There are places that feel ancient. We walked to Telscombe Village, just down the coast from Brighton. Technically, Telscombe is big enough to be a town, but most of the houses are modern and perched on the coast in an area called Telscombe Cliffs. Telscombe Village is older, and, from the cliffs, it's a short walk up and over the downs and into a secluded valley.
Telscombe means 'the valley belonging to (or inhabited by) Telis and it's mentioned in the Domesday book. It was a Saxon village, but before that it was a bronze age settlement - around1800 BC. There are tumuli and various other ancient sites all around. And there was a Roman settlement, too, and it has just basically been inhabited for a long long time.
The village itself is so cool. It's nested in a little dimple where several hills meet. There is only one dead end street, and it is only reached by another small road to the north, so it's very quiet. Only 50 people live in the village.
Look at the tower behind that building - this is the other side of the same street. No idea what it is. It could be as prosaic as a water tower but, who knows, it could be something more ancient.
The church is Saxon, with an old churchyard behind it.
It was a magical place with a kind of Brigadoon feeling to it. Not at all hard to imagine what it looked like 1,000 years ago.
Friday, December 27, 2013
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