A very short distance from our accommodation was Boxgrove Priory, yet another casualty of the dissolution of the monasteries. Our host, Veronica, told us it wouldn't take long to see but we were there for more than an hour and a half!
This is all that is left of the hospitality building of the priory.
We thought this was a fireplace.
A little over half the original church was kept for use as a Parish Church. Parts of the building date back to 1108.
The Nave
This modern window, installed in 1998, depicts the Creation.
The Archangels Gabriel (with a lily the symbol of Mary to whom he brought the annunciation of the birth of Jesus), Michael (armed for battle against the dragon) and Raphael, the patron of healers (holding the fish used to cure Tobias)
Christ in glory
The Organ
The East Window
Details of east window - Abraham meets Melchizedek (Genesis 14)
Detail of east window - Moses and Aaron battling the Amalekites. Moses had to hold his arms up or the Israelites started losing. He got tired after a while so some friends held his arms up for him.
Detail of the east window - Joshua's army marches around the walls of Jericho. On the seventh time round, they blew their trumpets and "walls came tumbling down".
The Nativity
Detail of the east window - The wicked husbandmen get what's coming to them! (Matthew 21)
Detail of the east window - the Parable of the Sower (interesting knees!)
St.Catherine
The nave from the sanctuary
Mary Magdalen using her hair to wipe the feet of Jesus with precious oils. (What a lot of hair!)
Dorcas was "full of good works".
This chantry chapel was built in 1532 for Thomas West, 9th Lord de la Warr, who was a patron of the priory.
It has a myriad of interesting carvings but focus on the pillar in the middle of the photo.
At the bottom of a tree, a lady waits.
Part way up, a man is trying to reach the pears.
His friend is a better climber
The birds get the most fruit anyway!
A wooden lectern
Jesus tells the parable of the lilies in the field.
The joy of Mary Magdalen when she realises she is talking to the risen Jesus is almost palpable here!
This window depicting a Hawker Hurricane and the Stars and Stripes is a memorial to Pilot Officer Billy Fiske who was the first American to die in British service in World War II. He is buried in the churchyard.
Our next visit was to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. This is quite like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. A number of buildings have been moved from other places to the museum for preservation. It is possible to explore inside some of them. Some of the photos are a little dark because it rained on and off and it was getting dark towards the end of our visit (4:00pm!).
A barn with a thatched roof. We were surprised to see just how thick the thatching on a roof needs to be.
A very English scene
This is the new Downland Gridshell Building is designed so that old buildings can be restored inside before being moved into a permanent position in the museum. It was the first gridshell building in England and won some architectural awards.
Under the gridshell building is a temperature and humidity-controlled store room with 15,000 artefacts which have been given to the museum. This horse-drawn hearse was built in 1897.
These bells go on horses which are pulling a wagon to alert others that the wagon is on the road. Someone has done a study of the bells revealing that each set has different sounds and that the bells in each one are pitched so that they sound good together!
This tread wheel was used to raise and lower the bucket into a deep well. A boy had to get inside the wheel and run (just like a mouse) to operate the machine.
This farmhouse was built in 1609.
Some permanent residents of the museum.
Looking across the fields
Bayleaf Cottage was built in the 15th century.
Because there was no chimney (they were only in palaces) the whole house was filled with smoke and the ceiling and most of the walls were black.
The bedroom was upstairs and had an ensuite!
Here is the ensuite. (The brightness is the daylight outside!)
This is the outside view of the ensuite. One's business dropped down into a pit.
The pigs were very interested in the duck food that Satoshi gave them!
Tindall's Cottage was built in the early 1700s.
A school building
The school was in use from about 1820 - 1851.
We didn't have quite enough time to look at everything in the museum because it closed at 4:00pm. We were tired so we decided to get some food from a supermarket and take it "home" to eat. We had a night "in".