A Day in Sullington

What a difference a season makes!   Our first outing, on 3 June to South Stoke, was marked not just by the beauty of the gardens and the kindness of their creators, but by the pouring rain!  Our last, on 11 August to Sullington, was steeped in sunshine.  Boiling non-stop sun that seemed, particularly in the case of the garden, almost other worldly, the background to a thousand heart-breaking, beautiful, novels.

Sullington Hill on the South Downs

Gail Kittle of Sullington Manor Farm told us things of which we had only dreamed.  The sweep of the Downs that still retains the marks of a Saxon fort, the 1,300 year old yew in the churchyard, a remnant of the fiefdom of the Pagan god Woden, and the charm of the ancient church.  A knight, his chainmail intricately carved into the Sussex marble, his face and crossed ankles sadly cut off, perhaps during the Civil War – and a squint!  A small splayed opening in the wall behind the pulpit through which an anchorite, or perhaps a leper (there was a leper colony on the Downs) could see the Host being elevated without being part of the congregation.

Gail took us, too, to the great barn, with ten bays, one of the largest in Sussex, and brought the great space into life in her description of wagons carrying the sheaves into the barn, telling us how they were stored and how, finally, the grain was carried “over the threshold” and out to market.  An enchanting 14th century window at one of the four thresholds marked the place from where the guardian of the harvest kept an ever-watchful eye.

The long history of farming on the Sussex downs and the way of life of its people were set out before us and we were amazed and delighted.

The café at the Old Workshop at Sullington Manor Farm will be open Thursday – Sunday until 24 August. After that the café will open for a pre-loved clothing sale in aid of the Church on 27 and 28 September, as well as for a ceramics exhibition from 30 October to 9 November.  

And, to breathe the extraordinary air of Sullington Great Barn, book now for Romeo and Juliet which will be played right there at 5 pm on Sunday 31 August. And as you enter, look up to see whether the guardian of the barn is looking out of his window to check you have your ticket!