Arundel: A castle, cathedral, sculpture and pumpkins!

My friends David and Janie took me down to Arundel to their family's cozy cottage for two days and it was marvelous. We drove from their home in Syndenham through Sussex to another part of England where I'd never been. Arundel is a market town, perched on the side of a steep hill, with a ginormous castle and a Catholic cathedral stuck on the top. The Dukes of Norfolk have owned everything for miles around for hundreds of years, despite being Catholic and at least one of them having his head cut off. 

We stopped on the way down at the Cass Sculpture Foundation, a fantastic wooded sculpture park with about 40 or so excellent pieces of sculpture tucked in amongst the trees. A couple of the sculptors were known to me, including Robert Montgomery (whose gallery show I'd just been to in Mayfair) and these Gormley bollards. 

But mostly I was seeing these sculptors for the first time. The walk through the well-maintained woodland property, with lots of ivy on the ground and growing up the trees, was totally enjoyable, as was our packed lunch that my hosts brought along. Though the temps were a bit brisk, the skies were blue, the sun was out and we occasionally saw expansive views across fields of sheep and down to the sea through breaks in the trees. 

From there, we made one more stop before Arundel — Slindon Pumpkins, where we saw the annual pumpkin mural made of numerous pumpkins and squashes from the farm. This year's mural is called Octopus's Garden to honor of the 50th anniversary of the Abbey Road album and to call attention to marine conservation. The Upton family has been creating these annual murals since 1968, originally overseen by Mr. Upton the Elder and now by the Younger, who himself is getting up in years. That's him in the white Panama hat in the second photo below.

We ended the day with a walk around the Arundel town centre, full of charming shops and Grade II listed buildings. The town was pretty quiet on this mid-week afternoon, but is bustling at the weekend and during the summer months with visitors and seasonal residents. 

The next day started with a long, brisk walk along paths and across fields on the Norfolk Estate, where we saw a folly, used in the filming of The Madness of King George, built by one of the Dukes.

We passed fields of sheep, a hillside where the dukes and their mates go pheasant hunting, and a picturesque lake filled with ducks, swans, coots and other water fowl chasing, snapping and honking at each other. The walk brought us back into town at the entrance to Arundel Castle and the gardens.

Needing stamina for visiting the castle, we fortified ourselves with another tasty packed lunch in the amazing gardens, containing various formal garden "rooms" with fountains, as well as a glass house for tender plants, an impressive kitchen garden that grows food used on the estate in the cafe, and beds of dahlias still in bloom. I forgot to take photos of the gardens with my phone, so you'll just have to wait until I get them up on ipernity to see them. 

The original castle dates to medieval times, but it was largely re-built in the 18th and 19th centuries. The tickets are priced on a tier basis, with each tier giving access to additional parts of the complex. I opted for the gold level ticket, which enabled me to see the garden, chapel, keep and main castle rooms. The highest level gives access to the bedrooms. The castle is just full to the brim with impressive stuff — paintings, silver, furniture, you name it. Though narrow passages and up steep, winding stairs, I managed to make it almost to the top of the keep, but the top bit looked just too scary. I'm sure the views are grand from up there, but I was content to look through arrow slits and pretty windows. 

We ended the day with a fantastic tapas meal at a charming little restaurant in the town. On Friday morning we headed back to London. Huge thanks to David and Janie for their hospitality and for showing me this wonderful part of Britain. 

Stats for Wednesday:
£6.25 for Cass Sculpture Foundation (half off the concession price with Art Pass)
17,442 steps
7.44 miles

Stats for Thursday:
£17.50 gold ticket (concession) to the castle and gardens
21,693 steps
8.92