Barcombe

Barcombe makes a relaxed base for exploring the Ouse Valley and the northern edge of the South Downs National Park, though the village itself has few hotels of its own. Most travellers looking for a proper hotel stay use nearby Lewes, five minutes or so by car, which offers everything from characterful coaching inns in the historic town centre to modern boutique hotels, many within walking distance of the castle, high street and station. Staying in Lewes also puts Brighton, Glyndebourne and the wider South Downs within easy reach, while Barcombe itself remains just a short drive away for riverside walks and a pub lunch at the Anchor Inn.

Barcombe rewards slow exploring on foot or by bike more than a checklist of sights, but there is a solid handful of real places worth building a day around.

• Barcombe Mills and Nature Reserve — the site of the old corn mill on the west bank of the River Ouse, now a peaceful reserve of wet woodland and meadow with paths along the old mill leat and weirs.
• Barcombe Reservoir — a former Brighton water-supply reservoir with a circular path along its banks, popular with anglers and birdwatchers watching for herons, kingfishers and wildfowl.
• St Mary the Virgin Church — a Norman-founded church in the original, largely deserted old village, with 17th-century armorial glass and later Victorian windows by Charles Eamer Kempe.
• The Anchor Inn at Barcombe Mills — an 1790 riverside pub where rowing boats can be hired to explore the Ouse, and a natural turning point for a circular walk from Barcombe Cross.
• The Egrets Way and Sustrans Route 21 — the trackbed of the old Lewes to Uckfield railway, now a flat, largely traffic-free path for cycling or walking towards Lewes.
• Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum — a few miles north-east near Ringmer, combining ornamental wildfowl collections, a motor museum and a miniature railway, good for a family day out.
• Lewes — the county town four or five miles south, with its Norman castle, Southover Grange gardens, independent shops and the historic Pells Pool, England's oldest documented freshwater outdoor pool.

The village's best-known food and drink stop is the Anchor Inn at Barcombe Mills, an eighteenth-century riverside pub with real ale, a straightforward pub menu and boats for hire on the Ouse right outside. Barcombe Cross has its own village pub along with a well-regarded village shop and post office for essentials, and the wider area around Ringmer and Lewes offers a broader spread of cafes, farm shops and restaurants for anyone happy to travel a short distance for dinner.

Barcombe sits right on the River Ouse where the water meadows meet the northern edge of the South Downs, and this gentle, low-lying landscape makes for a different kind of camping trip to the chalk downland further south. As with the rest of England, wild camping is not legal here without the landowner's permission, so pitching up in the reserve, along the river or on farmland requires booking a proper site rather than finding a quiet corner for the night. The good news is that Barcombe and its immediate surroundings have a genuine cluster of well-regarded small campsites, from simple grassy pitches within walking distance of the Anchor Inn and the reservoir to glamping bell tents and yurts on nearby farms towards Ringmer and Lewes.

The terrain around Barcombe Mills is flat and often damp, criss-crossed by the river, its old mill leats and the reservoir, so a site with reasonable drainage and solid pitches matters more here than it might on higher ground. The reward for camping in the valley is easy access to riverside walks straight from your tent, the chance of a wild swim in permitted stretches of the Ouse, and a short walk or cycle to a proper pub rather than a drive. Head a little further south and the ground begins to rise into the South Downs proper, opening up the option of combining a valley-bottom camp with day walks up onto the open downland above Lewes.

Late spring to early autumn is the best window for camping here, when the meadows have dried out from winter flooding and the long evenings suit a walk along the river before dark. Many of the sites in this area lean towards a quiet, family-friendly, low-key style of camping rather than large-scale facilities, and several offer glamping options such as bell tents, shepherd's huts or yurts for anyone who wants the setting without bringing their own tent, making Barcombe an appealing, easy-to-reach alternative to the more crowded coastal campsites further south.