by There are not many people who can claim to have seen a snowman fly over their house. It may sound amazing, but every Christmas I decide to watch The Snowman, A Raymond Briggs favorite, and watch the red boy and the tangerine-nosed snowman swing over the rhinos around the village where I live before gliding over the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier and out to sea.
The Snowman, Like many of Briggs’ works, it emerges against the backdrop of the East Sussex landscape he loved, and where he lived for more than 50 years. It is therefore fitting that the first exhibition of his life and work since his death in 2022 is being held not in a London gallery but at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, a few miles from his home in the village of Westmeston. Original drawings and illustrations, memorabilia, photographs and framed fan letters (including one from an American priest who was outraged to discover that Father Christmas included images of Santa on the loo) offer a unique insight into one of the greatest illustrators Britain ever did.
One of the most interesting exhibits is Briggs’ desk, which is still full of all the ephemera he worked with while creating When the Wind Blows, Fungus the Bogeyman and Ethel and Ernest. Photographs of him at the desk show the view he called “great privilege”, stretching north across the Sussex Weald to the distant wood of Ashdown Forest. Every morning he walked the quiet paths and shady bridleways that led from the farmers’ fields to the low green hills, and he recreated this countryside in the pages of his books.
I understand his love for this quiet corner of Sussex, as its paths and fields are mine too. There is something magical about this vast expanse of countryside that lies between the built-up coastline and the belt of commuter towns – Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Crawley which lie north of the Briggs corner of the national park. The towns may be growing, but the South Downs sit between the urban sprawl like a magnificent green lung. Get out on one of the centuries-old bridleways, and only the newly planted vineyards crossing the fields like silent armies are evidence of the world turning at all.
Briggs loved the landscapes of the land. It feels very real when his work is set up in specific places
Steph Fuller, Ditchling Museum
“It’s very much about Briggs – basing his work in particular places so that it feels very real and authentic,” says Steph Fuller, director of the Ditchling Museum. “His family talk about how much he loved the landscapes of the land – it’s amazing to see how in tune he was, how much he understood the countryside and played back in his it’s drawings.”
The beauty of the exhibition being so close to where Briggs lived is that it offers the opportunity to follow in his footsteps and walk through the landscapes displayed in his work. Most visitors to this part of the world head up to the downs to walk a stretch of the South Down Way, with the sparkling sea to the south, and the villages of Ditchling, Westmeston and East Chiltington – where Briggs is buried – on the north side of the escarpment.
I prefer to follow Lodge Hill Lane past the museum, turn right onto Boddington Lane and then follow the path to the low hill behind the village. From here, the medieval houses of Ditchling – the most famous being Wings Place, given to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement from Henry VIII – and the picturesque high street roll out towards the fort, the ridge of hills at rising like a khaki-hued tsunami, dwarfing the houses dotted through the fields below. If I have more time, I will walk the three miles from Ditchling to East Chiltington, following the route of the old Roman road – the Greenway – which once ran from Barcombe Mills, near Lewes, to Pulborough in West Sussex.
Related: ‘Not a parable about death’: Raymond Briggs’ notes set the record straight for The Snowman
Best of all, any walk in this part of the world is usually a success – or at least a break – in one of the unspoilt pubs nestled in quiet lanes. Briggs was often seen at the Half Moon in Plumpton, situated just opposite a bypass leading up to the sinkhole, or at the Bull in Ditchling, with its medieval, low beam bar. My favorite is the Jolly Sportsman in East Chiltington – the kind of pub you’d never find if you didn’t know it was there, with a sunny garden, flowers and elegant candlelit dining rooms.
A walk on the downs, a pint in the pub – such simple pleasures are the essence of Briggs’ work. “His books are beautiful portraits of everyday life,” says Fuller, “but those lives are set against the backdrop of something extraordinary, whether it’s a snowman coming to life or the threat of a nuclear explosion. I think that’s why his work is so loved, so attractive: it inspires us to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, just as Briggs himself did.”
Bloomin‘ Brilliant: Life and Work of Raymond Briggs runs from April 27 until 27 October at Ditchling Art + Craft Museum.
A short break in the Snowman country
eat The Nutmeg Tree in Ditchling serves excellent lunches, coffee and cake in its pretty walled garden and traditional tea room, while the Half Moon in Plumpton offers small plates – Welsh rarebit, mushrooms on toast – alongside pub classics. For a proper splurge, book a table at the Jolly Sportsman – specify if you want to be outside.
Wait The Bull has chic doubles from £143, one room.
Walking (about 8½ miles, plus tax) Start at Hassocks station, where the signposted path leads from the car park across fields and up to the descents. Pass Clayton Windmills (featured in The Snowman) and follow the South Downs Way to Ditchling Beacon. Cross the road and keep to the ridge, looking for the footpath sign down to Westmeston. Follow the signs north out of the village, across fields and through woods (usually very muddy) to Ditchling. Follow Lodge Hill Lane past the museum and up to Oldland Windmill before following the road down to Keymer village and back through Hassocks to the station.
