Pevensey Castle and Bodiam Castle

Hubby and I are members of National Trust and English Heritage. It is about the same price as a good wine each month for our joint memberships and we certainly find it value for money. 

Every holiday we look for National Trust or English Heritage properties to visit, Sussex and Kent have plenty so we had a fab time exploring. 

English Heritage have audio guides which really add to each visit. It is tiring holding the device to your ear, it gets warm too and for me means I have to stand still to listen due to my mobility. I spotted a port hole in the audio device when at Kenilworth Castle so this holiday we took headphones; such a difference. I could walk along listening as my hands were free to grab step railings or a wall if I wobbled a bit. 

We visited two castles during our stay in the South East, Pevensey Castle and Bodiam Castle. They looked simillar but were quite different in their history.

Pevensey Castle was a Roman Saxon Shore fort as early as the 4th century, and was where William the Conqueror landed in 1066. The sea was much further inland then, covering what is now Pevensey Bay; all along the coast we saw high sea defenses and noted how the land was flat and would have been sea.

As a Roman fort the castle would have had wooden structures, over time as the Castle was held by Anglo-Saxons and later Normans before being destroyed during the Battle of Lewes in Henry III's reign. 

There is evidence of each era, the audio guide explained about the dungeons, keep, cannonballs and the machine gun pill-boxes built during WWII.

Hubby bravely went down the narrow spiral staircase to the dungeon. I'm not good on stairs and dungeons are not my favourite psrts if a castle. 

We had a super time st Pevensey Castle. Standing in a prime position overlooking the English Channel to defend our lands its history is amazing. 

Bodiam Castle is the typical romantic vision of a castle with a moat, it's the one we'd all draw if asked. It was built in the late 1300s by Sir Edward Dallingbridge and his wife Elizabeth. It was a castle for living in rather than fighting and as such it's exterior walls are complete.

The interior is however in ruins, the castle has been lived in over time but has decayed with no full record of its life. From the windows and the fireplaces you can image where rooms were and the National Trust are discovering more as their restoration work continues. 

One feature of our visit made us stop and watch for ages ... fish! The moat was full of very large carp, obviously used to being fed by visitors as they appear en mass if a shadow fell over the water. The Trust do have signs asking visitors nit to feed the ducks or fish but such z romantic castle in extensive grounds is an ideal day out for families and feeding the wildlife is so tempting.

We had a super time wandering around such an idyllic setting on a glorious spring day. 

Two more properties visited, as I said before we really do find our memberships great value. We visited some lovely houses too, my next post will tell more.

Carr Taylor

Sunday saw us up bright and early for a mid morning tour at Carr Taylor vineyard. Situated north of Hastings, protected from the sea mist and winds, Carr Taylor were the first vineyard to produce English sparkling wine. 

They grow a variety of wines although we only a few varieties saw on our walk. It was very interesting to see the older vines, the Reichensteiner are nearly 50 years old, planted using the Geneva curtain style. However the other vines such as Bacchus, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir are planted in the French row style. It all depends on how much land is allocated for each variety, Carr Taylor find the Geneva curtain planting gives good yeild even if needing more land.

The vines looked quite forlorn standing in the fields all bare but the buds were beginning to grow and I'm sure by the summer the vineyard will look very different. 

Carr Taylor believe in tradition and as such their sparkling wine is still degorged and capped by hand with a machine purchased in the 1980s. It is certainly nothing like I have seen before either in the UK or in France. 

Unusually the vats were made of fibre glass, again a new concept to me. It was very interesting to see where and how Carr Taylor made their still and sparkling wine.

After our tour we enjoyed a wine tasting; four sparkling wines and a still wine. All the sparkling wines had plenty of bubbles but with quite different flavours.

Carr Taylor Rosé gains its light colouring from the Pinot Noir skins. There were plenty of rasberry and redcurrant flavours. 

Carr Taylor Brut was plentiful in crisp apple flavour with a slight biscuity aroma.

Carr Taylor Demi-sec was slightly sweeter with a peachy nose and an apple flavour with hints of vanilla.

The vineyard will be focusing on their sparkling wine in the future, especially Carr Taylor White Pinot. This sparkling wine has crispness from Pinot Blanc and fruitiness from Pinot Noir. 

We did try two still wines: Cannonball and 1066. The first was a light wine with hints of elderflower and lemon, the second was similar but a little weightier with added notes of lime and apple and was a good accompaniment to our ploughman's lunch.

Sunday's are made for days out, especially vineyard tours and tastings. It is always nice to discover more about wine and wine producers.

Hastings

We do enjoy staying in a Haven caravan especially now we don't have to go during school holidays. Hubby and I have just enjoyed a week near Hastings. We were amazed at our accommodation, a superb lodge style caravan.

Although there are two good bars on site we took a short walk to the nearest Shepherd Neame pub to try the beer. We enjoyed our bitter and lager (didn't know they did one) in the beer garden with a sea view... just!

Back in our super lodge it was bubbly time. Just before we came away I joined Good Pair Days wine subscription - you can read about it in my previous post, there is a sign up link too.

Cielo e Terra 'Casa Defra' Prosecco Rosé was one of my wines and bubbly is always a good way to start a holiday. Neither Hubby or I are go to Prosecco drinkers finding most bottles too bubbly and too sweet but we both really enjoyed this, it really was a lovely wine. 

This year Hubby and I are trying to do more walking, being on holiday is a great opportunity to walk in new surroundings. We're not far along the coast from Hastings ... or so we thought checking Google maps.

Saturday presented a sunny but windy day and after an 'um and ar' about coat no coat we set off along the sea front ... calling at Greggs first for a takeaway coffee, our coffee koozie certainly make carrying the cups easier. 

It was a lovely walk, plenty of colouful huts lining the pebble beach. The promenade stretched in front of us with a tall tower building in the distance ... our destination.

But alas the building was not our destination, merely a half way stop for refreshments. Hubby enjoyed a pint of London Pride whilst I opted gor a small diet coke which cost nearly as much as the beer! It was lovely sitting by the sea again, holidays are made of these moments.

Hastings was actually just over 4 miles, the town border was maybe two but the fisherman's quarter at the eastern end was much further. 

Lunch at Webbe's Rock-a- nore was superb; the much needed sit down, the delicious food and the perfect wine in celebration of getting there. We have visited Paul Mas in Southern France where Claude Val was one of our purchases. We haven't seen it since so it was a must, it was the perfect wine with our meze of seafood and ham hock. 

Being a sunny weekend Hastings was busy, I'm not sure I'd enjoy it in the height of the summer. It's very quaint in the Old Town with museums all about fishing and shipwrecks, a narrow-gauge railway and the funicular railway up the steep cliffs.

We had a super day; a lovely walk there, a fab lunch and a slow stroll back. It was definitely worth the 9 miles although our lodge sofa was very welcoming when we got back.