My brother and I left Hastings at a reasonable time early-ish yesterday morning, with the aim of missing as much of the forecast rain as possible, and walked towards Rye with the wind behind us for most of they way! The photograph above was taken looking back over Fairlight Glen, a popular place to paint in the 19th century, particularly by Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (blog).
Once we'd completed crossing Hastings Country Park (blog) and cliffs, we descended to Pett Level, where we had a bite to eat, we carried on along The Royal Military Canal (website), constructed from Hythe to Pett to defend against the perceived threat of Napoleon in the early 19th century. We continued along by the canal to Winchelsea, where we walked up to the road and reached the 13th century New Gate (website).
Winchelsea's "New Gate"
Proud parents & their 4 teenagers
We walked through and then around the North of Winchelsea, returning to the wetlands, where we were followed by rain for the last 2 miles of our walk. Okay, we had damp backs to our legs, but we did miss the worst of the rain, mostly!
So, we arrived in Rye and walked up the interesting old streets to St Mary's Church...
Once up at the top of the hill and in St Mary's Church, I loved the stained glass window of another Pre-Raphaelite artist (1891), and best friend of Arts & Crafts Movement hero of mine William Morris, that is Edward Burne-Jones, an aspect of which was featured on the 2009 Christmas 90p postage stamp (St Mary's website).
We then had a pint each at The Queen's Head and caught the train home soon after as it was hectic in Rye, the walk there took about 4 hours, but we were back in Hastings in not much more than 20 minutes!
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