South Downs

With a National Park in Worthing’s back garden you may be itching to get out into the countryside for walks and bike trips.

The South Downs are a range of rolling chalk hills across southern England from Hampshire to East Sussex.

In 2011 this became the newest National Park in the UK, conserving a 626 square-mile patch of quiet green countryside.

One long -distance walking trail that crosses the downs and passes close to Worthing is Monarch’s Way.

This route follows Charles II’s escape from England after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 and concludes just east of Worthing in Shoreham where he set sail for France.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Highdown Gardens

The botanist and horticulturalist Sir Frederick Stern established this spellbinding garden at a former chalk quarry in 1909. Embedded in downland with vistas of the Channel, the quarry had almost no soil and unfavourable planting conditions. But Steyn toiled for 50 years to show that plants could flourish on chalk. The species he introduced to Highdown are now a National Plant Collection of unusual trees and plants. The gardens are at their best in spring and summer when snowdrops, anemones, daffodils, crocuses and then peonies and bearded irises all take turns to bloom.
Read more

Worthing Museum and Art Gallery

Image
This excellent town museum is in an Edwardian hall from 1908, at what used to be Worthing’s library. The museum’s acclaimed textile and costume collection is one of the largest in the UK, rich with pieces from the Regency and Victorian periods, but also chronicling the dramatic changes to women’s fashion in the 20th century. There are engrossing displays of local archaeology, including axes from Neolithic flint mines in the downs, the Patching hoard of Roman gold coins and the remnants of an Anglo-Saxon longboat. One enthralling exhibit is an Ancient Egyptian vase with a Greek inscription unearthed at an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. The art gallery has painting by Ivon Hitchens, William Holman Hunt and Lucien Pissarro, and sculpture by the Estonian Modernist Dora Gordine.
Read more

Tarring High Street

Image
In the Worthing borough, Tarring is a suburb a mile or so west of the town centre, and much older than Worthing proper. The church and Archbishop’s Palace here are from the 13th-century, and the houses along the meandering high street go back further than their Victorian and Georgian facades suggest. The high street is now mostly residential, and at the older south end are some very pretty flint and cobble cottages, as well the Parsonage Bar and Restaurant in a fine 16th-century half-timbered building. A couple of historic pubs here, the Vine and George and the Dragon are good for lunch or a pint.
Read more