May afternoon in a Sussex churchyard

It was very hot in our village today - May Bank Holiday - and, after sitting with a beer and a book in my back garden, I fancied a walk up to and through the churchyard. The church is just a couple of streets away - a five minute walk, in fact - with some interesting things to look at on the way. Fancy coming with me?

As I walk up Church Street towards Pinchnose Green and the footpath up to the church, the large white Georgian house called Martyn Lodge stands on the right.

Martyn Lodge

This was the home of Canon Nathaniel Woodard, a Victorian clergyman who founded the Woodard Schools - a group of Anglican schools in the fee paying and maintained sectors. These include Lancing College, Ardingly College and others. The Canon famously got into a dispute with a character called Bob Ward, who lived in a Tudor cottage below the church, which we'll come to in a minute.

Pinchnose Green got its name from the tanneries which once stood on the other side of the church, with their pungent smell. The tanneries have long gone, but the name lives on in the shape of a pretty patch of green, planted with an oak to commemorate the accession of Edward VII to the throne and known as the Coronation Oak.

Pinchnose Green

Bob Ward's Tudor cottage is on the left of this photograph. Here it is close up:

The Cat House

The story goes that, in the 1880s, Canon Woodard's cat killed Bob Ward's canary - how is not known. Filled with rage, Bob Ward made iron plaques of a cat killing a canary and set them round the eaves of the cottage - you can see them in the photo. He also rigged up a system of cords from which various shells and stones and beads hung, and jangled them all together whenever he saw the Canon pass by his cottage to go to church. The path up past this cottage, known ever since then to all in the village as the Cat House, is called Church Terrace and leads into the back of the churchyard.

As you step through the iron gate at the end of Church Terrace, the first thing to catch your eye is a small, triangular garden bounded by yew walks. This little garden is in memory of Olave Baden-Powell, the wife of Robert Baden-Powell and the first Chief Guide of the Scout and Guide movement. Olave created the first British guide troupe in the village - in a room in Martyn Lodge - and their name also lives on in the BP Guild, a charitable village organisation which organises of sorts of local events, for elderly people in particular. Here's the garden - strewn with wild flowers - on a May afternoon:

Olave Baden-Powell garden

Once in the churchyard, St. Peter's church rises up in front of you.

St Peter's Church

Two yew walks were planted in the post-war years, each one taking you up to a different side of the church.

Yew walk

But the churchyard is green, slightly overgrown and cool, so we'll stop a while on a worn wooden seat and contemplate the scene… Gravestones with names that have been in the village for generations - Wardens and Slaughters, Nyes and Lelliots - wildflowers all round us and the song of robins, blackbirds, chiff chaffs and a lone cuckoo (early this year).

Churchyard

Coming out of the churchyard on the other side, we pass Old Tudor Cottage and emerge in Church Lane.

Old Tudor Cottage

At the end of Church Lane - a cul-de-sac - a footpath takes up past the site of the old tanneries, now a large, closed field in the centre of the village called the Tanyard field, and filled with wildlife.

Tanyard field

Finally, the footpath joins up with a quiet road called Cagefoot Lane - where the village stocks used to stand - and we can stroll along and back to the High Street and then home.

Cagefoot Lane

I hope you enjoyed our afternoon stroll.