The nice surprise – in addition to the weather which was fresh but bright and clear – was that the architecture of the buildings along Hastings seafront was really attractive. There were several examples of Art Deco design to be seen which, after brutalist, is my favourite style of architecture in use. We don’t see very much Art Deco at home, quite likely because anything that was there was probably bombed during the war, so it’s always lovely to see some around. On top of that, Hastings had a pier and a quick look around the various places we’ve travelled to in and around England will soon show you that we do like a nice pier.

The site of Buxted Park itself is mostly grassland and is a former deer park with records of it as far back as the twelfth century. After checking in and dropping off our overnight bags in our room we took a short walk around the grounds of the hotel. An artificial lake is a prominent landmark in the park and the entire area is considered a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its large and varied colonies of birds and invertebrates.

Just to the north of the hotel grounds is the Church of St Margaret the Queen. The Margaret in question was the Hungarian-born Saint Margaret of Scotland, sister to Edgar Ætheling who had been elected king of England in 1066 following the death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings, but was never crowned as William had other ideas. Fleeing north to Scotland she married King Malcolm III. The oldest part of the church dates from the thirteenth century when Margaret was canonized by Pope Innocent IV, although additions were made to it in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

We particularly liked this sign on the gate to the churchyard: Pray No Dog Fouling In The Churchyard.

The mansion and country house that is the core of Buxted Park Hotel was originally in 1725. As with a lot of old buildings that we visit around the world this has required some additional work to restore it over the years following a fire and many of the features present on the structure today, though still eighteenth century, were taken from other buildings during remodelling.

In the 1960s the site was opened as a hydrotherapy centre. A garden wing building was added and a swimming pool was built. Famous visitors to Buxted Park at that time included Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, and Dudley Moore.

Our room was large, spacious, and fairly typical for these fancy hotels. We had a lovely view down the well-tended lawns of the grounds but I didn’t get around to taking any photos of the room or bathroom, of the drinks we had in the bar, nor of the meal we enjoyed in the restaurant that evening. You’ll just have to imagine those parts of our stay at Buxted Park.

In September 2012 we had a birthday thing to attend in Horsham in the evening so we made the decision to make a day of it and pay another visit to Brighton first. The weather was lovely for it.

We started off with a bimble up and down The Lanes. It was here, a half dozen years earlier, that my wife had spotted an emerald ring in a jewellers that she really liked the look of, and with it being somewhat more than we’d normally spend on something like that this had led to us deciding to get married so as to pretend it was an engagement ring. Had we not visited The Lanes we may not have been married today, and we may not have discovered our love of cruising (at least for a while) because our honeymoon ended up being our very first cruise: Diamond Princess, Asia.

From The Lanes we headed down and along the pier. It’s Brighton Palace Pier to be precise, not to be confused with the West Pier, although you’d have a hard time walking along that one following the storms and fires that have destroyed most of it. Brighton Palace Pier was built in 1899 and was the third pier to be built along Brighton’s seafront. These days it hosts a decent amusement park at its end, is very popular with humans and seagulls alike, and makes for a lovely walk if you find yourself drawn to being near the sea as much as we do.

At the time of our visit the Brighton Wheel stood on the seafront. This was dismantled and removed in 2016 to allow the new Brighton i360 tower to take over the reins of “big thing on the beach that gives visitors a lovely view.”