Elmer two

On day two of our stay in the Beechcroft Hotel, I actually managed to toast some crumpets for my breakfast and they were entirely satisfactory. A touch let down by the bread, cheese and ham which followed, with the bread rather dry and the ham rather wet, a combination which does not add up to just right.

Tower one

Respectable yew at Felpham church

Tower two

First stop was Felpham church, another church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. We didn't get in because children were doing something inside and it did not seem right to disturb them. But we were able to inspect some handsome detailing in the stonework of the church and we did have a good look around the very large graveyard.

I remain convinced that I once knew a technical term for the louvred windows of a bell tower but search on several occasions now has failed to reveal it.

Expensive cross

This cross with raised, polished knobs looked expensive. All in one piece of granite, carved before there was much in the way of mechanical aids.

A for Arundel?

Does the combination of 'A' and coronet mean an earl of Arundel? Or some relative of same? What would such a person be doing in a common graveyard, hobnobbing with the rustics of Felpham? We could not get near enough to check for an inscription which might have given a clue.

Job lot

A family with tidy minds, or careful with their money. Three more or less identical crosses, enclosed in matching kerbs. Were they made in their hundreds in some factory in the big town and hawked around the villages? The plants within the kerb look healthy enough, plants which we have in our own front garden and which I know as elephants' ears. Bing however, knows better and its elephants' ears plants have leaves which are more or less the size of the ears of African elephants. While Google turns up the small eared variety, calls them bergenias, a name which I recognise, and includes flowers, which I also recognise. Clearly something to check with BH, much better on plant names than I.

Not getting into the church, we took a drive around Elmer, as per the map at reference 1. A seaside housing estate.

Windmills loud and clear at Climping beach

Poole Place

Then onto the beach at Climping, collecting a serious honk at a tricky right turn to Atherington, off the A259. Not clear why the beach is named for Climping, rather than this last. Walked east, back towards Elmer, with the first landmark being a handsome house called Poole Place. Presumably without any mains services at the time it was built. A good view west, with Ventnor Down (on the Isle of Wight) sticking up behind Selsey Bill.

The view from the most easterly of the piles of stones

We made it as far as the most easterly of the eight piles of stones protecting the foreshore at Elmer, already mentioned at reference 1.

Barrel jellyfish?

On the way back from Elmer, a jellyfish, identified by BH as a barrel jellyfish which had lost most of its undercarriage.

Interesting hole?

What we had thought was an interesting hole in the miniature cliff at the top of the beach, turned out to be nothing more exotic than the result of water washing out of a drainage pipe terminating half a metre or so inside. A pipe which zoom suggests is earthenware, so probably an old land drain. Perhaps there used to be marsh behind. We also wondered about all the remnants of concrete walls. Were they common-or-garden sea defences or something to do with the second world war, with some of the concrete looking a bit like old gun emplacements.

The lunch box

We took lunch from a converted shipping container, with my opting for basic burger and chips which was fine. But BH went for something more sophisticated and not altogether satisfactory.

Rounded off the proceedings with a visit to Yapton church, which was open. This one also dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. With Yapton being a once small village, now garlanded with housing estates, I suppose like villages everywhere.

Nave, looking west

Ancient font

New window

A church which is alive enough to be able to commission some new glass. At least that is what we thought, but reference 2 says late 19th century - which had seemed a bit unlikely from the style of the thing - but zoom suggests that a lot of the white around the tree was once coloured - with loss of colour seeming to be common in 19th century glass.

Unusual capitals, no sanctuary light

Unusual door

Old yew one

Old yew two

Back to the hotel for a wash and brush up, then back to the Elmer Hotel, marked down for dining the day previous.

Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, crab salad from the sea. The crab was very nattily presented in stripes in its shell, including a narrow stripe of chopped yolk of egg, but somehow the white meat seemed very thin - and with a slightly odd texture. Not up to the standard of the Lobster Pot next to our hotel: perhaps the chef had used a portion of our white meat for his own sandwiches. But a cheerful establishment, doing reasonable business for end of season, probably mainly people from the houses round about, and we were entirely happy with our meal.

We learned of a man in from the US the night before who had consumed two whole lobsters and several puddings. I settled for just the one pudding, a treacle tart with just a suspicion of cream and very good it was too. A deep tart, how I like it, in fact the best treacle tart I have taken in a restaurant for a good while.

Cars

We also learned that some people in Elmer spend more on their cars than we do. For the avoidance of doubt, BH was driving - which meant that I had done well on the wine.

We tried to pass a couple of weaving cyclists on the way home, but it turned out that the cycles (with the battery option) had been hired from our very own hotel. On the grounds that it was very unusual to be breathalysed on a bicycle.

Rounded off the proceedings with what seemed like a rather dear drop of whisky at the hotel bar.

PS: we probably paid something over £10 for the wine, a reasonable price in a restaurant given that you can get the stuff online for less than £5. But it went down OK, so a reminder that cheap has its points. See reference 3 for the place itself.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/09/elmer-one.html.

Reference 2: https://sussexparishchurches.org/church/yapton-st-mary/. It seems, not much changed since 1200 or so. Got off lightly when restored in the 19th century.

Reference 3: https://larosa.cl/. Which shows a quite different label and cap to that we had. Do they ship the stuff out in large plastic containers, in the way of wine shippers of old, based in smelly warehouses around London Docks?