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The Sun
6 days ago
- The Sun
We live in UK's ‘new Cotswolds' – we kept our lovely village hidden but now fear posh-welly invasion will kill its charm
IT has picture-postcard streets, scenic views, beautiful walks and has been dubbed the new Cotswolds. But residents in an idyllic hamlet are now terrified their beloved village will turn into a posh tourist magnet. 12 Fittleworth in West Sussex has been named one of 2025's Coolest Neighbourhoods To Move To in a list compiled by The Sunday Times. Visitors say the village is the best-kept secret in Sussex but worried locals want it to remain that way. Two hours from London and 25 miles north of Brighton, it is nestled in the South Downs and has just 1,000 residents. Home to a popular old coaching inn, a gallery, a primary school, two churches and a community-owned shop incorporating a cafe and post office, the sprawling village, close to Pulborough, boasts some excellent walks and views. It also has its fair share of celebrities - musicians Bryan Ferry and Dave Gilmour live up the road, while Mumford and Sons bassist, Ted Dwane, is just outside the village. And the late actors Dame Maggie Smith, Dorothy Tutin and Jimmy Edwards all lived in or close to the village during the 1960s and 70s. But residents now fear their idyllic area could become the next 'Chipping Norton,' a dreaded hive of tourist activity with soaring hotel prices, Airbnb conversions and coach-loads of visitors packing the streets. "I hate Chipping Norton," said one elderly resident, who has lived in Fittleworth for 50 years. "It is packed full of tourist coaches and people taking photos of everything. "Someone I know who used to live there moved out when a bunch of tourists traipsed in through her front door and asked for a cream tea. "When she tried to shoo them out, one of them got his camera out and took a picture of her front room! "Fittleworth has so much more to offer. I've been here for 50 years and it is the sense of living in a community that I really like. "I don't want tourist coaches and the like clogging up our roads and ramping up the price of things in our local shops." Fittleworth Village Stores, which opened just six years ago, recently won best village shop in Britain. Toni Humphrey, manager, said: "The root of the success of our village store lies in what it can provide as a community hub. "It appeals to everyone, young and old, and is a real meeting place. It was set up by the community, with residents buying shares into the business, and it has just taken off. "People come here to catch up with friends and to pass on news. We welcome everyone and it's just a very relaxed place." As well as a cafe, kiddies playground and villages stores, it also provides a post office for the community. The shop has nine permanent members of staff and 30 volunteers - and almost 20 teenagers doing work placement. 12 12 Located next to the primary school, it has become an invaluable asset for parents. Janet Claxton, who volunteers at the Village Stores, said: "The village is really alive. There's always something going on here." Meanwhile, The Swan Inn, a Grade II listed coaching house dating back to 15th century, has recently reopened after a huge refurbishment. Formerly brewery-owned, it closed in the Covid pandemic, but after a huge investment is back in business, offering top-notch country pub food and accommodation. Places like Fittleworth are special. It has a lot of charm. Deborah Wright It's owned by Sussex-born restaurateur, Angus Davies, who has masterminded a transformation that has seen visitors coming from far and wide to stay in one of its 12 rooms. Mr Davies, who has worked at other pubs and restaurants including Chez Bruce, Lorne, and Sorrel, said he wants to offer all the comforts of a country pub with top-quality service and experience. The inn has a long and illustrious pedigree. During the late 19th and early 20th century, the beauty of the South Downs attracted writers, musicians and artists. JMW Turner, Rudyard Kipling, Constable, Emmeline Pankhurst and composer Hubert Parry have all signed the visitors book, while composer Edward Elgar lived in a small cottage above the village from 1917 to 1921, where he wrote his final four major works. "I'm proud of what we've achieved here,' said Mr Davies. "It's been a real labour of love. It has an honesty about it and we are getting a lot of interest." But the Swann now has increasing competition in another sign of the village's rising status. Residents have mixed views on the rise in local Airbnbs. A quick survey by The Sun showed 25 in and around the village with some charging as much as £430 a night. They are becoming a magnet for Londoners in particular escaping the city's chaos at weekends and during school breaks. Upper Fittleworth has been the centre of the village since Saxon times and is home to St Mary's Church, parts of which date back to the 1200s. Vicar, Reverend David Crook, said: "There is a really great atmosphere in the village. It's a friendly place and we get a lot of help around the church. "I've been here six years and love it. People chip in and help with the church flowers and we have a very active congregation." Deborah Wright, a church warden who moved to Fittleworth 10 years ago, said: "Places like Fittleworth are special. It has a lot of charm and has a really active community life." Visitors Sylvia Mason and Steve Jarvis had travelled from Chichester to have a look round the village. "I've driven past loads of times but never thought to stop," said Ms Mason. "I heard about it being a really desirable place to live and so we decided to come and have a look. "It's actually very lovely. I don't know the Cotswolds but Fittleworth is really very pretty and the people who live here are so friendly. What more could you ask for?" Up until 2025 the village was a well-kept secret and locals feel that, despite all the recent clamour, it will remain so. 12 Another long-time resident said: "Let Chipping Norton have the tourists. We're happy as we are.' 12 12 12
Spectator
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
There is no dignity in dyeing
Growing up, like a lot of English girls, I was what was known as a 'dirty blonde'. (An evocative phrase, the Dirty Blondes are now variously a theatre troupe, a pop group and a restaurant.) In the summer, I would put lemon juice on my hair and watch in wonder as it bleached in the sun; I mainly did it to irritate my mother, who found overly blonde hair 'tarty'. When I grew my impressive rack and shot up to 5ft 8in at 13, what I thought of as 'The Bothering' started – grown men attempting quite openly to pick me up, especially when I was wearing my school uniform. Blonde hair was the last thing I needed. Like many a dreamy teenager of the time – I'm not sure it still happens – I was drawn to the mythical beings of Hollywood. I remember a poster I owned, jostling with pin-ups of the very contemporary David Bowie and Bryan Ferry (both themselves Hollywood obsessives), which was a drawing of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe bearing the legend WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TIMES GONE? This could be seen as somewhat insensitive in our touchier times, considering that they'd both been unhappy people who died young. But though I adored Marilyn – as one would adore a wounded animal crossed with a goddess – it was the swashbuckling brunettes of Hollywood I saw as role models: the Liz Taylors and Ava Gardners. I was probably one of the few teenage girls ever to watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and want to be the Jane Russell character, with her tough good humour and straightforward lust. When I got the news that I'd bagged my first job in journalism and could scarper from the family home, I dyed my mousy hair jet black and never looked back. I've identified as a brunette all my life, and when my roots started coming through white a decade ago, in my fifties, there was no question that I'd be trooping off every three weeks to the hairdresser to have them covered up, and damn the expense. I viewed women in the public eye who let their grey/white hair grow out with something approaching moral panic; from Angela Carter to Mary Beard, I saw them – ludicrously – as in some way negligent of their personal care. I had no such feelings about famous men going grey, though I've never bought the 'Silver Fox' nonsense. To be fair, I viewed my own reflection with its three inches of pure white roots with a similar horror during lockdown, and when the hairdressers were allowed to open, I was straight round there. Which makes my current attitude to having increasingly grey – white, really – hair all the more surprising. I haven't had my hair dyed since November 2024; after emergency spinal surgery in December I spent five months in hospital, emerging a cripple, in a wheelchair. I've lost my legs, my front teeth, my splendid rack – and my lovely thick, glossy, tossable brunette mane. Due to medication and stress (I always swore I'd never use that word, but I reckon it's allowable when you lose the ability to walk) my hair is much diminished in every way, wig-fulls coming out with every brush-stroke. It's real sparse, scalp-showing old-lady hair of the kind I arrogantly believed I'd never have. I'm aware that it would be easy to correct – there are lots of home-visiting hairdressers, especially in my senior-friendly 'hood of Hove. But I appear to have had something of a satori. Doing everything in my power to appear youthful and robust, once highly important to me, now seems rather silly and self-defeating. I'm a disabled 65-year-old, soon to be an actual OAP; what's the point in pretending to be anything else? Last summer a cross ex-friend wrote me an angry message about this very issue, apparently perturbed by my upbeat, Pollyanna-ish nature and my pleasure-seeking sociability. Knowing her as well as I did, I knew that much of the impetus came from her fathomless dissatisfaction with her own life, but I wonder if there wasn't something in it when she accused me of 'making a fool of yourself prancing around like a teenager when you're almost a pensioner'. Perhaps she had a point; maybe it wouldn't kill me to be more age-appropriate? Indeed, if I hadn't been intent on acting like someone much younger and tougher, I'd have gone to the doctor when my health problem started rather than leave it till it was too late. Doing everything in my power to appear youthful and robust, once highly important to me, now seems rather silly and self-defeating. I'm a disabled 65-year-old, soon to be an actual OAP Letting my hair grow out white could be the way I force myself to accept that my gallivanting days are over. It helps that in the bed opposite me at the rehabilitation unit was Sue, a gorgeous woman of a certain age with pure white hair and a look of Helen Mirren. But I know myself – and my hair – well enough to comprehend that if I carry on down the au naturel route, I won't be a Sue – I'll be a Struwwelpeter. Is letting one's hair grow out as Nature intended a white flag or a gesture of defiance? I veer between the two schools of thought. The publication of Victoria Smith's excellent book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women in 2023 clarified thoughts which had occurred to me since I passed the first flush of youth, and which became amplified during the height of the trans debate, when my side had the word 'old' flung at it as though it was a word on a par with child-killer. Reviewing the book in the Guardian, Rachel Cooke wrote: The surprise is that I find myself on the receiving end of as much sexism and misogyny now as I did when my bum was pert and my breasts very bouncy – and nearly all of it comes from those far younger than me. Was the harassment I experienced when I was young better or worse than the dismissive contempt that's aimed at me today? I'm not sure. Why are so many men angry at women, past the first flush of youth, who let themselves go? I think it may have something to do with the drastically different levels of sex available to heterosexual men and heterosexual women. Women find sex very easy to come by; by the time a woman reaches the menopause, she will have had all the sex she wanted – and perhaps quite a lot she didn't. Unless a man is very good-looking, or rich, or famous, the same certainly won't be true of him, unless he has a very low sex drive. Giving up seeking male attention is an acknowledgement of this; letting one's hair whiten the most obvious aspect. Whatever the reason, the rude invitations from strangers in the street that started when I was 13 and lasted until I was into my sixties are well and truly over; now men smile pityingly at me as they hold the door for my husband to push me through in my wheelchair. I wouldn't have chosen to be a balding, white-haired 'halfling' – but I'm damn well going to make the best of it. And only in a slightly age-inappropriate way, I hope.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Unseen Barrington Tabb artwork to be sold
A collection of paintings by renowned artist Barrington Tabb are going under the hammer. Tabb, from South Gloucestershire and who past away in 2022, had a distinctive style due to an eye condition that causing blurring of his central vision."Sometimes it can improve my paintings very, very much, due to this distortion," he told the BBC in an interview in 2006. "I don't want my work to look like a camera took it. I want to give vent to the distortion as well as the emotion."His unique style earned him a loyal following, with collectors including David Bowie and Bryan Ferry. The paintings will be auctioned at Clevedon Salerooms. Known for his textured, expressive oil paintings capturing Bristol's streets, docks, and daily life, Barrington Tabb devoted more than four decades to chronicling the spirit of the city. The artworks are being auctioned by BBC Antiques Roadshow expert and Senior Valuer at Clevedon Salerooms Chris Yeo."He loved Bristol and just adored the place," said Mr Yeo. "He went around on foot recording these scenes, like Park Street and Christmas Steps, and they are just fantastic."They have a lot of character to them, a lot of personality, as he did himself." One of the lots up for auction is an oil on board, titled on the back in felt tip pen 'Watershed with Arnolfini, City Docks, Bristol'.Local artist and fellow Royal West of England Academy (RWA) member Linda Alvis, who knew him well, said: "I'd consider him as Bristol's Lowry, but a more blobby edition of it."She described him as a genuinely nice person who would say hello to everyone as he painted, whilst always wearing Alvis said: "He really was a local treasure that should never be forgotten."
RNZ News
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Nashville Babylon: Saturday 24 May 2025
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Bob Dylan, 1963 Photo: supplied This week's Nashville Babylon celebrates Bob Dylan's 84th birthday with a selection of cover versions of his finest work from the likes of Mavis Staples, Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips, Bryan Ferry, RL Burnside and Willie Nelson. Music played: Artist: Mavis Staples & Levon Helm Track: Gotta Serve Somebody Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Carry Me Home Label: Anti Artist: Bob Dylan Track: Highway 61 Revisited Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Highway 61 Revisited Label: Columbia Artist: Bryan Ferry Track: Simple Twist Of Fate Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Dylanesque Label: Virgin Artist: Esther Phillips Track: Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You Composer: Bob Dylan Album: The Roulette Sides Label: Warner Artist: RL Burnside Track: Everything Is Broken Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Tangled Up In Blues Label: House Of Blues Artist: Solomon Burke Track: The Mighty Quinn Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Proud Mary Label: Sundazed Artist: Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard Track: Don't Think Twice It's Alright Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Django and Jimmie Label: Legacy Artist: Them Track:It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Them Again Label: Decca Artist: Emma Swift Track: Queen Jane Approximately Composer: Dylan Artist: Blonde On The Tracks Label: Tiny Ghost Records Artist: The Brothers and Sisters Track: All Along The Watchtower Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Dylan's Gospel Label: Ode Artist: Bob Dylan Track: Like A Rolling Stone Composer: Bob Dylan Album: Highway 61 Revisited Label: Columbia Artist: The Noveltones Track: Left Bank Two Composer: Wayne Hill Album: Left Bank Two Label: De Wolfe Music
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bryan Ferry and performance artist Amelia Barratt share new video for title track of upcoming art rock album Loose Talk
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has teamed up with performance artist, writer and painter Amelia Barratt for the very art rock Loose Talk album, which the pair will release through Dene Jesmond Enterprises on March 28. The duo, for which Ferry creates the music (it's the very first time he's created new music for another writer's words), have just shared a video for the abum's title track, which features Ferry's Roxy Music bandmate Paul Thompson on motorik drums. 'The whole experience of making Loose Talk has had an interesting newness about it," Ferry says. "It seems to have opened a whole new chapter in my work. There's a really strong mood to the work that Amelia does and I was very conscious of not getting in the way of her words. Hopefully, together, we've created something neither could do on our own. "The nearest I ever got to doing pieces like this before would maybe be back in Roxy with In Every Dream Home A Heartache, and Mother Of Pearl. To some extent, those are kind of spoken monologues. I'm pleased that when we've played Loose Talk to people, they've said, 'Oh, this sounds really different.' That's what I've always wanted with everything I've done, or been involved in, to be: different. Different to what you've heard before, or seen before. That's the whole point of being an artist: trying to create a new thing, a new world.' 'Loose Talk is a conversation between two artists: a collaborative album of music by Bryan Ferry with spoken texts by me," adds Barrett. "It's cinematic; music put to pictures. "There's possibility for experimentation within a frame. And there's a freedom in knowing exactly what my part to play is, then being able to pass a baton, stretching out creatively and knowing there is someone on the other side to take it further. Nothing feels off limits.' Loose Talk will be available digitally, on CD, black vinyl, green vinyl and clear vinyl. Pre-order Loose Talk. Amelia Barratt & Bryan Ferry: Loose Talk1. Big Things2. Stand Near Me3. Florist4. Cowboy Hat5. Demolition6. Orchestra7. Holiday8. Landscape9. Pictures On A Wall10. White Noise11. Loose Talk
