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When the beach begins to pall a little, or the onshore breeze gets a bit too much, it's a good idea to have a
fall-back plan. Sussex has so many attractions that you're almost spoilt for choice. We have chosen three favourite museums and one wildfowl sanctuary.
1. Museum of Shops, Eastbourne
The Museum of Shops is in Cornfield Terrace, about five-minutes' stroll from the tourist information centre. It comprises a number of shop fronts on ground and upper floors. Between them, the displays cover around 100 years of shopping history. There's a
drapery, featuring ladies and gentlemen's clothes and hats, and knitting and sewing machines. In the grocery are examples of foods and pre-packaged goods, many of which brands are still available.
If you were born before WWII the wartime kitchen will bring back memories, as will the small display of wartime food, and gas masks. For the youngsters, there's a shop full of toys. As well as the main
displays there are posters and advertisements for everything from cigarettes to washing powder. Five Woodbine cigarettes for five old pence (5d) certainly brought back memories of 50 years ago.
2. Wildfowl and wetland Centre, Arundel
We came across the Arundel Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre by accident - a lucky accident as it turned out as, in our experience, this centre is one of the best of its type. The modern, light and airy reception building includes a restaurant with floor-to-ceiling picture windows overlooking the water. We particularly liked the comfortable chairs in the restaurant area where visitors can sit and watch the birds in comfort. There's even a small shop with binoculars and
telescopes for sale.
Outside, there are a walks around the 60 acres
of ponds, reedbeds and lakes, as well as a number of hides for the really enthusiastic visitor who wants to study the ducks, geese and swans at close quarters. Interestingly, we learnt that apart from New Zealand, Arundel is the only place in the world where Blue Ducks have been known to breed.
We have no hesitation in saying that we think the Centre would be worth a half, or even a whole, day of anyone's time even if, like us, they are not hugely interested in birdwatching.
3. Amberley Working Museum
Covering some 36 acres in a disused chalk pit, the Amberley Working Museum is just off the B2139 at Amberley station. There are over 30 buildings housing an extensive range of exhibits: everything from steam engines to 1920s radios to the latest BT
satellite technology.
Most of the buildings housing the exhibits are relics of the past, but the SEEBOARD Electricity Hall and the BT Exhibition Hall are purpose-built. The BT Hall only opened recently - it contains the complete history of the telephone. As well as static exhibits there is a fascinating film showing Worthing Telephone Exchange in 1964. Looking at all the
different models of phones on display it's interesting to note how quickly things have changed.
The SEEBOARD Hall contains a variety of
electrical equipment dating from the earliest days, plus displays of small electrical appliances. Again, we were surprised at how many of them we could recall from our youth.
Other buildings we found particularly interesting included a village garage and filling station dating from the early 1930s, and a Southdown bus garage housing a number of buses from the 1920s, together with ticket machines and punches which were in use used during the days when all buses had a conductor as well as a driver.
In the hierarchy of tradesmen, just about the
highest used to be the wheelwright, and at Amberley there is a wheelwright's shop where we were able to watch a wooden spoked wheel being made for a costermonger's barrow. In another building we saw a woodturner at work on one of the lathes. Other occupations featured at the museum include
printing, and walking stick and broom making.
4. Weald & Downland Open Air Museum
The museum is off the A286 Chichester-to-Midhurst road, about six miles north of Chichester. Covering 50 acres, it has numerous buildings from Sussex,
and further afield, which have been taken there and rebuilt. The houses and cottages, dating from medieval times make you realise that the film
industry's depictions of these bygone days are often inaccurate. The floors were neither level nor smooth, the tiny windows meant that rooms were dark, and stairs were steep and narrow. And, from what we saw, the upper floors were so uneven that the
occupants must have found it hard not to fall out of bed - by comparison, levelling a caravan presents no problem at all.
Some of the other buildings contained displays
of building methods and materials used over the centuries. Thatched roofs, bricks, carpentry and
joinery are all featured and you can watch a working watermill grinding flour. Close by is a wind pump, plus a smithy, and a barn housing masonry and plumbing exhibitions - at weekends you can watch demonstrations by specialists. Animals don't feature largely here, although there are sheep and heavy horses. All of this, plus a picnic area, makes the museum a grand day out for the whole family.
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Distance 155 miles
<b>Time 9 hours
Start/finish Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Crowborough
Suitable for all the family
Tourist information
Sussex Country (South) Information Centre
Tel 01323 442667
Refreshments
The Arundel Wetland and Wildlife Centre, Mill Road, Arundel, BN18 9PB
Tel 01903 883355
Attractions
Museum of Shops
Tel 01323 737143
Arundel Wildfowl
and Wetland Centre
Tel 01903 883355
Amberley Working Museum
Tel 01798 83137
Weald and Downland
Open Air Museum
Tel 01243 811363
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