South Downs National Park - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

Cowdray Park is a country house at the centre of the 16,500-acre Cowdray Estate in Midhurst, West Sussex. The estate is home to the Cowdray Park Polo Club, one of the leading polo clubs in the United Kingdom. The park lies in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose family have owned it since 1908. It has a golf course, and it offers clay pigeon shooting and corporate activity days, as well as the more traditional activities of agriculture, forestry and prope

Woolbeding Gardens is a National Trust property at the heart of the Rother Valley and in the middle of the South Downs Dark Sky Reserve. Wild and open hills and commons make for fantastic walks during the day and the dark skies mean this is an ideal stargazing location. It was Nestled in a quiet corner of West Sussex lies a true horticultural haven bursting with colourful planting, sensational views and a whole host of surprises.

Hollycombe Steam in the Country, situated on the Hampshire and Sussex border, is home to Britain's largest collection of working steam, with two working steam railways. It has some of the oldest and most thrilling fairground rides of their day including the world's first white-knuckle ride, the 'Razzle Dazzle'. The collection also includes the beautiful Golden Gallopers with an original Gaviolli Fairground Organ, steam-powered Chair-o-planes and a Big Wheel.

The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1991. It is also one of the highest points in the south east of England, exceeded by Walbury Hill and Leith Hill. Blackdown is protected as part of the South Downs National Park.

Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Salvin. It contains intricate wood-carvings by Grinling Gibbons. It is the manor house of the manor of Petworth. For centuries it was the southern home for the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland.

The Weald and Downland Living Museum is an open-air museum in Singleton, West Sussex, which covers 40 acres, with over 50 historic buildings dating from 950AD to the 19th century, along with gardens, farm animals, walks and a mill pond. The museum principally promotes the retention of buildings on their original sites unless there is no alternative, and encourages an informed and sympathetic approach to their preservation and continuing use.