A Drink on St. Christopher by Ron Trill

Not everyone believes this little tale, and even I am now beginning to wonder whether or not I dreamt it. A long time ago, before the Second World War, I was heading into Sussex on a pleasantly warm June afternoon, making for the Youth Hostel at Graffham (SU930173), some dozen or so miles over the Hampshire border and long since closed. After South Harting (SU785195) I picked up a twisting lane that ran between the villages to the north of a ridge of the South Downs. At one point the road turned sharply right and after a further 50 yards or so, sharply left to bring it back to its original direction. At this second bend was a very interesting little corner.

Actually it was a cross roads because a track headed away from the bend south over the Downs. Just a few yards down the track on the right was a farm house, a few yards beyond the entrance to a field, and near the field gate was a sign-post. No ordinary sign-post. The top part was in the form of a bust of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers and therefore of cyclists. From his outstretched arms hung the signs to the two adjacent villages, Treyford (SU825186) and Elsted (SU816195).

Very interesting. Of greater interest was a small table placed in the field entrance on which was spread a clean white cloth, and on the cloth was a jug of lemonade and a glass and a note reading “Have a drink on St Christopher”.

It is not my usual luck to happen upon free drinks on warm afternoons, and this was much appreciated. It seems that there was a very old charity which supplied drinks to travellers, somewhat akin to the Travellers’ Dole at St Cross, near Winchester, but how or why it settled on this particular spot seems lost during the past, and it is not certain that it is still continued. When I passed that way again, about eight or nine years later, there was no sign of table or drinks, hard as I looked for them, but that was about forty years ago and much may have happened since. Perhaps both bends have been swept away to meet the needs of modern traffic, and if so, is the St Christopher sign-post still there? Too far now to pop out there to check.

You can find the area in question on the 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey map number 197 titled Chichester & The South Downs. If anyone would care to cycle around the roads in question and make any enquiries and take any photographs, the webmaster would be very please to hear from you.

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