Setting the scene for a welcome, south coast break

Late last Friday evening, I returned from a most enjoyable and eagerly anticipated short break on England’s South Coast. The break involved an overnight stay in the West Sussex town of Chichester, although seeing as there’s a rather attractive cathedral at its heart, perhaps Chichester should be described as a city. Perhaps its compact nature is more applicable to a town but whatever the description, Chichester is the county town of West Sussex.

My visit to this cathedral city, involved meeting up with legendary pub man Stafford Paul, whose intention was to spend a couple of days escorting two visitors from the United States around the pubs, and other delights of this compact Sussex town. The visitors from across the Atlantic, were Dave and Joan Southworth, who are regular visitors to these shores, sometimes in conjunction with Dave's brother Dick. This time around, Dave and Joan would be spending a month in the UK, and for the purpose of the visit had based themselves at a rented cottage to the south of Chichester. Paul had invited me to join the group for this two day, exploratory visit.

The idea for such a meet-up, had come from Stafford Paul, who had joined the couple, last year on a "Proper Day Out" in the city of Lincoln. Also present at that early autumn pub “exploration” trip was none other than Retired Martin, pub-ticker extraordinaire and someone who must surely hold the record for the number of pubs he has visited in the United Kingdom. This achievement came about as the result of his ultimately successful quest to every pub in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

After learning the Southworth’s intention to visit the English South Coast in mid-February, Paul arranged to meet up with them, and kindly suggested that I might like to join the group. Paul subsequently went ahead and booked three nights’ accommodation at the Chichester Inn, an historic pub in the heart of Chichester. After a bit of necessary prodding from Paul,  I too booked a Thursday night stay at the same inn, which would allow two days to visit both Chichester, and the neighbouring naval city of Portsmouth.

My son Matthew and I visited Chichester at the start of November 2023, which meant I was reasonably familiar with the town’s layout, and its pubs, but as far as Portsmouth was concerned, that would be a new location. But not completely new, as I had passed through Portsmouth in the summer of 1969, in order to take a ferry across to the Isle of Wight. That trip was as a member of a youth group, that was visiting the island for a walking holiday, staying overnight at a couple of the IOW’s Youth Hostels. I was only 14 at the time, so pubs weren’t of much interest to me, but I was quite keen on striking up a relationship with one or two of the girls in the party.  This involved nothing more serious than holding hand, plus a quick kiss and the odd cuddle. My endeavours were reasonably successful, although looking back I feel a little uncomfortable about unceremoniously ditching one young lady, after discovering that a more attractive looking, and slightly more mature girl, had the hots for me.

The things we do when we’re young, but my other interest was music, pop rather than rock, as my tastes back then were a little unsophisticated, to put it mildly. So the news that Bob Dylan was to play the Isle of Wight Festival as his comeback gig, following that motorcycle crash, sort of passed me by, and the fact that the event was taking place some distance from where we were staying, meant there was little chance of getting to see the legendary musician. The fact that I missed Dylan’s comeback live performance wasn’t lost upon life-long, Dylan fan Dave, during our subsequent conversation, but those were the circumstances, at the time. Besides, it’s unlikely that a group of youngsters, in their early teens could have gained admission to the festival.

As for the walking holiday, we started with an overnight stay at Cowes, before heading inland to the heart of the island. We ended up at the seaside resort of Sandown and Shanklin, where there was another youth hostel – spoiler alert, there’s only YHA hostel, remaining on the IOW! It was a week of glorious sunny weather, with nothing in the way of rain, and some wonderfully refreshing sea air. The freedom of wandering through some beautiful, and unspoilt countryside, with other young people, the same age as me, was something to behold, and whilst I have seriously digressed from the main story, I couldn’t resist slipping in that nostalgic look back, even though I failed to see Bob Dylan.

Moving swiftly on, and getting the narrative back on track, Portsmouth acted as both departure and arrival point for that trip across to the Isle of Wight. The outward journey saw us arriving in Cowes, whilst the return crossing of the Solent, saw us departing the island, from Ryde. I remember walking along Ryde pier, presumably to board the vessel taking us back to the mainland, whilst Crosby, Stills & Nash’s first UK hit, Marrakesh Express, was playing from a nearby radio. The other point of interest was the journey over from Portsmouth had been by hovercraft, whilst the return trip was by hydrofoil. Both crossings were much quicker, than by conventional ferry, but the latter was far less noisy than the hovercraft. We were also able to see out of the window without our view being obstructed by spray, from the curtain of air that raised the vessel off the water and allowed it to skim at speed, across the surface of the water.

Other memories of Portsmouth are confined to a visit to Admiral Nelson’s historic flagship, HMS Victory, plus a boat trip around the harbour undertaken by a friend and I, which allowed us to see part of the Royal Navy flotilla moored up there. During our time on the south coast, I was happy for Stafford Paul and Dave Southworth to act as guides. Both of them had visited Chichester previously and Dave had also visited Portsmouth. I travelled down to Chichester, by train, from Tonbridge, on the Thursday, and returned from Portsmouth the following day, also by rail. As mentioned earlier, the trip involved an overnight stay at the Chichester Inn, for both Paul and me.

I opted for the cross-country rail route, taking advantage of the Tonbridge-Redhill link, which allows connections with a number of mainlines heading south, away from the capital. Avoiding London meant a considerable reduction in rail fare, and by using my Senior Rail Card I was able to purchase a period return for the bargain price of £21.75.  After changing trains at Redhill and again at Three Bridges, I arrived in Chichester shortly after midday. I particularly enjoyed the journey through Sussex, from Three Bridges across to Arundel, where the line follows the gap in the South Downs, cut in prehistoric times, by the river Arun. Despite the lack of recent rain, the river seemed fairly full and was close in places to the top of the banks. The fields too, were waterlogged in places, and as we approached the village of Amberley, memories of walking the South Downs Way, came flooding back.

That section of the SDW walk took place in 2009, when with my friend Eric, and I had walked the middle section of trail from the "Jack & Jill" windmills, at Clayton, to Petersfield, just across the border into Hampshire. As the train journeyed through the Arun gap, I'm sure I recognised the footbridge across the river, and could see the footpath disappearing up the steep scarp slope of the South Downs. That was certainly a steep climb, and one that seemed to go on forever before we reached the top of the hills. 

After an overnight stay at the excellent Sportsman pub in Amberley, we ought to have been suitably rested, but I can still remember us, huffing and puffing up that hill! Enjoying the views from the window, are one of the main attractions of train travel, and this was a recurrent topic of conversation between Stafford Paul and I during our time in the two south coast towns. The memories the train journey brought back, and that I’ve just described are priceless, although I trust I haven’t bored readers too much, by recounting them!

My train pulled into Chichester station, shortly after midday, and I then made my way to the pre-arranged rendezvous at the Fountain, in South Street. The pub is owned by Dorset brewers, Hall & Woodhouse, and was the same pub that Matthew and I had visited, on our 2023 trip to the city.  It seems a convenient place to beak the narrative, before continuing, next time with the main event, which of course was exploring the pubs of both Chichester and Portsmouth. 

Credits: Isle of Wight Map:  Kelisi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Pub photo - Dave + two Pauls - Joan Southworth