Rampion offshore wind farm

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Any day-tripper to the Brighton coast can’t fail to notice the horizon’s newest edition – eight miles out in the channel, the colossal wind turbines of the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm stoically face the shoreline. Since 2017, the 27 square mile wind farm has been supplying the national grid and now the public can hop on a boat for a close up tour. (See details below for how to book a visit.) The Wind Farm My trip out from Brighton Marina to the wind farm took close to an hour, all the while battling the currents and wind. Slowly but surely, the true stature ofRead More →

Cass Sculpture Foundation

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The Cass Sculpture Foundation is a little-known 26 acre, open-air sculpture park, tucked away behind Goodwood Racecourse.

Among gentle woodland you can marvel at a towering bust of Chairman Mao, see the spoils of an archaeological dig from the future, and picnic under a T-Rex.

The foundation is the creation of scientist and businessman William Cass and his wife Jeannette Cass, who live in the grounds. Read More →

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Discovered in 1835, the Margate Shell Grotto remains one of Britain’s biggest mysteries – a collection of subterranean mosaics, of unknown origin, made out of millions of sea shells. Secret pagan temple or the work of an eccentric gentleman? A trip to Kent isn’t complete without a stop at the enigmatic Margate Shell Grotto. Sandwich stop On a short weekend stay at the disarming tudor town of Sandwich (around the historic heart of the Cinque Ports), there wasn’t much that could be described as ‘odd’. So it was only right that I headed north for a day in the grittier Margate, the holiday destination ofRead More →

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Visited by ODOmatt January 26th 2019 Located between Eastbourne and Brighton, the small industrial port town of Newhaven has its fair share of peculiar history, but none more so than an unlikely visitor in 1913… Yes, Ho Chi Minh once visited the salty shores of East Sussex. Before becoming the world’s most famous revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh worked as a pastry chef on the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry line. The town hit national headlines in 2013 when it announced controversial plans to commemorate the famous visitor with a small centennial commemoration stone. Thankfully for all Sussex-based Odd Day Outers, the stone got laid. Ho Chi Who? HoRead More →

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Part of the ‘Once Existed’ Project – Visited by the ODOstefan, Eloise, Darla, Theo, Rachel and Matt on the 11th August 2018. This is the one we’ve been waiting for, the Holy Grail of lost villages and once existed settlements – Tide Mills truly is the Pompeii of the East Sussex coast. ‘Tide Mills’ refers to the tidal powered mill and village that sprang up east of Newhaven in the 18th century: one of only ten ‘surviving’ tidemills in the UK. A goldmine of abandoned buildings, the story of Tide Mills is one of mutiny, war, nightmare bosses, high-quality milling and seaplanes.Read More →

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 A Historical Footnote – visited by ODOmatt on the 28th February 2018. A chip in the wall of an old country church marks the spot where, one Sunday afternoon in 1634, one of Britain’s most notorious soldiers tried to assassinate a rival. This is where historical footnotes get into the fine print, but if you stick with it, this nondescrpit indentation illuminates a whole world of scandal, war and adventure in the age of revolution.Read More →

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Part of the ‘Once Existed’ Project – Visited by the ODOmatt on the 10th February 2018 Splashing through muddy lanes and traversing crumbling roads, it soon became clear that Fiat 500s were not made for hunting lost villages. The car largely in one piece, I eventually found my own form of unofficial parking outside the only surviving building in Hamsey: St. Peter’s Church.Read More →

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 A Historical Footnote – visited by ODOmatt on the 3th February 2018 The mighty Scottish highlands, imperious Snowdonia, the magisterial Lake District – Lewes, the quaint East Sussex county town, beats them all as the site of the most deadly avalanche in British history. In the winter of 1836 a snowstorm swept across Europe, eventually hitting the south of England in one of the most severe freak weather incidents ever recorded in the British Isles.Read More →

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A Historical Footnote – visited by ODOmatt on the 28th Jan 2018 The quaint, unassuming town of Steyning in West Sussex is brimming with hidden history – from religious martyrs burnt at the stake to wheelbarrow toting St Cuthbert, the town’s unofficial mascot. But perhaps the crowning historical footnote is to be found in the entrance of St Andrew’s Church. An old, battered stone displayed without ceremony (or even a description) is believed to be the tombstone of King Aethelwulf of Wessex.Read More →