East Sussex

The bridge is listed and quite elegant, but its protective woodwork rather spoils the effect. It hasn't been opened for many years. Boats going up the river towards Lewes are small leisure craft, that can pass under with ease at most levels of tide, I would guess.

I tried ignoring this rather commonplace Robin - we have one in our garden - but it sang and sang until I gave in. Pity about the clash of reds.

Not being a true twitcher, I click first and look up after, so I didn't realise that I had a Stonechat couple until I got home.

I could see that this little chap was small and an almost pinky red, but didn't recognise him as a Stonechat. A new one for my photo files.

This was obviously the look-out, as as soon as I had taken this photo., it was away, taking a dozen or more from the next bush with it.

This is a revised image - the original had part of the right edge cropped off. As I had another photo which included that bay, in a similar orientation, I have grafted that part on. I know where the joins are, but I hope they are not too obvious. Lewes is one of the larger towns in the South Downs National Park. Generally bigger towns are excluded from the Park zone, but Lewes is a very historic town with hundreds of old buildings, many of which are in Historic England's listings.

The foreground of this scene is a very ancient open space. Whilst it is currently used as a bowling green, it was used as a tilting yard, where knights would joust in the Middle Ages. A fairly extensive history of the Castle can be found here www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56909 The Bowling Green Pavilion is a listed building with details at www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-293000-bowling-green-pavilion-lewes-east-sussex

There is a detailed appraisal of Piddinghoe's buildings and their conservation issues at www.lewes.gov.uk/Files/plan_CAA_Piddinghoe.pdf It includes old maps of the village.

This stretch of the South Downs National Park lies to the south-east of Lewes.