River Lavant at West Dean

The bridge over the River Lavant at West Dean, where we stopped to buy local honey on the way home. I’ve mentioned before that the River Lavant is one of those winterbournes, a stream that runs dry in summer on the chalk downs. Although it’s the end of May, there is still quite a lot of water in it, but it can be dry by April. Its natural course was to enter the sea at Pagham but the Romans, bless their cotton socks, diverted it to flow around the City Walls, and then on into Chichester Harbour. I love this bit of the Downs, nothing more perfect than watching sheep graze here while having our tea.