Wisborough Green

Wisborough Green makes a peaceful base for exploring the High Weald, and the choice of places to stay reflects its quiet, rural character rather than any concentration of large hotels. Within the village, expect small bed and breakfasts and converted farm buildings offering a handful of rooms, often run by locals who can point guests towards the best footpaths and pub tables. For a wider range of hotel-style accommodation, Petworth and Billingshurst are both a short drive away and offer everything from traditional coaching inns to modern guesthouses, many set in listed buildings with their own histories stretching back centuries. Petworth in particular has a good selection of characterful small hotels close to Petworth House and its deer park, useful if a day trip there is on the cards. Further afield, the market towns of Horsham and Midhurst extend the choice again, with a broader range of chain and independent hotels for those who want more facilities alongside their rural retreat. Whichever option is chosen, the appeal of staying near Wisborough Green lies less in the accommodation itself than in what surrounds it: quiet lanes, ancient woodland, and a genuine village green community that has barely changed in character for centuries. Booking ahead is worth doing for the smaller village options, which have few rooms and are popular with walkers and cricket followers throughout the warmer months, while the surrounding towns offer more flexibility for late or lengthy stays.

The village and its immediate surroundings reward slow exploration on foot as much as any single sight.

• The Village Green — at around nine acres, one of the largest in Sussex, with cricket matches, a duck pond and timber-framed cottages arranged around its edge.
• St Peter ad Vincula Church — a part-Norman parish church with a broad, squat tower, standing on high ground above the green and thought to have once served as a place of local defence.
• Shipley Windmill — a well-preserved smock mill a short drive south, once owned by the writer Hilaire Belloc and still open to visitors on selected days.
• Kirdford — the neighbouring village, worth the walk or drive for its own green, church and the Foresters Arms, and for the quiet lanes connecting the two.
• Petworth House and Park — the National Trust's great house and deer park a few miles west, with an outstanding art collection and 700 acres of Capability Brown landscape to roam.
• High Weald footpaths — a dense network of way-marked paths radiating from the village, including circular routes out towards Bedham and the old mill café, through ancient woodland and along field edges.
• Wisborough Green Village History Society — for those curious about the area's iron-working and glass-making past, occasional talks and exhibitions trace the village back to its 1227 charter.
• The war memorial and Canadian links — a reminder of the village's WWII connection to Canadian troops billeted nearby, commemorated each August.

The Three Crowns sits right on the edge of the cricket green, a cosy pub with a wood burner and garden serving hearty, generously portioned food including hand-battered fish and a good range of vegetarian options. A short stroll away, the Cricketers Arms has been a fixture of village life for decades, named for the green's cricketing tradition and known for home-cooked food, Tuesday quiz nights and live music on Thursdays. Together the two pubs give a small village an outsized choice for a proper Sussex lunch or evening meal.

Wisborough Green and the High Weald around it are prime walking country, and the appeal of pitching a tent here is obvious to anyone who has seen the ancient woodland, sunken lanes and rolling farmland that surround the village. It is worth being clear from the outset, though, that wild camping without the landowner's permission is not legal in England outside a few specific areas such as Dartmoor, so any camping trip to this part of Sussex needs to be based at a proper campsite or with a farmer or landowner's explicit consent. The good news is that the wider Sussex Weald and Downland area has a healthy scattering of small, independent campsites and glamping sites, many on working farms, offering pitches for tents alongside bell tents, shepherd's huts or safari tents for those who prefer a softer landing. The clay-heavy Wealden ground can turn heavy after rain, so a site with reasonable drainage and hardstanding for vehicles is worth checking before booking, and the dense tree cover that makes the area so scenic also means some pitches can be shaded and slow to dry out. Late spring through early autumn is the most reliable window, when the ground has firmed up and the surrounding footpaths, including routes out towards Kirdford and Bedham, are at their best for walking straight from the tent. Facilities vary considerably between sites, from simple field camping with a standpipe and compost loo to fuller-service glamping with underfloor heating and private bathrooms, so it pays to match the site to the trip. Fires and barbecues should always follow the individual site's rules, since much of the surrounding land sits within the High Weald National Landscape and close to ancient semi-natural woodland that is easily damaged. For those new to camping in the area, a night or two near Wisborough Green pairs naturally with a longer weekend taking in Petworth House, Shipley Windmill and the network of paths that lace this quiet corner of Sussex together.