"JUST SO STORIES" Bateman's House in Burwash

Tuesday , may 7th

drawing by Kipling

Bateman's wiew from the orchard

We had planned to visit Hastings and Battle on tuesday, but the weather forecast were poor, so we opted for a shelter place, that we already visited some years ago with Eric and so much enjoyed. 

The first time was sooner in the spring, and it rained so we didn't see much of the garden. This time was ideal. 

Clematis on the wall

Bateman's House, Rudyard Kipling's beautiful estate in Burwash is only half an hour away from Little London. It's a Jacobean house, built in 17th century from local materials : sandstone, tiles from Sussex weald and wood pannels from Sussex oak.  The house with its orchard, gardens and Mill, nowadays owned by the National Trust, was Kipling's most beloved home and he described it as "a real house in which to settle down for keeps".

There he lived with his family, received friends - writers, artists, politics - and also wrote most of his wonderful stories.  When you visit the house, you can always feel Kipling's family spirit and imagine his three beloved children, listening to the witty and poetic stories that their father invented for them.

"The cat that walked by himself"

or

"the Elephant's child"

or

"How the Alphabet was made"

I particularly loved her daughter little parlor room, Kipling's study, and the wonderful library. And the gardens : the beautiful rose garden with the pond which Kipling designed itself and built after winning the Nobel Prize for literature.  And the wild garden with the Mill. You can buy  flour ground at the Mill. 

Bateman's house, the gardens, orchard, Mill and the lovely old church of Burwash.