Tag: Cass Sculpture Foundation

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Back in the here and now

The last three weekends I managed to run but not to write, hence the short infill posts.

This weekend we went away to stay in a treehouse, courtesy of Jason & Karen… thank you very much guys!

The treehouse is pretty substantial but has been somewhat carefully hidden amongst the trees…

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Even the owners house and their other rented spaces are tucked away so you don’t notice them…

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Yup… there be a house in there somewhere!

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This is actually a sublime barn space with a double-height sitting room and stunning first floor bedroom!

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While we were there we spent a few absorbing hours wandering round the Cass sculpture park at Goodwood… it gets better every time we visit.  This place keeps drawing us back, as does the nearby Goodwood Park Hotel with it’s spa and restaurant!

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The weekend fortunately arrived early this week which meant that we got back yesterday… which meant that I had no excuses for not running today.  That didn’t mean that I was fired up ready to go however!  Instead I took a potter round the same route as the last couple of weekends, managing the 5.2 miles in a leisurely 59 minutes… 5.25 mph average.

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The mud in Goodwood

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On account of my fencing yesterday (I had particularly tight shoulders and, er, butt-cheeks for some reason!), I didn’t feel like running this morning.  So despite the thunderstorms, we took a drive out to visit the Sculpture Estate at Goodwood.

This is a 26 acre wood, filled with over 70 outdoor sculptures that have been commissioned by the Foundation.  It’s a beautiful, peaceful place to wander around is the perfect place to showcase the pieces, more magical today with the wood steaming from the last rain shower.  As well as a slightly soft layer of mud, so I felt right at home.

The sculptures are all for sale, but with prices up to £290,000 (although there were a couple of £POA’s, from which you can draw your own conclusions!) it’s fun to just look!  The one pictured above (Sunday Sport by Paul Day) is a cool £45,000, but it is amazing!

We decided to go back to the little visitor centre at the end and timed it perfectly with a really heavy downpour.

Entry to the Estate costs £10 per person but that’s a very small price to pay for the tranquility and the magnificent views north across Sussex.

We did think it was a shame that they did not have a small cafe to get a cup of tea though… until we followed their suggestion and drove down to the Goodwood Park Hotel.  This is a four star hotel with real manners and though we only wanted tea and cake, they treated us like royalty. 

Even to the extent that someone went to the other side of the hotel to find some cake, which a chef then iced especially for us!  It was the most delicious coffee cake I’ve tasted in a long time.  They then found us some newspapers so we could sit in the supremely comfortable leather chairs and read.  I braced myself for the price of our simple afternoon tea… £6.90, all in. 

We’ll be back!