Especially For Me Matie Toadie.....Or Anyone That Gives A Dam...

Ok....... I have this friend called Toadie, Toadie and his family live left of the staples in America and I love this little family to death....well, one thing ya have to know about Toadie is his LOVE of all things English, I swear he must of been British in a former life..... so this post I give to you Toadie..... just a little snippet of my world.....

Exactly 3 miles from where I live is a little village called Southwick (pronounced 'Suvik' with my accent lol)





Here is the little village church....

Its a beautiful but a strange and rare little village..... Southick is nestled in the middle of hundreds of acres of farmland and woods, collectively called 'The Southwick Estate' and get this.... the whole shabang is owned by one person...including all the land.... yep thats right every single house is owned by one person, he lives somewhere in London but he owns the whole dam village.... he inherited it about 10 years ago from his elderly aunt...... everything in the village is owned by this one man.... even the 2 pubs the church the village shop and every single cottage in the village and the little cottages scattered in the woods.... like the 250 year old game keepers cottage in the middle of the woods where me matie lives.....



The Red Lion Pub....which serve the most delicous meals...



The Golden Lion Pub........ aint it strange that BOTH pubs are 'lions' lol

So no one that lives in any of the houses actually owns them, they are all rented from the Estate..... and most, not all, but most of the people that live in the houses actually work in some way for the Estate...... in the olden days they would of ALL worked in some way for the estate and up at the big house.....

Now, dont that just sound well old fashioned lol..... my friend that lives in the game keepers cottage in the middle of the woods, well her husband is actually the game keeper lol but she is a teacher outside the village.... if their house they rent went up for sale it would cost easily in the region of £500,000 (million $) - but everyone that lives in one of the cottages pay just a minimal rent.... VERY VERY tiny rents......

Also anyone that lives in the houses and cottages never get thrown out as they grow old, they are allowed to live in the cottages rent free from when they are to old to work...... and when they die they are allowed to pass on their rent books to a member of their family only IF the estate does not have someone else that works for them needing the cottage....

Anyways...... my matie Wendy who is one of me bestest maties, well her sister lives in one of the cottages cos her hubby is Estate Manager... her house is to DIE for lol...........



My maties sister's house is the one this end of the village green, its beautiful inside and out....

Nestled behind a high flint wall tucked behind the church is actually a Naval Base, its been there since WWII.... let me explain..... the main Manor house in Southwick was taken over during WWII as a base for all the high class war men to congregate and plan the war.... Churchill spent a lot of time there as did that doodle bloke Eisenhower... plotting and planning the war.... the D-Day landings were all planned in the White Southwick house...and there are tunnels underneath connecting them to bunkers and to one of the Forts ontop of Portsdown hill....which is about a mile away.... and the grounds to the house were built on as a naval base, where my lads use to go to Naval Cadets..... the Estate is fighting now to reclaim its land.... and I do think that HMS DRYAD as its called might be at long last moving out.....cos it rightfully belonged to the Southwick Estate and the Ministry SHOULD GIVE IT BACK....

The White house still holds all the War Stuff exactly how it was back in the early 40s like a little musuem......

So people that drive though the little village of Southwick will notice that EVERY door to EVERY cottage, house, pub ALL are painted in the same colour.... maroon :) its their trade mark lol....... even the game keepers house in the woods and my other maties (whose kid I use to childmind) who live in a HUGE beautiful farm house with acres and acres of land just on the edge of Creech wood and that 200 year old house even has its doors painted maroon :)..... its hard to really capture the image of this village on a blob.....



See the door :)

Its a proper English village as I can imagine Toadie has in his head, unlike the one I live in which is very much built up now, even though we still have some amazing houses in this one, but in Southwick they are ALL about 200 years old or older.... every single one.....



This tiny row of cottages during the summer has old buckets full of cut flowers for sale from their gardens and its where I buy my flowers in the summer months...

I probably drive though the village at least once a week, at least, and I drive out there through the woods during the summer months and buy me rhubarb off the little old man that lives in one of the corner houses, and beetroots off the woman opposite the pub and me runner beans off someone else..... I LOVE buying fresh veggies off of little tables set out the front of houses.... just love it....



I call this just The Rhubarb house... cos thats where I buy me Rhubarb from for me crumble....

Also in the spring they have a duck race on the river, where 200 yellow numbered ducks are released at the top end of the river at a start line and they make their way down river/stream to field behind one of the farms to a finish line.... ya buy a numbered ticket and if your duck comes in first ya win a prize lol.... and then the ducks are all netted up and carried back up stream and it all starts again....the whole village turns out for this age old tradition, only in the olden days the ducks were hand wittled wooden ducks....

I know a few of ya loved the post last year with the picture of the thatched barn...and that what made me think about this post...

I took all these photos meself sometime last year..... people came out to ask what I was doing lol and one man was actually rude to me..... :) oh well..... In the end when someone came over to ask what I was doing, I just told them I worked for the BBC and the village residents had been chosen for the best kept village and everyone those house was photographed was going to receive a £300 cheque ($600) for being photographed for the documentary programme lol...... :) one lady got so excited I almost had to bitch slap her and throw her to the floor to restrain her lol...... now I have visions in me head of her sitting in her house planning a holiday with the money..... I know, I know I was mean BUT these villagers were like in that film 'The Hills Have Eyes' probably all interbred, deformed and scary..... you HAD TO BE THERE lol - they didnt think to question that I had 5 nippers in me car sucking on ice-lollies cos it was well hot and that me car had no BBC stickers on it and that I only had a little digital camera LMFAO....

Southwick Estate is also where I drive out and go pick and cut down our crimbo tree, I have been doing it for years..... and oh my, last years cutting was just the funniest ever.... but thats maybe for another time....



This house is the first house ya come to when driving from where I live through the back Southwick lane... note the maroon door :)..

Anyone that knows me KNOWS how I LOVE white picket fences...... one day aye ....sigh.. see how easily pleased I am lol



The little village green which is opposite the village shop...



The village shop.....



The village shop is joined in a little terrace of houses, but look how lovely they are joined, NOT all flat fronted and the same...... note the post box embedded in the wall of the house next to the village shop....



This is the last little house in the village which is next to the little river by the bridge and he often has courgettes out the front for sale and bags of tomatoes...

Ok the rest, if ya aint bored by now is just a FEW of the many photos of some of the other cottages I took in Southwick village back last year....

So, especially for Toadie, but for anyone that is interested in my world ..... I give you just a tiny glimspe of Southwick Village.... sit back an enjoy...



If you look carefully you can just make out someone in the doorway lol.... he was to shy to be in the photo.... either that or scared of the sunlight lol





A different view of me matie Wendys sisters house...





This is one of me most favourite houses in the village, its about 300 years old or so Im told by the present occupiers lol - its actually wooden, and its like them doodle houses...



Just look at this gorgeous house...













Ok, thats probably enough lol even though I have many many more........ if you have got down this far then ya need a chuftie badge lol

I had to take the last few photos in a hurry cos I sensed the villagers were getting restless with me and thought the gathering on the village green with pickforks and hayforks and sythes and hunched backs and dribbling mouths and chants of 'stranger stranger' might have been for my benefit.... dam bloody interbred freaks......

So, just a little glimpse into my corner of the world...... someday I would LOVE to share some of these places with that someone special..... or special doodle maties.... someday aye.... sigh...

More then enough boring Twaddle of a Thursday morning, especially when I have much to suss and sort out.......

x