Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Saturday, 15 September 2012

Outing to Uckfeild



We set the alarm for just a little later than usual for this morning. Even so it was quite a lot lighter. The mornings have become increasingly dark. The Man tells me that each day shortness by about two minutes, so almost a quarter of an hour a week. Put like that it seems to happen very quickly. I also think it seems to happen all of a sudden because of episodes heavy overcast. I was going to say bad weather, but in our whole time here we don’t think we have had much bad stuff at all. 

Anyway back to this morning. Lunch packed and directions checked we locked the door behind us and walked down to the station. Took the train to Norwood junction then transferred to another with our pre-bought tickets to go to Uckfeild.  Yup that’s right Uckfeild. No, honestly it  really is called that.
Uckfield really means something like 'high place' - Uchafedd - and the river derived its modern name from this Celtic word. There are, however, other theories as to how the name came about. One theory suggests that it came from "Oak in Field", something which is reflected in several town crests. Another theory is that it used to be the free land of a Saxon man called Ucca.


The crowded city buildings gave way to less and less densely populated towns and finally open farmland. We miss such openness, and it is lovely to be able to allow the eye to wander into the far distance.  We won’t miss our stop as Uckfeild is where the line terminates. 

By the time we arrived there the sun was shining. Ok it’s not warm enough anymore to be out in our shirtsleeves, but certainly wasn’t cold.
From there it didn’t take us long to get to where the campervan show was and we were soon comparing this van with that one. 


No, we didn’t buy one; we’re not ready to do that…yet. But a bit of windows shopping is good.
Comparisons made we had a bit of time on our hands and what better way to while it away than a drink at the local hostelry.   

 Then we had a wander around the town. One particular building has a history that dates back more than 600, yes 600 years.


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