Life In The Fast Lane?

Last time Clive Agran went to Bexhill it was for a speed awareness course. But he wasn’t the first to race at high speed around the town.

- Clive Agran

Having just celebrated, if that’s the word, my 70th birthday, what constitutes ‘old’ was very much at the forefront of my mind when Dorothy Smith, chair of the Bexhill Old Town Preservation Society, asked if I knew the Old Town in Bexhill.

I didn’t think I did and indicated as much, but pulling into the car park next to what was once the Manor House I suffer that awful feeling of déjà vu. What makes it even worse are the embarrassing circumstances that brought me here about five years ago.

A lot younger then, and something of a tearaway, I had inadvertently exceeded the speed limit and was obliged to attend a Speed Awareness Course in the adjacent Manor Barn. It worked insofar as the fear of having to sit through another four hours of tedium has persuaded me to keep below the limit. Driving slowly also provides a convenient excuse for being five minutes late for my rendezvous with Dorothy.

Bexhill Manor House, or Court Lodge as it used to be known, was the residence of the bishops, who were the principal landowners around these parts until 1570 when Elizabeth I gave both the land and the Manor House to Sir Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset. Sadly the house fell victim to the 1960s passion for demolition and only a few well-preserved ruins and delightful gardens survive today.