20250921 Arundel

Arundel and St Nicholas Church. And a harrowing ride into Chichester.

The ride north into Arundel from Seaford through Brighton was actually a little nasty, traffic-wise, and John’s phone was complaining about moisture in a connection, so we were navigating by Patti’s phone, only. Plus, it had clouded over and it was getting cold. We were happy to finally check into the ancient St. Mary’s Gate Inn (1525) (highly recommended) after an almost 60 km day, and get changed out of quick-dry polyester cycling gear into warm, dry clothes.

We walked back down the hill, popped briefly into the Catholic cathedral (honestly, just a little meh), and further on down the hill we noticed a sign for the modest Saint Nicholas Arundel church (“rebuilt 1380”) and the doors were open, so of course we went in.

What a treat: a visiting 17-voice choir from London was rehearsing a capella medieval music for a concert that night in the beautiful, ancient church, and they were spectacular. We just sat in a pew and listened, barely breathing. The “Arundel Choirbook” is one of only three medieval English choirbooks to have survived to the modern day. (In the world of choral music it’s a big deal. The original is kept in Lambeth Palace Library.)

Even further down the hill– b.t.w. Arundel is very hilly – we saw a sign for Spencer Swaffer Antiques. This is the antique store that our pal Brian had made special mention of!!! so we rang the doorbell and entered a fabulous world of collectibles that were beautifully curated. To be honest, a store like that is spiritual death for John, but I was in heaven. It was gorgeous. I’m happy to look, never inclined to buy, so we’re all safe on those fronts…

Leaving that rarefied atmosphere, we walked a little further on, John bought an ice-cream cone (because it’s a perfect 5:00 snack) (and he’s always in the mood for ice-cream), and then the heavens opened up and dumped on us and on all of the other tourists milling about on the main street. John and I hoofed it up the hill back to the hotel, dried off, grabbed dinner, and called it a night.

The highlight of the day was that beautiful music that we happened on, purely by chance. Next morning, we were about to tour Arundel Castle (also on Brian’s recommendation) and have our minds blown. Read on…

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Arundel Castle

From Wikipedia: Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established by Roger de Montgomery in the 11th century. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and early 19th centuries by Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk.

Fast forward to 1846 when Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, visited Arundel Castle for three days. Henry Howard, 13th Duke of Norfolk, internally remodelled the castle in time for her visit… The work included a suite of six rooms, built on the second floor of the south-east range at this time, and the Victoria bedroom has only been reopened this summer with massive restorations made to the fabrics and walls.

I mean, can you even imagine the extravagance?

Luckily for us, in addition to the opulence of the castle, on Sunday morning there was to be an MG owners’ meet-up on the grounds of the castle, so when we walked through the gates in the morning we were greeted by the sight of around 50 MGs and their proud owners. It was a beautiful sunny day and warm, which meant we could enjoy the spectacular gardens before touring the castle.

The lovely red MG in the photo, below, was, as the proud owner said, ‘not factory’ anymore. He had replaced just about everything. Power windows, higher capacity radiator with electric fan blades, electronic ignition, larger manifolds, but everything perfectly hidden from sight. A real passion.

Sidebar from Patti: I love the English gardening phenom, a”stumpery”. Old tree stumps, uprooted, inverted and installed into garden beds. They’re beautiful.

After touring the castle, we hopped on our bikes for what we thought would be a lark of a short ride – 22 km – into Chichester.

It was the worst ride of our entire trip so far.

Our cycling App had led us astray, and put us onto a terrible road with high speeds and aggressive drivers. We put an end to that after about ten minutes, pulled off into a neighbourhood, decompressed and then googled alternate routes. John had a lively conversation with an octogenarian – she, perched on her walker – about safe roads that we might follow (who knows when the last time she had driven a car might have been???!!!)

Between Apple’s Maps programme and Google Maps, and plain old common sense, we finally found our way to our Chichester hotel but …. holy cow… that ride would never have happened in the Netherlands. It was pretty awful.

We checked into our hotel, went for a walk to get the lay of the land, John had a chat with the statue of Keats, we grabbed a bite at “ASK”, an Italian resto, and went to bed. Little did we know that the next day we would be back at Ask, with friends! Stay tuned.

Oh, and we still haven’t found a replacement for our missing bike flag. And we had two nights booked in Chichester. Finally, a day off! Time for leg rest. Time for hotel-sink laundry! And… another Evensong.

Bring it, Britain. Bring it.