One of the first questions everyone asks me in Corsica when they realise that I’m English, is ‘is England really like it is on Midsomer Murders?’ and on days like today when I have been sitting in the garden on the Cricketers’ Arms, I can honest say that it is (with perhaps slightly fewer deaths!).
The Cricketers’ Arms is the English country pub of most people’s imaginations. The pub itself is a traditional flint stone cottage pub close to the South Downs. The gardens are particularly pretty; Buddleias attracting butterflies, cherry blossom trees and all sorts of spring flowers.
We sat in the garden with glasses of chilled cider mulling over the menu, and in the end we plumped for two of their speciality platters. We took a cheese platter with mature cheddar, stilton and brie, served with real ale chutney and a Spanish platter with Serrano ham, Gran Vera chorizo, Salchichon sausage, Manchego cheese, olives and sun-blushed tomatoes which we shared.
They were absolutely delicious, so after lunch we decided to be good again and walk up to the church. I didn’t know there was a church close to the pub as they are a little way out of the main part of the village, but it was great as we got to see beautiful thatched houses and an amazing clematis clinging to an old wall
We wandered through the graveyard which sounds a bit morbid, but with wild flowers all over the place, you couldn’t help but feel uplifted.
The church is small but perfectly formed as the saying goes, and Kerry’s dad who had visited before gave us a top tip because otherwise we’d never have known that you can light up the inside to illuminate the colourful 20th century frescos, some of which were painted by the Bloomsbury group.
Kerry sat for ages reading all about them, but I have to confess that I was more interested in the stone windows as architecture is more my thing, and the view was just beautiful…
The Cricketers’ Arms is the English country pub of most people’s imaginations. The pub itself is a traditional flint stone cottage pub close to the South Downs. The gardens are particularly pretty; Buddleias attracting butterflies, cherry blossom trees and all sorts of spring flowers.
We sat in the garden with glasses of chilled cider mulling over the menu, and in the end we plumped for two of their speciality platters. We took a cheese platter with mature cheddar, stilton and brie, served with real ale chutney and a Spanish platter with Serrano ham, Gran Vera chorizo, Salchichon sausage, Manchego cheese, olives and sun-blushed tomatoes which we shared.
They were absolutely delicious, so after lunch we decided to be good again and walk up to the church. I didn’t know there was a church close to the pub as they are a little way out of the main part of the village, but it was great as we got to see beautiful thatched houses and an amazing clematis clinging to an old wall
We wandered through the graveyard which sounds a bit morbid, but with wild flowers all over the place, you couldn’t help but feel uplifted.
The church is small but perfectly formed as the saying goes, and Kerry’s dad who had visited before gave us a top tip because otherwise we’d never have known that you can light up the inside to illuminate the colourful 20th century frescos, some of which were painted by the Bloomsbury group.
Kerry sat for ages reading all about them, but I have to confess that I was more interested in the stone windows as architecture is more my thing, and the view was just beautiful…
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