A SCRIBE'S SUSSEX HIDEAWAY: BATEMAN'S/RUDYARD KIPLING

When Rudyard Kipling moved into the 17th century Jacobean house Bateman’s with his wife Carrie in 1902, he was already an established author, with The Jungle Book and Kim under his belt, to name just two.  For his subsequent works, he drew much inspiration from the house and its charming surroundings, particularly the Dudwell Valley, where the house is located.  The Kiplings fell in love with the property at first sight, declaring that “we entered and felt her Spirit - her Feng Shui - to be good”.  The garden Kipling created was a place of solace for him after he lost his son to World War I.  The poem My Boy Jack was a product of this tragic loss.

Bateman's - geograph.org.uk - 2594587. Photo by Josie Campbell, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bateman’s lies in the heart of the Sussex countryside, a few miles to the north-west of Hastings.  The date above the front door says 1634, although parts of the house are even older.  Not much is known about the owners preceding the Kiplings.  Rudyard’s wife left the property to the National Trust on her death in 1939, three years after Rudyard died.

Map of the area.

A REGENCY RESORT: THE SOMERSET COAST AND DYRHAM PARK/SANDITON

Sanditon is based on a novel by Jane Austen about a seaside town which is being developed into a resort by entrepreneur Tom Parker.  Unlike other dramatisations of Jane Austen novels, this one was never finished by Austen, giving the screenwriters free rein to develop the characters and storyline in the latter stages.

Episode four of the series had some of the characters going for a walk in the dunes of an extensive sandy beach, with one character collapsing from heatstroke in the dunes. We also see Sidney Parker surveying the beach from above in search of the errant Georgiana.  These scenes were filmed at Brean, one of the lesser known of the sweeping sandy beaches to grace the coast along the Bristol Channel, adjacent to the west Somerset resort of Burnham-On-Sea.  The better-known resort of Weston-Super-Mare was used for the bathing scenes, which were filmed in the Marine Lake.

Aside from Brean, other seafront scenes in the series were filmed at the small Somerset town of Clevedon.  Clevedon also has a marine lake but is best known for its graceful pier, which opened in 1869.  The pier can be glimpsed in Sanditon, which is a bit unfortunate because no such pier existed in Jane Austen’s day.

The seafront at Clevedon, Somerset - geograph.org.uk - 1867050. Photo by Anthony O'Neil, via Wikimedia Commons.

Moving away from the coast, another notable location seen in Sanditon is Dyrham Park, which we last encountered in this blog as Darlington Hall in The Remains of the Day.  In Sanditon the estate plays the role of Lady Denham’s home Sanditon House.  Managed by the National Trust, Dyrham Park is in South Gloucestershire, a few miles to the north of Bath.  We owe its existence to William Blathwayt and the fruits of the Empire, specifically the Colonies in North America, providing for its creation in the 17th century.  As well as the house there are extensive grounds, including a deer park.

Dyrham Park lower park. Photo by Rwendland, via Wikimedia Commons.