Any time you hear mention of Arundel, people always mention the castle, but it's possible to have a lovely day there without once stepping foot inside the castle grounds. If you walk up the hill, follow the wall around, past the strange little ornamented wooden building…
…and past the cathedral, which is surprisingly huge for a small town (suggesting it must once have been quite the seat of power, what with the castle and all)…
…then up into Arundel Park, past the funny little gatehouse…
you'll find a lovely little castellated folly called Hiorne Tower.
Built in 1787 by Francis Hiorne, it's a triangular prospect tower with a marvellous view across the south downs, and a perfect place for a picnic. Which is what we did.
Hiorne built the tower to demonstrate his architectural ability to the Duke of Norfolk, but there's not much information available about his life or any other buildings he may have worked on, and he died before he could go on to actually do any more work for the duke. The tower is reputed to be haunted, but we saw no signs of anything.
In front of the tower is an unlikely curiosity to find sitting in a field, in the shape of an antique urn, brought back as spoils from the Crimean War after the siege of Sevastapol in 1855.
The tower itself is quite unusual, with a checkerboard pattern made from flint.
One side of the tower is extremely weathered, but the other side is not (I forgot to check the third side, but suspect it was also unweathered).
After our picnic, we had a a nice slow amble down into the valley, along the Monarch's Way, where we mostly talked to sheep.
It was quite a surprise to turn a bend and suddenly come across the lake.
At the edge of it is pretty Swanbourne Lodge, which houses a tea-rooms, but we didn't stop because we'd just had lunch. You can rent rowing boats to go on the lake, which looks like fun if you can get someone to row you around whilst you lounge.
We followed the River Arun, stopping to talk to ducklings and get excited about seeing a water vole, and wandered back into the centre of town. There's a rather good second-hand bookshop there, Kim's, which has a great selection of kids' books, including at least two bookcases which are filled floor-to-ceiling with vintage Ladybird books. It's not very cheap but I picked up a couple of things anyway. After that, time for a quick pint in a pub and then the train home. Marvellous. More photos here.
Thanks to Anwen for suggesting it, and for being great company.
on Jul 17th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Thanks for your interesting posts and lovely pictures. Francis Hiorne was the son of William Hiorne, the most prominent architect in Warwick in the 18th century. He went into the family business and was known, like his father, for his work in the Gothic style. He designed several churches, such as the one at Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and was also a big man in Warwick (holding the office of Mayor for three terms in the 1770s and 1780s). His skill as a church architect would have been well known by the time he designed the tower at Arundel, but the Duke may have been testing his ability to do secular work. Whatever, Francis Hiorne died in 1789, about two years after the building of the tower.
on Jul 19th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Thanks Philip! I knew he had died only two years after he built the tower (as mentioned in my post) but the other stuff was hard to find; although I did find something about a church I couldn't remember where, and couldn't remember enough details to put it in my post.
I don't suppose you have any idea why it was built with a chequerboard pattern? It's so distinctive. (someone asked this over on Flickr, but I must admit I was curious, too)
on Jul 20th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Well, it's imitating a medieval style called flushwork, which uses two contrasting stones (usually flint and another) to make patterns, often chequeboard, sometimes more complicated designs. Flushwork occurs a lot in the walls of medieval churches (and other high status buildings such as guildhalls) in East Anglia, but is sometimes seen in buildings in the southern counties of England too. I suppose by using this technique he was demonstrating that he could make even flat walls look interesting in a medieval sort of way. Also, there may be some flushwork in Arundel Castle (I really can't remember), in which case he'd be showing he could do something along the same lines as in the big house.
on Jul 26th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Thank you! That makes sense. (Sorry for not answering your comment sooner. That's the trouble with reading comments via email on my phone, I always forget to go back and answer them…!)