Medieval Arundel

From Cwmbran, we drove east and then southeast to call to see our friends Richard, Maggie, Emily and Edwin in Arundel, West Sussex, and not forgetting Basil the dog and Pepper the cat! We had a great evening’s fun, catching up, eating and drinking, and making plans to meet up in the future.

Emily is one of Saul’s two talented goddaughters 💛 and she is now studying English at York University 😎

The following morning, Richard and Maggie took us on a gorgeous walk around medieval Arundel, with Basil the dog. It was a beautifully crisp autumnal morning. Arundel has a history dating back many centuries. It was a flourishing market town in 1086 when it received mention in the Domesday Book. Some years before that, Arundel Castle had been built by the Norman Lord, Roger de Montgomery, in wood at first and then later in stone. The church of St Nicholas was built in Arundel in the late 14th century by Dominican friars who had arrived in the area a century earlier. During the English Civil War, Arundel Castle was the site of numerous battles which ended when parliamentary troops forced the royalists to surrender at the start of 1644. The Castle was destroyed and was not rebuilt until the turn of the 20th century. A new church was also built around this time and was dedicated as a cathedral in 1965, with the name of Cathedral of Our Lady and St Philip.

Medieval Arundel – spot the castle walls in some of these pics! Christmas decorations and lights were just being put up at this time too.

More flooding! Such a wet Autumn. This time it was the River Arun which had broken its banks. We felt sorry for the owners of the Waterside café who were surely regretting their location:

A final van pic in Richard and Maggie’s driveway before we hit the road to Dover!