Cosmeston : the dovecote

Cosmeston Lakes Country Park has a long history but not as a country park. The earliest known owners of this land were the French de Costentin family, who came to Wales in the wake of the Norman Conquest in the 11th century AD, and later, after the property had been passed to new owners, a small medieval community developed around what may have been quite a grand manor house. The buildings of that community have been reconstructed, on top of the original, excavated foundations, and now form the Cosmeston Medieval Village visitor attraction.

Parts of the land now included in the country park were once farmed to provide food for the lord of the manor and his family, and the remains have been discovered of an orchard area, fishponds and this medieval dovecote.

These days we don’t usually associate doves with food but, in medieval times, doves were regularly eaten, and their by-products were also useful: their manure helped fertilise the gardens and feathers could be used in bedding. According to the National Trust website, the idea of constructing small towers to house doves dates from the Norman period and, between 1066 and the seventeenth century, only the aristocracy were permitted to keep these lovely birds.

It seems the dovecotes were viewed as status symbols: they were often placed in prominent positions as a way of advertising the status of the lord of the manor and of impressing both visitors and passing travellers. Though little now remains of the dovecote at Cosmeston, it would once have been very visible in the landscape, sitting as it does half way up a small hill in a field to the west of the medieval village. (The remains of the dovecote are in the centre of the photograph below.)

Apparently, the area once had a protective fence around it but that has long since disappeared and, as you can see in my photos, the stones are now almost covered by weeds, wildflowers and bramble. Luckily, a photograph of the dovecote when it was first excavated can be seen on the Vale of Glamorgan website, and, even now, with a little creative thinking, it’s possible to look at the stones and imagine what it must have been like in times gone by.

East Sussex: post boxes

Here is a small offering of post boxes I spotted during a recent week’s holiday in East Sussex (always looking!).

The oldest was in the tiny hamlet of West Dean, in East Sussex not West, a charming collection of ancient houses nestled in a secluded South Downs valley behind Cuckmere Haven, a location more easily reached on foot than by car, a place that time seems to have forgotten. Amongst its many old treasures – there were also a medieval dovecote and a gorgeous terracotta bird on a rooftop – was this lovely old Victoria wall box, set in a superbly crafted flint stone wall.

To get a photograph of the George V wall box at Birling Gap (below left), I had to brave a howling gale and light, driving rain – that’s post-box dedication for you! If you don’t know Birling Gap, it’s at the eastern end of the mighty Seven Sisters chalk cliffs on England’s south coast. My photo, above, of this impressive landscape was taken in the same howling gale.

On the right, above, is another George V wall box, this one discovered in the small village of Brightling. This box is slightly unusual as it is a Ludlow wall box, one of the wooden – rather than cast iron – boxes made by James Ludlow & Son in Birmingham. The large black-and-white enamel name plate is the giveaway and this box is even more unusual as it doesn’t have the plate that lists location, post box number and mail collection times – there were holes where the plate was originally attached but, as you can see, it looks like someone’s since stuck a couple of stickers on the front instead.

Brightling was interesting for another reason too ... more on that in my next blog post.