A small part of the Con Ainsworth archive i am building up, lots to come, most going into a booklet.
The boats talked about here are in Worthing Museum store and not in good condition, photos soon. click on photo to enlarge.

 The Cellars of Slindon House.

I am about to undertake a detailed survey of the cellars of Slindon House.

From around dates below.

 Period of Archbishop Langton.

  Date. Archbishop of Canterbury between 1207

 and his death in 1228.

There may be signs of an early period yet to be identified.

To, the present day.

So a long period of use, within the area of the cellars you can see early medieval, building work, late periods up until 1600s,.Plus to present day.

The cellars seem to be divided up  into possibly three periods, early, middle and late, late being 1700s to present day including signs of Victorian use, and Edwardian use, such as coal shoots, gas lighting, then later some WW1 signs, and later WW2 reinforcement of the cellars ceilings, plus a ammunition store room. Plus, graffiti of service men’s names. Canadian .

There another very interesting feature of a lift shaft, very ornate, completes with the workings, used to convey Lady Beaumont from the ground floor to the top floor of the present building.

Work will start next Monday and continue for the week, a resistivity survey to the south of the house will take place during this period.

This is an area which shows signs of early foundations of the early building that once stood there.

 













I am looking for interesting articles for our annual journal, so please put pen to paper, or should i say fingers to keyboard,

I am the Chair of the Friends of Botolphs   Church in the Adur Valley near Bramber, see link,
http://friendsofstbotolphs.wordpress.com/

This church is now in the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.













Mick Aston is no longer with us, he inspired many, including myself, to me he was the face of Time Team, and to be honest he really inspired me to go further in my studies of Archaeology, and especially the history of Monastery's.
He will be sadly missed, and really so young, rest know. .

St Botolphs Church in the Adur Valley is now in the hands of the Church Conservation Trust.

At a meeting last night a formal committee started to take shape , we now have a Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer, somehow i ended up being the Chairperson, so still early days, but the basis of the formation of the working friends of the church is now in place.
Membership of the friends will be £10 per year for an individual and £20 for a family membership, there will be newsletters, fund raising events, lectures, music, arts etc.

More news later

Alexander Selkirk - the Real Robinson Crusoe?

Frequently history is stranger than fiction and none more so than in the tale of Alexander Selkirk: the real-life Robinson Crusoe.

Born in 1676, the seventh son of a cobbler, Alexander Selkirk grew up in Lower Largo, Fife. At the age of 19 he found himself in trouble with the Kirk Session after his brother’s trick of making him drink sea water resulted in a family fight. Before his case was heard, Selkirk fled to sea hoping to make his fortune through privateering (effectively legalized piracy on the King’s enemies) against Spanish vessels off the coast of South America.
Within a few years his skill at navigation led to his appointment as Sailing Master on the ‘Cinque Ports’, a sixteen gun, ninety ton privateer. The expedition was a disaster. The captain of the ship was a tyrant and after a few sea battles with the Spanish, Selkirk feared the ship would sink. So, in an attempt to save his own life he demanded to be put ashore on the next island they encountered. In September 1704, Selkirk was castaway on the uninhabited island of Más a Tierra (today known as Robinson Crusoe Island), over 400 miles off the West Coast of Chile. He took with him a little clothing, bedding, a musket and powder, some tools, a Bible and tobacco.

At first Selkirk simply read his Bible awaiting rescue, but it soon became apparent that the rescue wasn’t imminent. He resigned himself to a long stay and began to make island life habitable with only rats, goats and cats for company in his lonely vigil.

After several years of isolation, two ships drew into the island’s bay. Selkirk rushed to the shore, realizing a little late that they were Spanish. Their landing party fired, forcing him to flee for his life although he managed to evade capture and the Spaniards eventually departed.

Finally On 1st of February 1709, two British privateers dropped anchor offshore. Alexander lit his signal fire to alert the ships, who dispatched a rather astonished landing party to find a ‘Wildman’ dressed in goat skins. Remarkably the privateers’ pilot was William Dampier, who had led the Selkirk’s original expedition and was able to vouch for the ‘Wildman’.


Selkirk had spent four years and four months of isolation on the island, yet seemed stable when he was found. The experience had, in fact, saved his life. From William Dampier he learnt that he had been right to leave the ‘Cinque Ports’, which had sunk off the coast of Peru with all of its crew drowned except the captain and another seven men, who had survived only to be captured and left to rot in a Peruvian jail.
Selkirk re-embarked on his career as a privateer and within a year he was master of the ship that rescued him. In 1712 he returned to Scotland £800 richer, and surprised his family as they worshipped at the Kirk in Largo. They had long given him up for dead and were astonished that he was alive, let alone alive in his fine, gold and lace clothes. In 1713 he published an account of his adventures which were fictionalized six years later by Daniel Defoe in his now famous novel: ‘Robinson Crusoe’.



Selkirk, however, could never really readjust to life on the land, and, in 1720, a year after he was immortalized by Defoe, he joined the Royal Navy only to die of fever off the coast of Africa.

Great War In The Air - 112 Zeppelins Over England

With the anniversary of the War to end all Wars next year, i am working on aspects affecting Sussex, but thought this may be of interest. .http://youtu.be/mb6x956HTHU

Another great film. http://youtu.be/XJb-rF9k33g

St Botolphs Church in the Adur Valley is now in the hands of the Church Conservation Trust, the church will be closed later in the year for major restoration work, so now would be a good time to visit this ancient church.
Adjacent to the church on the site of the now modern burial ground ,where once stood the medieval village of Botolphs,the site is still littered with medieval pottery etc.Opposite the church in the fields you can still see the remains of the medieval salt industry,salt mounds are still visible. At a later date i will be undertaking tours of the church and surroundings area associated with the village and church.
Meanwhile do visit this summer, it is open every day from early till late.

The Grade I listed Saxon church of St Botolph's at Botolphs, West Sussex, England, is situated in the valley of the River Adur and is now part of the Church of England parish of Beeding and Bramber with Botolphs. An earlier dedication to St Peter de Vetere Ponte (St Peter of the Old Bridge) is now lost, like the bridge over the Adur from which it took this ancient name. The church serves the mostly depopulated hamlet of Botolphs in the Horsham district of West Sussex. The church has fragments of medieval wall paintings. Architectural historian Ian Nairn comments that the Jacobean pulpit is "notable in a county which is poor in 17th century fittings".

Exciting finds in Slindon House.

A visit to the cellars has unearthed some early Medieval building work, dated to circa 1200s.Vaulting , medieval floor tiles, possible very early chapel.

Slindon was a important deer park at this time, and on the list of, circa 12 Summer residency's of the Archbishops of Canterbury.

It was an occasional residence of Stephen Langton, who died here in 1228, and Archbishop John Pecham spent much time here, holding ordinations in the chapel in 1288 and 1291.

  Archbishop Chicheley confirmed the election of Thomas Ludlowe as Abbot of Battle in 1421 in the chapel.

Now this shows us this was a high statues building, as we can see from the remains.
Lots more to show, this just a taster.    Double click photos to enlarge.

Stephen Langton

Stephen Langton,  (died July 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex, Eng.), English cardinal whose appointment as archbishop of Canterbury precipitated King John’s quarrel with Pope Innocent III and played an important part in the Magna Carta crisis.

Langton, son of a lord of a manor in Lincolnshire, became early in his career a prebendary of York. He then (c. 1181) went to Paris and, having graduated from that university, he served there for 25 years and established a reputation as a great preacher and a major scholar and theologian. Pope Innocent III then summoned him to Rome and in 1206 created him cardinal-priest of St. Chrysogonus. Immediately afterward Langton was drawn into the vortex of English politics.
After the death of Hubert Walter (1205), a dispute immediately arose as to who should be the new archbishop of Canterbury; but after two years of political turmoil involving king and clergy, the Pope suggested that the suffragans of Canterbury elect Langton, who was consecrated at Viterbo on June 17, 1207. King John, however, refused to allow the new archbishop access to his province, seized the revenues of Canterbury, and banished the monks; Innocent replied by laying England under an interdict (March 1208). Langton crossed to Dover (October 1209) in an attempt to achieve negotiation with the king, but John would go no nearer than Chilham, Kent, and after a week the archbishop left the country, and John’s excommunication was published (November 1209).
By 1212 John was seriously planning the recovery of the French territories lost to Philip II in 1204. The need to embark on this enterprise unhampered by ecclesiastical censure, Innocent’s threat of deposing him, and the news that Philip was planning (April 1213) an invasion of England finally caused John to submit. He at once agreed to receive the archbishop, and Langton, who had been residing mainly at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, crossed to England (July 1213) and absolved the king.
Langton was not only associated with the baronial opposition against King John; he advised and supported it, suggesting that the barons take their stand on the coronation oath and the charter of Henry I. Later he withdrew, disapproving violent means, and at Runnymede (June 1215) appeared as one of the king’s commissioners. He therefore probably influenced such “non baronial” clauses of Magna Carta as the one confirming ecclesiastical liberties. During 1218–28 he supported Henry III’s party, being responsible for the 1225 reissue of Magna Carta, and that year convened a clerics’ council to determine a grant to the king. He was responsible for the recall of the papal legate, and during his life no other one resided in England, thus strengthening the archbishop of Canterbury’s claim to be legatus natus (a legate in his own right). In 1222 he also promulgated some important constitutions.

Peckham, John (C. 1225–1292)

John Peckham, or Peckham, the English philosopher and theologian, and defender of Augustinian doctrines, was born in Patcham, near Brighton, Sussex. Educated at the monastery at Lewes, he continued his studies at Oxford and Paris, and sometime during the 1250s he joined the Franciscan friars at Oxford. Subsequently he became a master of theology in Paris in 1269 and returned to Oxford in 1272. Peckham was provincial of the English Franciscans from 1275 to 1277 and then lectured at the papal court for two years. In 1279 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury and held this office until his death.