Littlehampton

Summer has now really arrived, and the forecast for London for the weekend was very hot.   So I decided earlier in the week that I would have a day out at the seaside.

Southern Rail had been advertising tickets for just £5 each way (less a third if you had a Railcard) - a real bargain! - so I went after work to the Victoria to get some.   Unfortunately, a lot of other people must have had the same idea, only earlier, and despite tens of thousands of them having been available, they had all gone,   So had the next cheapest, at £7.50 (£5 with a Railcard), unless you wanted to travel late morning and have hardly any time at your destination.   So I got an ordinary cheap day return to Littlehampton, which with a Railcard, cost just under £15.00, and had the advantage that I could travel any time, without being tied to particular trains.  That is one disadvantage of a lot of these very special offers - you have to travel at a set time, and there are no refunds or transfers if you miss your train.

So Saturday morning I was up at six thirty and out of the house by ten past seven, to catch the train from Kensington Olympia, which is less than ten minutes' walk, to Clapham Junction, where I had to change for the Littlehampton train.   It was a lovely morning; at that hour, the streets are almost deserted, the sun is still low in the sky and there is an air of peace and quiet that you don't get later in the day.

I had about a twenty minute wait at Clapham Junction, which gave me enough time to get a paper from one of the kiosks in the station, as the one at Kensington Olympia had been closed.

Clapham Junction is one of the busiest stations in the country, and even at that time on a Saturday morning the platforms were crowded with people.   But I still managed to get a good seat, facing the direction of travel, next to a window and with a table, where I settled down catch up with the news.   Papers on Saturdays are always large, with lots of supplements, although some of them, like the sport and motoring, are of no interest to me at all and get stuffed in the first waste paper bin in come to.

The journey down to Littlehampton was very pleasant, and I arrived just before 9.30 a.m..   From inside the air-conditioned train it looked a bit chilly outside, and I wondered whether I should have brought a cardigan, especially as the forecast for the South Coast had been much cooler than for London.   But I needn't have worried; when I got out of the train it was pleasantly warm and I was dressed perfectly.

The station is no more than ten minutes walk from the town centre, which has most of the usual shops, together with a lot of little individual ones.   One thing I did notice was how many of them seemed to have "Staff Wanted" notices in the windows - obviously there is a fair amount of work in Littlehampton, at least in the summer.

As I had had rather an early breakfast, it was now time for morning tea, and I popped int a tiny little cafe cum grocery called Coffee Shop Paradise, which had a few tables inside and also a couple outside.   Naturally, I chose to drink my rather large cup of tea outside in the sun and fresh air.

After that it was time to explore the rest of the town.  Littlehampton isn't very big - the population is only 25,000 - and you can walk from one end to the other is less than half an hour.   The main street runs parallel to the beach, and there are there are numerous streets leading off it which go down to the front, which is about half a mile away.   Passing St. Catherine's Church, I popped in to have a look, and considered going back fro Evening Prayer at 4.00 p.m. if I was around at that time.   It looks quite old from the outside, but probably isn't; there didn't seem to be any history of the church available, and the only clue to its age was a memorial to the parishioners who died in the First World War on one of the outside walls.   But is was beautiful inside, and I stayed a few minutes to look around before continuing on to the beach.

The beach at Littlehampton has both sand and shingle, and at low tide extends quite a way, although not nearly as far as Southend.    Surprisingly, considering the weather, it was almost empty; there were a few people swimming or sitting on the beach, but none of the crowds one would havfe expected on a day like that.   Evidently they must have all gone to closer places like Brighton, which actually isn't nearly as nice.

I wandered along the front as far as the River Arun, which forms the edge of the town, and then turned right to walk along the river.   Littlehampton has been inhabited since Roman times ad was mentioned in the Doomesday Book of 1086, at which time it was just Hampton.   The "Little" part of its name was added later to distinguish it from the much larger Southampton  which is a little bit further along the cost to the west.    At one time, it was an important port; one of its claims to fame is that the sheep of the Falklands Islands were exported from there.   So the river does not just flow into the sea, but instead enters it between high man-made banks.   Today, the cargo ships have gone, and the river is occupied by dozens of little pleasure boats.

The walk along the river was very enjoyable; it wasn't too hot, and there were a reasonable number of other people also enjoying the sunshine..   This part of Littlehampton is very much like most seaside towns; there is a fun park, with slides and merry-go- rounds, etc, lots of fish and chip shops (but also things like a Thai restaurant), and also souvenor shops.    It also has one of the busiest RNLI stations, which was open to the public, so I went in and had a look at the lifeboats and the tractors which drag them down to the sea; the walls of the station are covered to posters about the history of the lifeboat service.

One thing Littlehampton has that other towns don't, are recipes on large discs  set on concrete blocks.   They all seeemed to be for fish dishes - hardly surprising in a town with am important fishing industry.   They were sited all along the road next to the river.

I spent a little bit of time at the Look and Sea exhibition set between a fairly expensive restaurant and the Tourist Information Office; it was quite interesting, briefly covering the history of Littlehampton from the distant past to the present.    I passed the Oyster Pond, with its little paddle boats for hire, and ended up back in the town centre.  

The next place I wanted to visit was the Museum, but I was starting to feel a little bit hungry, so went to a rather nice little place called Hunnies for lunch.   They serve a reasonable selection of plain food; I had scrambled eggs on toast with hash browns and a pot of tea, which was more than enough to keep me going for the rest of the day.

The Museum is in a large manor house in Church Street, and although it's quite small, it's very interesting.  Currently, it has a special display celebrating the 150th anniversary of the coming of the railway to Littlehampto.     The railway changed it from being a small, rather isolated little port that no-one visited to a popular seaside resort which was easily accessible from London, and marked the beginning of the tourist industry.  

Whilst there I noticed that they were running a competition for a poster to popularise Littlehampton; I took down the details and if I get time I'm going to design one and enter it.

Littlehampton has connections with a number of famous people, including Anita Roddick, who opened the first Body Shop there,   Ronnie Barker lived there, and Kitty O'Shea is buried there.

After having a good look around Littlehampton, I got a bus to Goring-by-Sea and them walked to Worthing along the front; again, there weren't all that many people there - just take enough to make the place look alive.   

I could have stayed in Worthing, enjoying the sea, and got the train from there, but I wanted to take sopme photos of Littlehampton to use on the poster (assuming I get time to go one!).   So I got a bus - a No. 700 double-decker Coastliner this time, with a much better view - back to Littlehampton.   By this time it was well after six, the sun was starting to go down, and it wasn't so bright and glary - much better lighting for taking photographs.

I took piles of pictures - of the museum, the clock tower, the church, the sea-front, the river, the lighthouse,  the recipe discs, the boats on the river, the Oyster Pond, the fish & chip shops, the pubs,  the beautiful hanging baskets of flowers in the High Street - everything that I thought looked interesting and would look good on a poster.   I haven't downloaded them yet; that is a task for later, and also editing them.

I finally caught the 8.15 p.m. train, and again managed to get a good seat, despite there being quite a lot of people on it - mainly because I got there nice and early, before everyone else.    As a lot of trains terminate there, they spent some time on the platform between arrival and departure back to London.

The journey back was also enjoyable; I love travelling by train in the evenings, and of course, it was still light for a considerable part of the journey.   The countryside is still remarkably green, which is probably to be expected after the long, wet winter we have had.     There were herds of cows in the fields, although I didn't notice any sheep.    I'm not sure what breed the cows were - possibly something like Charolais - they were definitely not Friesians or Jerseys.   But they looked so peaceful and contented, grazing in the fields.  

I finally got home a little before half nine, to a London which was still warm, but with quite a nice breeze; although the days have been terribly hot, so far the nights have been reasonable cool.   I dread the time when the nights are equally hot and sleep is almost impossible.