Lulah Ellender explores Sussex’s creative green spaces.
Earth to Earth
Some gardens take centre stage, while others are designed to be scenic backdrops to some other main show. The garden at South Heighton Pottery, just off the busy Newhaven Road, somehow manages to do both. Home to ceramicist Chris Lewis and his wife Rachael, the garden wraps around a pretty flint house and slopes down towards the barns and studios where Chris works. He first came here in 1976 as an assistant to another potter, Ursula Mommens, who needed help with the more physical work in her later life. Mommens (who was Charles Darwin’s great-granddaughter) moved here in 1951 with her second husband, sculptor Norman Mommens, and continued making work until her late nineties.
The Garden at the End of the Globe
Dungeness provided Jarman an escape from his more public life in London. Friends gathered for weekends at the beach, and the garden became a backdrop for his films. But while it was a place of retreat and respite, it wasn’t an easy garden to nurture. Dungeness is classed as a desert, with more sunshine, less rainfall, and shorter frosts than anywhere else in Britain. Yet Jarman was undaunted. He loved the sun, building stone circles to cast shadows and a sun dial to track the light. John Donne’s The Sun Rising is laser-cut into the side of the house. He worked with what he had and improvised the rest.
The Glory of the Garden: Kipling’s garden at Bateman’s
My first encounter with Bateman’s, the former home of poet and author Rudyard Kipling’s, was, fittingly, through a story. It goes like this. At the age of six, Kipling was sent from his home in India to school in England. This uprooting was traumatic enough, but he also experienced cruel treatment from the foster family charged with his care. His uncle’s house in Fulham became a refuge – every time he rang the bell-pull there he felt relief, welcome, at home. When this house was demolished years later, Kipling rescued the bell-pull and installed it at Bateman’s, wanting any child visiting to feel the same sense of safety and fun.
The Artistry of Prairie Planting: Sussex Prairie Garden
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I arrived at Sussex Prairie Garden, near Henfield, but it wasn’t banana palms, Tibetan prayer flags and pigs. It’s a sign that this place is doing something different, that it will challenge perceptions and encourage the visitor to keep an open mind.
The Power of Horticulture: One Garden in Stanmer Park
While there is something inherently democratic about gardening there is also no doubt that it can feel like an exclusive world. Well-known gardens generally charge money for entry or are part of grand estates where many of us don’t feel any connection – or welcome…
Picasso, Potatoes and Parsley
At the end of ROSA #2 you can see a photo of Picasso standing on a triangle of grass in Muddles Green. It feels an incongruous image – one of the most influential artists of the 20th century standing in a beret and wool suit, pointing at a road sign in a sleepy Sussex village. Why was he here?
This Immortal Rhythm: Monk’s House
Subscribe to ROSA Magazine and get a beautifully illustrated in-depth arts magazine delivered direct to you, with access to all Lulah Ellender’s articles, and more.
Members – login to your account for full access
Back to Features