Southern England Travelogue: A Journey through the East of Southern England

Kent is known as the Garden of England – and rightly so. But the other counties in the east of Southern England are equally characterised by their patchwork of small-scale landscapes and beautiful scenery. We are staying in beautiful Amberley near Chichester – or, looking at the wider area, roughly between Portsmouth and Brighton, not far from the English Channel. It is only about 45 minutes from London Gatwick Airport, while London Heathrow is a good half an hour further away.

Amberley is situated in South Downs, a national park (although you would hardly notice this in practice). Our cottage is on private land behind the owners’ house, right on a slope. Originally a barn with a thatched roof, it has been beautifully converted and has a large decking outside the kitchen/dining room, with wonderful views across the countryside. In short: a real dream cottage!

That suits us perfectly, as the weather is now becoming a little less pleasant. Not really bad or rainy, but very overcast and quite windy. To be honest, we are almost pleased about it, as it gives us the perfect excuse to finally do nothing and simply enjoy a quiet day at home. The weather over the past few weeks has been so good that we have hardly spent any time at home, and after more than four weeks of full-on travelling and being out and about, we are feeling slightly worn out.

But of course, we do not spend the whole week in the cottage. One outing takes us to the nearby city of Brighton, whose appeal is, of course, a matter of opinion. Ours is that we cannot really call the city attractive, although it does have a few nice corners, such as the narrow “Lanes”.

The “Royal Pavillon” in Brighton – a really eccentric building!

The traffic can be pretty intense – here, a convoy of buses in the city centre

There are some pretty eccentric shops in the Lanes too – who can pronounce the name without getting it wrong?

The alternative is only about 8 miles away: Lewes – a lovely little town visually dominated to some extent by the Harveys Brewery. Its pleasant main street winds uphill towards the Castle (although partly in ruins).

part of Lewes viewed from the Castle

Lewes Castle

The High Street in Lewes during a particularly quiet moment. Note the bookshop with its open displays!

And let us not forget the Harveys Brewery

Just a quick snapshot – although there are quite a lot of beautifully maintained classic cars around anyway

We continue exploring our local area, the South Downs:

It is rather lovely when the main road in a small village does not have a name at all – it is simply “The Street”! This is actually quite common…

Right in the middle of the village (here in Bramber), you often find plenty of greenery, a river and public footpaths.

This takes us to Arundel, the nearest larger town to our accommodation. It is dominated by its Castle and is really rather lovely:

Looking down from the Castle walls towards the centre of Arundel

Quite impressive, the Castle at Arundel

And then there is this: a gap between buildings with a tiny public garden right on the River Arun, inviting you to sit down and relax.

On another outing, we suddenly come across a cricket ground where a match is in progress. Cricket (known in the USA in a somewhat different form as baseball) is the national sport of England. But please do not ask us about the rules!

Pure action – note the flying ball

The (fairly small) crowd is enthralled! Thrilling! Note the over-enthusiastic umpire (the one wearing the hat).

We also make our way to Petworth, where we have already stayed twice in a B&B. This time, we finally take the time to visit Petworth House:

Petworth House from the outside, set in a huge public park

They certainly had style in those days, the high and mighty.

The behind-the-scenes view is fascinating too, especially the kitchen

High tech – all lovingly preserved

And then there is the garden, here the private section

Also in the garden at Petworth House

Naturally, we go walking again. The South Downs Way is ideal for this, a roughly 100-mile-long walking trail across the South Downs National Park. We only walked a small but particularly scenic section: a path along a ridge, with the sea and the outskirts of Brighton on one side and open countryside on the other.

out on the South Downs Way

The wide open countryside of Sussex! The hills, barely 300 metres high, are a paradise for paragliders – hard to believe.

But then we are drawn back into the more wooded areas.

Birdhouses at Winkworth Arboretum

Impressions from Winkworth Arboretum

And eventually the sun comes out again, the wind dies down and, while parts of Europe are being battered by severe storms, it becomes positively summery here. Come and take a short walk through Amberley with us:

A typically English house with two typically English cars outside (well, the manufacturers are no longer English)

Amberley

Entrance to the church – there was a wedding here yesterday

Yes, it can rain quite heavily here. And that is why the rubber boots (known as “Wellies” or “Wellingtons”) hang beside the front door

Amberley

Completely overgrown entrance to a house in Amberley

For our farewell, we head towards the coast once more, this time to the village of Bosham . It is not directly on the sea, but is part of Chichester Harbour and is a small centre for water sports. As everywhere in England, the tidal range here is considerable: the water level rises or falls by around 4.5 metres four times a day.

This sign in Bosham looks rather odd – but it should be taken seriously!

Nice car – but does the driver know what they are doing?

This driver, for example, is wondering why he cannot get any further because the road is already flooded.

No one can say they were not warned!

Cars were parked here just 15 minutes ago – the boat is now definitely the better vehicle.

And where cars were still driving just minutes ago, shoals of fish are now swimming about!

For the locals, living with the water is perfectly normal. So is the fact that part of the village floods in bad weather. No problem – you simply put the garden gate a little higher:

Not exactly accessible, but certainly safer!

Some of the houses have beautiful thatched roofs…

… and are beautifully decorated at the top.

It is absolutely beautiful here in Bosham – no wonder the village attracts painters and artists too.

Where do we go from here?

We decide to visit Uppark House and Garden

… followed by a walk at Harting Down

The beautiful path is wonderfully varied. Sometimes there are even gates that you do not really need.

And finally, we enjoy the sunset from our terrace before packing our things for the journey home:

And so our final day has arrived. We drive east from Amberley all the way to Canterbury, which we take our time to explore:

Canterbury ist erstmal die Stadt der bedeutendsten Kathedrale Englands

Note these two brand-new statues, installed in 2015 in niches that had previously stood empty: Lissi (sorry, Her Royal Highness The Queen) and her husband Philip – both still alive at the time of our visit in 2016!

The square directly in front of the entrance to Cathedral Close – there are particularly large numbers of young visitors in the city during the day

But be careful: drinking alcohol is not always permitted! Note the rather unusual wording: if a police officer in uniform tells you to stop and you carry on, you face a £500 fine. Otherwise, it is fine.

Would our building inspectors approve of this? But England is simply a little different – thankfully!

Yes, here they certainly tell it like it is! And once again, it’s at a hairdresser’s – they clearly have a rather particular sense of humour here.

Parts of the city are genuinely lovely, although it was heavily damaged by German bombing in June 1942. These were the so-called Baedeker Raids, or Baedeker Blitz – retaliatory attacks following British bombing raids on Lübeck and Rostock, in which culturally significant English cities were deliberately targeted for destruction. Apparently, the targets were selected from the Baedeker, the most popular guidebook of the time… Fortunately, much of Canterbury city centre was subsequently rebuilt.

The Parade, the main street of the pedestrianised area

A classic row of terraced houses just two minutes from the pedestrianised centre

A row of houses in Canterbury

Old buildings and very modern art

As a little highlight, we decide to take a boat trip along the city’s shallow canals. There are three operators, one of which only runs outside the city in the countryside. Of the other two, we choose the one that poles its comfortably seated passengers along in very shallow punts – essentially pushing the boat through the canals with a long pole.

A somewhat unconventional boat trip in Canterbury

Passing historic buildings…

… and romantic corners of the city.

And finally, Westgate, through whose narrow archway even double-decker buses pass.

And that is that. The following day, all that remains is the drive to the London airports (1:15 h to Gatwick, 1:45 h to Heathrow in light traffic) and then the journey home.

Travel tip:

If you would like to recreate this trip, either as described or with a few changes, we recommend our “Tour 3 – The East of Southern England” as a route-planning guide.

We have personally visited all the places, sights and gardens featured in our itineraries and have written about them in detail on this website. We hope that, after exploring Southern England for yourself, you will be just as captivated by this beautiful part of England as we are!