It was the sort of day when the chill strikes up your toga and the cold mist gets into your bones, when the trackways were streaming with water, the sort of day when you are glad that someone in the Empire discovered hypocausts…. The fabulous grand palace at Fishbourne is approached through a housing estate within a spit of a main arterial road. The approach to Bignor villa could not be more different. The roads into the estate are narrow country lanes, the driveway into the site sweeps up a slope across fields, and the villa sits, as it should, below the hill top, looking out across a valley to the countryside beyond. It’s the perfect setting. The villa remains in the private care of the family who first found it on their land in 1811. The outline of the west wing is visible as masonry outlines in the grass. The rooms containing the mosaics, in the original north wing, and the bath house, are protected very simply from the elements; there is no electricity on site. You know it is special when you realise as you walk round the museum room that you are walking on the original mosaic surface. As you go from room to room you step over the original walls, and even occasionally use the original step. It feels as though you are in the villa not in a museum. The summer dining room – unheated then and now – contains a piscina, or fountain, surrounded by dancing girls, and a lovely mosaic of Ganymede being carried off by an eagle. The winter dining room, with underfloor heating, has a superb set of mosaics depicting Venus, and four lovely little cameos of winged cupids dressed as gladiators, illustrating four scenes of gladiatorial combat – it may sound twee but they are not, being interesting snapshots of combat, including the execution of the defeated gladiator. Two of the other mosaics are worth mentioning. The west wing has a mosaic depicting the four seasons; the austere even grumpy looking head of “Winter” felt especially accurate given the chill of the morning! The lively mosaic of the dolphin also contains a signature, presumably of the designer. The bath house, which was protected with a covering building within a few years of its excavation in the early 19th C, contains a super mosaic of Medusa’s head. After a quick scamper round the two mazes on the site – well, Sir Mark and Nish did, to the general ridicule of the others – and a warming coffee, we (that is, Nish, Sir Mark, Fil2, Aethelred/Ron, Fred and Bob) moved on to Amberley Working Museum. Nish had cunningly arranged for the keys to the bar there to be temporarily mislaid, thus ensuring that her promise of “lunch on me” would be very very very cheap. But as the day turned into a glorious sunny autumn cracker of an afternoon and Amberley was fantastic noone seemed to mind too much. Amberley really needs a whole day to appreciate everything there is there, or rather several whole days. There is so much to see and they hold regular special days through the season that noone could feel disappointed with it. It was once a large chalk quarry and lime works, and the original buildings are still there alongside others that have been rescued from other locations, or have been built to house and display a wide range of exhibits. These buildings house a variety of traditional crafts and skills, which are demonstrated by working craftsmen who earn a living by doing so. I can’t do it justice by listing all there is there – follow the link in earler posts to see what there is. We took the open topped double decker from the entrance to the far end of the site and ambled back down, then meandered again via a different route to the top of the site and caught the train back to the entrance area. Some of the ones that caught my fancy were the Southdown bus garage complete with lots of smashing old buses, the traction engines and railway together with the railway exhibition hall, the clay pipe maker (a lovely old boy!), the working pottery, and the print workshop…. But there is so much that it’s not easy to pick out a few things. Do go to both these locations for yourself. They are well worth it. I for one intend to go back to Amberley to try to do all those things I didn’t have time for – and to return the keys to the bar. Thanks to those who came, especially to Fred and Bob, whose enthusiasm for and pride in Amberley not only made it even more enjoyable but it also well justified. [Sorry not to include images. I haven’t yet downloaded mine. But hopefully there will be some in Co’s gallery if Ron and Fil are more efficient than I!][/i]_________________
