I left Littlehampton station and crossed the footbridge to the moorings and a maze of industrial buildings and drunken boats resting in the mudflats. The out of season fairground added to the bleakness, but as I rounded the point I found two startling and unexpected things, a sand dune and an undeveloped horizon. The Climping Gap, as it is known, is a four mile stretch of wind flattened gorse and relative wilderness that is ideal for an out of season walk, or a sleep in a hollow amongst the hissing grasses. After walking for a while against the wind and squalls of rain, I jumped down into a sheltered track behind the wartime tank traps and past a truncated windmill. The area feels close in spirit to Jarman's Dungeness with rusting carcasses of mysterious machines amongst the sea-cale.

The dark hollow of a lane led inland and I followed it past a neglected walled garden and suddenly through the trees I glimpsed parkland and a long, low manor house. A sign welcomed non-residents and I followed the long sweep of the drive past a cluster of very expensive cars, parked alongside an improbable collection of ancient buildings. Not a set from The Prisoner, but Bailifscourt, the 1930's Medieval fantasy of Lord Moyne. The Guinness heir extended an existing house and imported entire buildings that he spotted on his motor tours around the country and even attempted to have entire oak woods shipped in which withered in the salt blast. A grand Georgian farmhouse that stood next to it just wouldn’t do so it was flattened. He decorated it in a style described by Chips Channon as that of a ‘rather pansy monk’ and it became a favoured retreat of the London fast set. Sadly Lord Moyne didn’t have long to enjoy it, he was shot by the Stern Gang in Cairo in 1944.