Jane Dallaway

  • Explorer Day: Arundel

    3 June 2026

    A year or so ago I came across the concept of an Explorer Day in a magazine I was reading:

    Explorer Days are simple: travel locally with the same wide-eyed curiosity that you’d pack into a suitcase. The town three over, a different neighborhood, or a street completely new to you: Lewes, Bristol’s Gloucester Road, Stoke Newington: names on a map that don’t yet mean anything but by the end of a day could.

    So today I headed to Arundel. I’ve driven past it many times. I even stayed there once for a friend’s wedding many years ago, before I moved to Brighton, but I’ve never really explored it. While doing a bit of research, I discovered that the cathedral hosts a celebration for the festival of Corpus Christi featuring a carpet of flowers. The day of my visit kind of chose itself, as this seemed like too great an opportunity to miss.

    I started with the carpet of flowers, and it is truly impressive. You are hit by the scent of flowers the moment you arrive, and there are gorgeous floral displays all around the building. The colours on show are incredible. What really grabbed my attention, though, were the vestments. They often featured floral designs to tie into the colours of the displays. These cloths have so much intricate work and beautiful detail that I did a second loop around just to focus on them.

    It was a soggy day unfortunately, so on leaving the cathedral I decided to head off for a coffee. I found the small but perfectly formed Tarrant Street Espresso, where I sat with a coffee and my magazine and spent a happy, dry half an hour.

    Next on my list was the castle. I approached it through what felt like a meadow of daisies and alliums with a mown path cutting through. I loved this. It felt so beautiful and natural. As for the castle itself, well, what a place. Some bits are proper castle, including an armoury and a keep with battlements that you can walk around. But other parts feel like a stately home with a mix of styles and materials. There is oak, marble, stonework, mahogany, and gold leaf, and I’m sure I’ve missed some.

    I got a bit distracted in my head trying to work out how the Duke of Norfolk came to be at Arundel Castle in the first place, and then how one of the Dukes was also the Mayor of Sheffield. Is there no place in England that the Duke wouldn’t claim? I’ve since looked it all up and fallen down a vast rabbit hole of hierarchies involving Royal Dukes, non-Royal Dukes, and Earls.

    After completing my tour of the castle, I headed out to the chapel and overheard a guide telling someone that the space they could see through the glass panel was the parish church of St Nicholas. St Nicholas is a Church of England church, while the Fitzalan Chapel is a private Catholic chapel in the grounds of the castle. They are joined but separate, and have been since the 1870s. After a dispute over ownership, the Duke of Norfolk ordered a brick wall to be built, blocking the arch that connected the chancel to the nave.

    Despite the rain, I took a stroll around the formal gardens. The water features seemed somewhat apt. I could easily see why they’ve won awards because they are spectacular, and I can see why people visit just for the gardens. There are lots of benches dotted around, though sadly they weren’t in use due to the soggy weather.

    I left the castle, returned to the town, and decided it was time for lunch. I found the Motte and Bailey cafe, which advertised various brunch options. I’m a sucker for a brunch, though this time I opted for a mezze bowl. The lady sitting next to me apologised for the size of her pastry. She’d ordered a cinnamon bun and it appeared to be the size of her head! As I sat and ate, the weather lifted and blue skies appeared overhead.

    I finished my exploring with a stroll around the town, popping into the bookshop and a craft area. Along the way, I found St Nicholas church and popped in to look through the glass screen into the Fitzalan Chapel from the other side. They’ve made much more of a feature of it than the chapel has, and there is a helpful information panel explaining the history. This felt like a fitting end to my exploration, so I headed back to the station and caught the train home to Brighton.

    All in all, a grand day out.

  • Fungi to be used to filter out toxins in waterways

    3 June 2026

    This sounds like a great bit of scientific discovery. And useful too. But I can’t help feeling that treating the symptoms of a failing water network detracts from the main problem, which is sewage leaking into waterways in the first place.

  • Cooking with…

    2 June 2026

    When I emptied my family home, I found this set of “Cooking with” leaflets. I have no idea when they were published, but the information on the back shows they came from the British Farm Produce Council in Knightsbridge, London. My best guess is that they are from the 1970s.

    They have been sitting on a shelf in my work room for over a decade while I tried to work out what to do with them. Some of the recipes are, erm, challenging to my modern palate, and double cream seems to feature quite frequently.

    I didn’t photograph all the booklets. Instead, I just picked the ones that were printed across two pages so I could fit in all the details. After all, it would be terrible to only find half a recipe for “Rhubarb and Kidney Curls” or “Turnip Twists,” wouldn’t it?

    I don’t know if my mum ever made any of them, and I don’t really have an emotional connection to them. Even so, I have loved flicking through the pages trying to find a recipe I might actually want to cook. The best one so far comes from the cauliflower guide (tho I did have to look up what a gill was).

    Salad Sprigs
    FOR 4 (no cooking involved)

    1 large cauliflower
    1 medium-sized onion
    ½ cucumber
    ½ gill cider vinegar
    ½ gill salad oil
    1 oz caster sugar
    Salt and black pepper
    1 teaspoonful dry mustard
    Watercress

    Method: Cut the cucumber into ½” dice and soak in cider vinegar for ½ hour. Meantime, blanch the cauliflower in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, drain well and divide into sprigs. Drain the cucumber and put cucumber and cauliflower into a basin. In another bowl, mix together the salt, pepper, dry mustard and sugar. Stir in the vinegar drained from the cucumber. Stir in the oil. Pour over vegetables and turn well in the dressing. Chill. Turn into a serving dish and garnish with fresh watercress sprigs.

    And from the Apple guide:

    Apple Salad
    FOR 4 (no cooking involved)

    2 dessert apples (British, of course)
    1 tablespoonful lemon juice
    2 sticks celery
    ½lb carrots
    2 tablespoonsful salad cream dressing

    Method: Remove cores from unpeeled apples then thinly slice. Toss in lemon juice. Thinly slice celery and grate carrots. Mix all ingredients with the dressing and turn into a dish.

    This next one feels like it would be ridiculously sweet, but it is a nice idea in principle:

    Casseroled Tomatoes
    FOR 4

    8 medium-sized tomatoes
    2 oz butter
    ¼ pint water
    Juice of 1 lemon
    ¼ Ib honey

    Method: Skin the tomatoes and put into a fireproof casserole dish. Melt the butter and mix with all the other ingredients. Pour over the tomatoes. Cover closely and bake at 300°F, Gas Mark 2, for about half an hour until the tomatoes are tender. Serve with the juice as an unusual accompaniment to veal or duck.

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