I’m stretched really thin at the moment, so the best I can do is a damn history lesson.
Let me tell you a little about Lindfield. It’s one of many ancient towns that dots the south of England. It has existed in some form or another way back into prehistoric antiquity, but apparently it entered ‘modern’ history back in 765AD. There’s a photo (below) of the oldest ‘original’ building in the town below — it’s called the Church House now. It doesn’t look that old though; it’s probably been rebuilt a dozen times in its life. No one knows exactly how old it is, but it dates back to around 1100 — 900 years old!
The name of the town comes from the Saxon/Old English ‘Lindefeldia’ — you gotta love old place names, they’re so simple — it literally means ‘field with lime trees’. You Americans probably don’t realise this, but almost every English town name has a very literal meaning. My nearby town of Crawley, for example, means ‘a meeting place for crows’. York (as in New York!) probably comes from ‘a place of yew trees’, but it’s been through about four different languages and transliterations to arrive at modern English. Obviously ‘Palm Springs’ is the modern-day equivalent of such naming schemes…
[Did I bore you all yet? No? Great!]
Anyway, fast forward a few hundred years and Lindfield is now a proper town on the route between London and Brighton. There’s a lot of 15th and 16th century buildings (big, exposed wooden beams) that were probably built by important Tudors. One of them is a ‘hunting lodge’ (it’s huge), and it’s near the church, so that’s probably where some king or prince hung out during the hunting season.
Most of the modern High Street (do you have that term in America? Or is it just ‘central avenue’ or something?) is 17th and 18th century. It’s almost entirely Georgian architecture. There’s a big manor in the middle of town (I didn’t get a photo), but it’s been renovated so many times that it’s impossible to say how old it is. The fascia is Georgian (and painted a nasty grey/green), but if you look at the side/back it’s obviously a lot older. A lot of old England suffers from this problem — damn FASHIONS! It’s not uncommon to see a 400-year-old house with 1970s-style rendering on the outside. Makes me die a little inside.
Lindfield even has an original red post box AND telephone box. You’ll need to be British to really appreciate this — everyone else, just… I don’t know… take my word for it: they’re a massive part of modern English history. Anyway, enough with the lecture (but feel free to ask for more info if something tickled you) — on with the pretty photos!
I have some awesome sunset photos which I need to share at some stage. I guess I can put a few up here tomorrow, and some on Flickr.
(Note that the church house used to be a pub… ah, irony…)
(The sun’s really starting to set by the time I took this photo… lovely.)
(This isn’t the most amazing photo in the world, but it’s pretty rare to find both famous red boxes next to each other. Only in ancient towns like Lindfield I guess!)
(The old people walking towards us would, in about 30 seconds, be treated to the spectacle of my mother and I playing around in the phone box…)
As you can see, I didn’t actually get many photos of old houses — because I’m a die-hard landscape photographer. The first photo, of the house, is pretty nice though, right? It’s just that the sun was very low, and all the ancient Tudor houses were in the shade of other houses and trees.
Anyway, some sunset photos to follow!
MentalSarcasm
Jan 19, 2010
The two together are rare?? Really? We’ve got our red phone box next to the post box in my village, I’m up near Cambridge. I never thought of it as being rare before.
Very nice photos and thank you for the history lesson! (I was the one on Facebook last night encouraging you to put up the house photos XD).
Abi
Jan 19, 2010
The house I grew up in had a red phonebox next to it and a postbox in the garden wall. I am almost certain they have gone now which is really sad. Nice pics.. A departure!
Sara Strand
Jan 19, 2010
I am in LOVE with the picture of the two red boxes!! When my sister in law, Kate, was in the UK for a study abroad semester, she tried really hard to get a picture of one for me. She was mostly in Birmingham, but ended up going to a bunch of countries and brought me not one fabulous photo. Nope, I got a pilsner with “London” written on the side. Damn shame. I wanted a real garden gnome but customs wouldn’t let her pack it in her luggage. For whatever reason, I’ve always wanted a real garden gnome and ideally, a red phone booth in my house. OH! Maybe the gnome IN the phone booth. And history lessons are awesome, especially when I know nothing about what I’m reading!
sebastian
Jan 19, 2010
A gnome in a phone box… that’s pretty stereotypical of England, before the 1990s
Sarcasm — I don’t know if it’s ACTUALLY rare. Maybe in small towns it’s still the norm? I don’t see red phone boxes that often — the red postboxes are still fairly common I think?
I vaguely remember something about the red phone boxes being retired from active service…? It was about… 10 years ago now I guess.
My grandmother’s house had a postbox in her garden wall, Abi… those were the DAYS!
Emily Jane
Jan 19, 2010
Oh, you make my heart long to be back in England!
chiefy
Jan 19, 2010
Wow, that last one really speaks to me for some reason. It’s all “Hi there, Miss. Chief! Doesn’t this street look quaint and inviting?” and I’m like “yes!”.
I never said we had an interesting conversation.
Melissa
Jan 19, 2010
If I’m not mistaken, your “High Street” is our “Main Street” or just “Downtown”. But those only work in pretty small places — 35,000 population or less.
(Did I just show my gauche American-ness by thinking 35,000 is small?)
sebastian
Jan 19, 2010
Curiously, ‘small’ in America is probably smaller than the UK… because our density is a lot higher than yours
You have all those fly-speck towns with populations under 1,000. We don’t really — because every town basically creeps into the territory of other towns.
I think Main Street’s the one I was thinking of! I forget why it’s originally called the High Street — I’ll go look it up in a sec.
I think it’s quite quaint (and adorable) that you’d hold a conversation with one of my photos, Chiefy
carissajaded
Jan 19, 2010
I love these pictures!! They make me want to hop on a plane and come over their right now. And I love the phone booth, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red one, and it’s been years since I’ve even seen a regular one!