A Day in Sullington

12 Noon on Monday 11 August

Sullington is a revelation!  Anyone who has read Alexandra Harris’s beautiful book, The Rising Down, will remember the eighteenth century artist brothers, George and John Smith, describing it as “Arcadia” and you cannot fail to agree!  St. Mary’s Church is grade I listed.  It has been there since Saxon times and in the churchyard there is a yew tree reckoned to be 1300 years old.  The Grade II listed manor house, Sullington Manor, is next to the church and the sight of this, with its unrivalled collection of medieval barns, transports one to another age, one in which very few moved more quickly than their feet could carry them.

Gail Kittle of Sullington Manor will show us round the church and the great barns at 12 noon and at 1 pm we shall walk a few metres down the lane to The Old Rectory where we shall feast on our own picnic lunches.  At 2 pm Jack Bryant, the Head Gardener, will show us round the garden and, some time after 3 pm, we shall have tea and cake.  There will, of course, be time for our own wanderings.  The Old Rectory is owned by a German/Indian couple and, amongst the glorious Englishness of the garden, Jack has juxtaposed orange and pink flowering plants to honour the colours of India.