A writer’s inspiration
Some of Rudyard Kipling’s writing is very obviously set in the Dudwell valley countryside. Poems such as Alnaschar & the Oxen describe the landscape here, and in The Land, Kipling talks about the understanding of the countryside that is only truly held by those who have lived and worked it over generations. Perhaps most famously, many of the stories in Puck of Pook’s Hill and Rewards & Fairies are based on, or situated in, the countryside around Bateman’s.
There’s a pasture in a valley where the hanging woods divide,
And a Herd lies down and ruminates in peace;
Where the pheasant rules the nooning, and the owl the twilight-tide
And the war-cries of our world die out and cease.
Here I case aside the burden that each weary week-day brings
And, delivered from the shadows I pursue,
On peaceful, postless Sabbaths I consider weighty things –
Such as Sussex Cattle feeding in the dew!
(An excerpt from Alnashar and the Oxen by Rudyard Kipling)
Farming
The Bateman’s estate is, at its core, a working landscape and the biggest influence on it over the centuries has been agriculture. Dudwell Farm, which makes up the bulk of the estate, has had the same family as tenants for almost fifty years. Fine Aberdeen Angus/Limousin beef is produced here from an entirely closed herd and the land is farmed in a way that supports the National Trust’s environmental aims.
The River Dudwell
The River Dudwell flows through the estate. It is a healthy, unspoiled river where trout are caught and kingfishers regularly nest and hunt. A footbridge crosses the river on a public footpath just south-west of Bateman’s and is an excellent spot for a game of Pooh sticks.