The Cathedral of the Downs

For the past three years I've been visiting Holland from time to time as part of my job and staying on for a few days doing some personal research on Canadian servicemen. One of the Dutch students I met on my first trip is now doing some postgraduate research in Oxford. Her partner came over for the holidays and they came down to Sussex for a few days. Today we met up for one of my famous eight hour strolls, walking from Alfriston to Firle via Berwick and Alciston, then up onto Firle Beacon, along the greenway track across to High and Over and then back along the Cuckmere Valley. It was rather windy and poured with rain as we headed east along the South Downs. But the day ended with a short burst of evening sunshine as we made our way back towards St Andrew's Church in Alfriston which is known as the Cathedral of the Downs and dates from 1360. Next to it (just out of the image here) sits the very first building purchased by the National Trust in 1896, the Alfriston Clergy House.