reminded that I do actually still live on an island!

Those of you who have followed me on Instagram for a while know that I love British seaside resorts in the off season — there’s something about their slight bleakness that appeals to me. I typically go to the Kent coast for my dose of sea air, but this time I went a bit further afield to Eastbourne, with its pier and shingle beach.

After a wander round the town I drove up to the white cliffs of Beachy Head on the South Downs, overlooking Eastbourne. 

And then finally I drove around to Cuckmere Haven, which has a wonderful view of the Seven Sisters cliffs. You could do this as a walk from Eastbourne or you can drive and then walk about a mile down to the beach. 

These lovely houses were originally coastguards’ cottages, built in the 1820s, and they’ve been used as a filming location for movies (the final scene of Atonement is filmed here) and TV series (Luther, Foyle’s War). They’re at risk of erosion and there is an ongoing campaign to protect them. 

It’s a beautiful and atmospheric spot, even more so because I was there at sunset and there were only a handful of people on the beach — I imagine in the summer it’s packed. 

I watched the moon rise over the beach until finally, reluctantly, I made my way back to my car and back to London.  

A weekend at Marshal Wade’s House in Bath

In early February we were lucky enough to spend a weekend at Marshal Wade’s House in Bath, a Georgian townhouse owned by the Landmark Trust. If you’ve never come across the Landmark Trust before or looked at their website, you’re in for a treat — they’re a charity who rescue historic buildings at risk, sensitively restore them, and then let them out as holiday homes. Most of their properties are in the UK but they also own a few in France and Italy. They’re all buildings that are full of history and character, and surprisingly reasonable if you’re travelling as a family or with a group of friends. I’d been on a tour of one of their properties in Spitalfields before, but had never actually stayed in one.

Marshal Wade’s House is in the very heart of Bath, next door to Bath Abbey and opposite the Roman Baths and Pump Room. It was built in the 1720s in the Palladian style for George Wade, an architectural enthusiast and an officer in the Scottish Highlands — it was acquired in the 1970s by the Landmark Trust and restored. The ground and first floors are let to the National Trust and currently house a shop, and so you climb up to the second and third floors to access the property, which has quite simply amazing views over the Abbey. 

From the windows of all the rooms you feel like you can almost touch the wonderful facade of the church, with its angels climbing up Jacob’s ladder. To watch the town gradually come to life in the early morning light as you eat breakfast and listen to the Abbey bells toll the hour is an experience I won’t forget in a hurry.

I’d been to Bath​ several times before, but only as a day trip from London. Staying in this very special place was the perfect way to experience Bath for a slightly longer visit. I really can’t recommend it highly enough if you’re looking for somewhere to stay that combines a central location with a sense of history. There were wonderful details, like the glass-fronted bookcase filled with everything from 19th century encyclopedias to editions of Jane Austen novels (and Claire Tomalin’s excellent biography of Jane Austen, which I started while I was there but didn’t finish, and so now have to buy!).

The Landmark Trust properties don’t necessarily come with all mod cons (so, no dishwasher or TV, no fancy shower, no wifi) but even though I was travelling with my two young children (who frankly enjoy a bit of telly!) I found this to be refreshing rather than difficult. My eldest daughter in particular was desperate to stay longer, and I think we would all have quite happily stayed there for a week. 

Bath is full of things to do — we walked up to the Royal Crescent and The Circus, visited the Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms, walked across the Pulteney Bridge, and stopped at cafes at regular intervals to escape the rain! We’d visited the Abbey and the Roman Baths the previous year, so didn’t go this time, although I’d highly recommend both if you’ve never visited Bath before.

All in all, a really special weekend in a truly magical place, and one that I’d highly recommend.

The corner of Gay and Circus. Hands down the best address ever.

Disclaimer: my stay at Marshal Wade’s House was provided by the Landmark Trust on a complimentary basis. All the views expressed in this blog post are my own.

A visit to the Pump St Bakery in Orford, Suffolk

When my friend Mendy (@angrybaker) asked if @richardleemassey and I were up for a trip to Suffolk to visit the Pump St Bakery in Orford, on Suffolk’s heritage coast, I was so thrilled – I’ve enjoyed their chocolate for a while now and had always wanted to see the bakery itself, with its highly Instagrammable pink walls! So last weekend we travelled from London for the day to have brunch there and to do a tour of their chocolate factory, just outside the village.

The bakery was founded in 2010 by Chris and Joanna Brennan, a father and daughter team who share a love of bread, baking and chocolate. Chris was a self-taught breadmaking hobbyist before starting the business, and Joanna changed career to join him. They took over what was originally a 15th century building on Orford’s main square (also home to a lovely seafood restaurant and antiques shop) and this is where the cafe and bakery are located. Chris manages the baking and chocolate team while Joanna takes care of the shop and cooks for the cafe.

Joanna and Simon and that wonderful pink wall 💕

In the bakery they make sourdough bread daily, selling it only on the day it was made and donating any leftovers at the end of the day to a shelter in Ipswich. They also bake pastries, including the ever-popular Eccles cakes, as well as bear claws, croissants, pastéis de nata, brownies, gibassiers (a breakfast pastry from Provence), doughnuts and palmiers. On the day we visited, the whole shop was cleaned out by about 3.30pm, and people had queued throughout the day for a seat at their lovely communal table, which goes to show how deservedly popular this place is.

Bear claw, gibassier and hot cross bun

The idea for their expansion into chocolate came when Chris started to draw connections between the sourdough fermentation process and the fermentation that takes place as part of the cacao bean extraction process. Along with only a few other UK producers, they now make small-batch, handmade chocolate from beans imported directly to them from family farms and cooperatives around the world, primarily south and central America. They applied the same principles to their chocolate making as they did to their bread: using only the best quality ingredients, making everything by hand, and obsessive attention to detail during the production process. One of their biggest stockists is Liberty in London but their chocolate is sold in a variety of smaller outlets around the world – they also operate a monthly mail-order “rare batch” service.

It was a fascinating insight into the chocolate-making process and a rare glimpse into a truly family-run, artisanal business offering the highest quality products and a wonderful warm welcome to their lucky customers. I was left wondering whether I could buy a holiday cottage in Suffolk just so I could be closer to this wonderful place.

Thanks to Joanna, Simon and Chris for welcoming us and for arranging a tour of the chocolate factory - it was a real treat.

Orford village square

On Pump St

Pump Cottage

Meeting Chris at the chocolate factory

Cacao beans

Cocoa nibs

The chocolate is ground for days to form a smooth paste

The handmade bars are sold at the bakery or from stockists all over the world

That Suffolk pink!