Pevensey Castle, Laughton, Mayfield, & afternoon tea

Another wonderful day full of sightseeing and walking on the ground our ancestors used to walk! We started off the day with Pevensey Castle, which was originally a Roman fort called Anderida. The castle is about 1,700 years old! It used to be surrounded by sea and salt marsh, but the ocean is further away today. After the Romans left, it was used by a settlement of people during the medieval period. In 1066, William the Conqueror refortified the castle and used it. And then it was used again during WWII to protect the coast - they built machine gun posts, etc. It's huge, and it's amazing how much of the wall around the fortress still stands.

In the courtyard there was big pile of round stones that they found all around the castle that they figure must have been fired from a catapult during one of the castle's battles. We could also see the foundations of the chapel that once stood in the middle of the grounds. It's amazing to see something so old, and even with all the different ways it's been used, so much of it still stands.

We traveled to Laughton, where John Goldsmith and Sophia Smith were married and where Sophia was born. Again, we didn't find any gravestones for our family, but we walked the grounds, looked at the church, imagined John and Sophia getting married in the beautiful church, imagined Sophia being christened at the font when she was a baby. It was a really beautiful town with really pretty houses all around. Like many of the churches, the tower of this church was also used as an observation post during WWII.

Next we went on to Mayfield, which was the town where our ancestors attended the LDS church after they joined. Sue has been trying to find out for us where the church was located at that time, but she hasn't been able to find out yet. It was probably in someone's home, but we don't know yet. Of course, we checked out the Church of England there, too, but didn't get too excited about it because we knew our ancestors didn't attend church there, it was just full of history like the others, with the usual wonderful old gravestones. As we drove away, Mom suddenly grabbed the family pedigree chart from me and looked at it for a minute, and said, "Stephen Hope and Elizabeth Coleman were married in Mayfield!" Sure enough - according to our records, they were. We just hadn't even realized it until we were leaving. I teased Mom that Stephen must have given her a big nudge to tell her, "hey, dummy, you missed something! Pay attention!" Which presents me with another of those mystery questions to ask when I get on the other side: why, when both of them were born in Waldron, and died in Waldron, why were they married in Mayfield???? It's not a long distance away, but it would have been for them.

Mayfield is a wonderful town - very old and beautiful and they've really retained a lot of the charm and style of the past. We didn't spend a lot of time there because Sue and Mom were both tired, but I could have walked on up and down the street to see more.

On our way home, we saw some beautiful countryside. Some of the areas have homes that remind me a lot of the homes in Nauvoo - they're 2 storied, long and rectangular, with chimneys on both ends. We passed huge fields of sheep, just like I expected to see. It's beautiful - bright green grass stretching on forever and the white dots of sheep all over. Mom and I were getting hungry, so we offered to buy lunch for all of us. Sue directed her husband to this really pretty house called Gibby's, which was a real English tea house. We were past 2:00, so we were too late for lunch, but we were just in time for afternoon tea. So Sue had a pot of tea and a scone(biscuit) with jam, and Mom and I had hot chocolate and scones. It was really good hot chocolate, and I almost felt English sitting there in a tea house and drinking hot chocolate from a tea cup. Felt like when I was a little girl and would play tea party with Kool-Aid or water. Sue says now I'm officially English - I've had afternoon tea now.

As we came close to Eastbourne, we could see the English Channel off in the distance, over the top of the town. Eastbourne is really a resort town where people go for holidays (vacations). We drove down by the coast, where the left side of the street was plastered with hotel after hotel, and then bed & breakfasts or apartments for rent, etc for the people who are visiting. On our right we could see the channel, and there were all kinds of entertainment all along the coast: carnivals, museums, and the most beautiful wharf area that goes out over the water, with a big fancy building on top. We're hoping to go explore that area more tomorrow - just drove by it today. Even with it raining, it was beautiful.

Tomorrow, we have an appointment at Lewes to go to the archives and look at records. I know people don't usually make that part of their vacation, but Mom and Sue are excited about it. I'm getting there. I just love driving around and looking at the countryside. I told Mom that I think I have more English blood in me than the other - kind of like she has more Scottish blood in her. Having a great time, Mom hasn't got on my nerves yet, (I'm sure I haven't got on HERS yet!) and we survived the day today driving around with 2 large dogs in the back who liked to whine and bark at EVERYTHING along the road as we went. Yes, you can laugh while you imagine Mom handling that! She's actually doing really well. Talk to you all tomorrow!