ECHOES OF THE PAST

REIMAGINED IN THE NOW

 

 

What a place to be

On the shores of the Sussex coast

Beaten by the weather each day

Taking everything we can take

Making all we can make

 

Miss Catt watches over us all

Keeps our home

She knows her place in the World

Allows Father to make his ‘place’

Building our lives, as well as those of the villagers

 

He has built a great deal, Father

Where there was nothing, now there is a thriving community

A tide mill admired across the County

Its workers living alongside in cottages built to house their families

 

The mills work through the night

Catching the tides through the hours of darkness

Calling all to their rhythm until the early hours

As the sun rises the land beckons us

The fields giving us all that they can give

 

There is no time for play but for the very young

The long stretch of coastline, at times bleak

Other times, when it lays basking in the warmth of a summer’s sun

It is filled with freedom and optimism for this modern age

The paths and grassland weaving around and through the village

This is our playground for these short moments of childhood

In a community driven by Father’s aspirations

 

For myself, my joy is in small treasures, objects to keep

Sometimes wonders I find whilst I play

Other times I search for precious fossils linking our World with that of the past

Collections to inspire

Perhaps just for me

Perhaps for others to see what they might see

Read what they might read

Learn what we might learn

From then until now

In these echoes of the past