The shifting pebbles of Pevensey

 A flying trip to Sussex yesterday for a pub lunch with my daughter and her partner, after which we wandered along the pebble beach at Pevensey Bay, where the future William I landed his invasion force on 28th September 1066. These days it's far more peaceful. 

Looking over towards Bexhill

We sat for a while and relaxed, before admiring the 'gardens' at the top of the shingle bank on the way back to the car. They looked more like they'd grown themselves, and were no less beautiful for that. 

I think I should thread my hagstones and hang them somewhere too, even though we're a few miles further from the sea here. Maybe I'll find somewhere when the extension I'm having built is complete.

There was just one thing missing. I knew there was a castle at Pevensey but for some reason, I'd been convinced it's on the coast, but it isn't. But I've seen it! I wailed, inwardly. In a picture, on a crag - with turrets - overlooking the sea ... 

I stopped, followed my subconscious train of thought - Pevensey à Pevensie à  Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy  à Narnia ... oh! I was thinking of Cair Paravel.  

The non-fictional Pevensey Castle is situated about a mile inland, between the villages of Pevensey and Westham. Alex kindly detoured so that we could see it from the outside. It's massive and impressive and I think I'll properly plan a visit there sometime. And ... 

... at the time of the Norman invasion, in 1066, the land it was built on was a peninsula projecting from the coast. It had first been fortified by the Romans; then, after the invasion, William had temporary defences raised, which were later replaced by the great mediaeval castle. So the picture in my head wasn't wrong; it was just 960 years out of date.