ON the wall of Shirley Collins’ house in Lewes is a framed painting that looks remarkably similar to the cover of her 2023 album Archangel Hill. It’s not a coincidence; Collins personally commissioned the painting from local artist Peter Messer in order to have a visual depiction of the nearby landmark, more commonly known as Mount Caburn.
“In the 1920s,” she explains, “my step-father was a stable groom on a farm at Bishopstone further along the coast, and one of his duties was to ride the horses over the Downs to the Lewes Racecourse. Over the years, when he told of these memories, he misremembered the name, first of all calling it Mount Gabriel, and eventually Archangel Hill.” Collins used to enjoy picking sloes on Mount Caburn. “Walking it now is beyond me, I’m sad to say. But I do still have a small amount of my sloe gin 2020… although it has now matured into sloe
