Slow Sussex and the South Downs National Park


A new approach to travel guides

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Finalist, Guide Book of the Year, British Travel Press Awards 2011

'Perhaps if Jerome K Jerome had published guidebooks instead of novels, he might have written books like these.'
Wildlife extra.com

'We like “Slow Sussex” a lot. The book nicely tempts the readers to spots she or he never knew they wanted to visit. All in all, the book is a splendid introduction to one of the most attractive and accessible parts of England.'
EuroCheapo

'Thanks to Tim, I'm now inspired to visit Kingley Vale for myself, not to mention Fishbourne's Roman Palace and Sussex's Purple Patch. I want to go llama trekking in the Ashdown Forest and try paragliding over the Downs, and when I do, this fascinating guide will be the first thing I shall pack.'
Gillian Thornton, thetraveleditor.com

'It’s a wonderful read that will really help me with exploring my adopted county. I hope it sells well - it deserves to!'
Dr Hew Prendergast, Director, Ashdown Forest Conservators

'Written in a pleasing journalistic style, with plenty of fact-filled anecdotes and personal experience thrown in. A book after Viva's own heart; and one that is likely to spend more time on the desktop or in the shoulder bag than on the bookshelf.'
Viva Lewes

'Slow Sussex! That's us! Loved the write-up, loved the book!'
Spring Barn Farm

'A book that really gets to the heart of all that’s best about Sussex, whilst taking an approach close to my own heart - a refreshingly slow and sustainable way of appreciating this beautiful corner of the country. No rush; just savour and enjoy!'
Gillian Clarkson, Towner Gallery, East Sussex

'I loved your new book, it’s helping me discover places that I never noticed before!'
Janet Sinclair, Stansted Park Foundation

'An exceptional new book ... just part of the mixture that makes Slow Sussex and South Downs National Park so compelling. This is no standard guide book. It's a fascinating blend of things to see, things to do - and perhaps how to go about it all on foot.'
Sussex Express

'It’s really fab. Well done. Your piece about Farley Farm House was fantastic. You really captured us and the atmosphere well and are the first person to get all their facts right.'
Ami Bouhassane, curator, Farley Farm House

'Having just enoyed the skylarks and may blossom, not to mention the village pubs and b and b's of the South Downs with my two eldest, am absolutely in tune with your wonderfully detailed guide. Will keep a stack in my bookshop, Skylark, in the Needlemakers, Lewes, and hope they sell... fast.'
Matt Birch, Skylark Bookshop, Lewes

'Locke's wry humour and detailed research make this a readable and informative book. The chatty tone is interlaced with the sort of recommendations that only someone with good local knowledge can provide.'
Stuart Forster, thetraveleditor.com

This is the fourth of a totally new concept in travel guidebooks was launched by Bradt Guides. I am the project manager of the series. The Slow guides to North Yorkshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Devon and Exmoor were the first titles (published 2010) and three new titles are under way for 2012.


See the first series of Bradt Slow Guides published in 2010

In April 2011 I published the Sussex and South Downs National Park volume in the same series, just after the South Downs National Park became fully into being. The book includes a bit of eastern Hampshire (Winchester, Alresford and the Meon Valley for example), as the new South Downs National Park stretches out of Sussex.

It doesn’t include every bit of Sussex – I focus on the areas visitors will most want to dip into - mostly that means the South Downs, the coast and the High Weald.

It also covers aspects never seen in a guidebook before: like Newhaven's spectral railway station, the unique 'oyster' bungalows of Normans Bay, and the story of how the great storm turned Parham Park into a prized wildlife habitat. Then there are walks with llamas, a visit to an astonishing cloth flower factory, woodlands you can find out about coppicing, and prehistoric flints to peruse while strolling over the South Downs.


Bradt Slow Guides follow such concepts as the Slow City movement – born in Italy – and the Slow Food movement. Essentially it’s about celebrating the present as much as the past, in taking time to seek out local distinctiveness at a relaxed pace and to savour what makes a place special. It’s about sharing pleasures of discovering new places and experiences with readers, and about rediscovering a simpler, slower way of travel.

Bradt Slow Guides tune in with several emerging trends:

  • Concerns with the environment and with the carbon footprints of air travel
  • The desire for ‘real’ experiences when on holiday: real food, wellness, meeting local people
  • An awareness that children need to enjoy their childhoods and be aware of their surroundings
  • A reaction against ‘clone town’ Britain
  • An awakening interest in the concept of Britishness (in the best sense) and heritage


Going Slow in Sussex and the South Downs National Park

Bradt Slow Guides are all written by local authors. I have lived in Lewes for 16 years, and feel I know my patch pretty well, but I’m always amazed how many new places and experiences there are to discover. The landscape has extraordinary variety, and the history is layers deep. Yet it’s an area where a guidebook can really help a reader pick his or her way round carefully. I’m deliberately being very selective on what I include.

Rather than blanket coverage of the whole area, I linger in certain locales that I think are worth exploring for their distinctive qualities, and suggest a variety of ways of enjoying them.

I encourage readers to go local: the book is designed for repeat visits to different parts of Sussex and the South Downs National Park. So I’m highlighting useful public transport routes and trying to find enough an area to justify a day or longer visit. For instance, a garden, a local museum, a vineyard, a good pub, an outstanding country walk, somewhere to stay and a farm shop selling organic produce might be clustered together.

  • The book includes interviews with people I’ve met. For example, I had a chat with an instructor at a paragliding school at Glynde. His enthusiasm convinced me that the South Downs is the best place anywhere to paraglide, and explained that it’s an easy skill to acquire: ‘basically, if you can climb a flight of stairs, you can paraglide’.
  • Accommodation is sought out for its location, character, friendliness and value. I’m not including large corporate-style hotels, but am keen to include places that are usefully placed for getting the most out of a locale and where a stay is a genuine, positive experience. It might be a campsite equipped with yurts and campfires where you can learn woodcraft skills, or a friendly B&B in a pretty tile-hung Wealden cottage for example. There is no fee for inclusion for any place listed in the Bradt Slow Guides. (The first series of Bradt Slow Guides featured accommodation recommended by Alastair Sawday’s guides; however for Sussex and the South Downs National Park, all accommodation has been selected by me.)
  • The book has a firm emphasis on sustainable tourism: hence businesses that promote local products, eco-friendly accommodation, discovering local distinctiveness and using public transport.
  • The essence of a guidebook is in providing valid opinions, and presenting information in an inspiring and really user-friendly way – with enough space to give a readable and informative description of what the reader will see. There’s an awful lot on the internet, of course, but it is not easy to find a voice that is consistent and informed, and not trying to sell you anything. Bradt Slow Guides are totally independent and not in the clutches of advertisers. If it’s in the book, it’s because the author likes it.

Examples of what’s in the book

  • Water-cress growing in the Arle valley in Hampshire: why and how it’s grown there, and the emergence of the Watercress Festival in Alresford.
  • Selborne: with the background to the 18th-century naturalist Gilbert White and his writings here, and a walk taking in the countryside that had such a profound influence on him.
  • A chat with a volunteer working on the restoration of the Chichester Canal.
  • A day out at Shoreham: visiting the Norman church, Marlipins Museum, the extraordinary parade of houseboats and a walk over the fields to Shoreham’s art deco airport. And a cycle route over the South Downs to get there.
  • Lavender-growing at Lordington Farm: how a dairy farmer has changed his colours.
  • The story of how Parham Park’s estate became a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
  • Taking a sewer tour in Brighton.
  • Battle Abbey and battlefield tour: how it is arranged, and the pithier facts about the 1066 battle that changed the course of English history.
  • Explaining how rail routes tie in: which stations are useful, and how much of the area you can cover without a car.
  • The Lewes pound: why a Sussex town has got its very own currency.
  • The Long Man of Wilmington: new theories suggesting he’s not as old as we all thought.
  • The English Wine Centre: wine tastings, English wines and an interview with the proprietor.
  • Rye to Hastings: a great, unsung coastal walk that crosses an astonishing variety of landscapes.
  • Eric Ravilious, and his incomparable depictions of the South Downs landscape.

    Contact the author

    Tim Locke, tel: 01273 475381, email me

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