When people think of England they often think of London and, well, we’ve all heard about the English weather. But despite what the majority think, it’s not actually always like that.
I have officially been back in England for 71 days (Yes I actually just googled that), and although it already feels much longer, only five of those days have had rain. Don’t get me wrong about 1/3 of them have been covered with grey clouds, but when the sun does actually grace us with an appearance, you don’t care about the crappy days previous, because sun-covered England is a little bit magical.
During my time living in Thailand, I noticed that people tend to hide from the sun, (for many reasons) which is understandable when it’s about 20ºc hotter there, but in England, it’s embraced. And whilst that’s probably due to the fact that English people can never take sunshine for granted because its appearances are kind of rare… England makes the most of the sunshine, with beach trips, countryside walks, picnics, random road trips, ice-cream vans, games of rounders and the nation’s favourite… Barbecues!
I found myself with no plans on such a day, but couldn’t decide where to go, so instead I got in the car and drove, ending up at a spot called the “Trundle” which up until writing this post, I didn’t actually realise was an English heritage site (oops). I just remember it as a childhood memory, as this is where we would go to walk the dogs as kids. But although this is a place many frequent to walk their dogs, most people go to gaze out at the open spaces. I mean just look at those views.
What many people don’t know is that what we call “The Trundle” is actually known as “St Roche’s Hill hillfort”, and the hill that overlooks Goodwood hosts the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, which in turn, lays upon some very rare Neolithic enclosures. The hillfort boundaries have been well preserved since it was built in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, but within those boundaries are the slight remains of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure c. 6,000 years old. There are even two enclosed modern compounds, which are all that remain of an early warning radar system built during the Second World War.
Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of any of this, as instead of taking lots of photos I sat on the grass talking away in the sunshine, whilst trying to make a daisy chain bracelet… Which I could not bloody tie!
So in the end I gave up and got an ice cream.
Because that’s what grown-ups do!
