Buckhurst Campsite

Battlefield boffins have the history and highlights of 1066 and all that a couple of minutes’ drive away at Battle Abbey and Battlefield, site of the famous showdown between King Harold and William the Conqueror (there’s a clue there as to who won). The heady fare here – including visitor centre with CGI re-enactment, events and the abbey itself – should entice all ages; if this fires up the kids’ historical imaginations, another 1066 experience is at nearby Hastings Castle (both recommended). Reach Hastings Castle via one of the two cliff railways, West Hill and East Hill Lifts, and do remember to look down; East Hill Lifts is the steepest funicular railway in the country and has smashing views over Hastings Country Park where it ends up. Kids castled out? Hastings has heaps of other family things to do: start off at the seafront’s Hastings Miniature Railway, which runs to old fishing village Rock-a-Nore where you can pick up some local seafood, dive into the exhibits of the Fishermen’s Village or take a boat out to land your own scaly specimens. The famous Hastings Fishmarket, where most of the Hastings’s daily catch is sold after being landed at The Stade, is on Rock-a-nore Road, the town’s shingle beach which has been a maritime centre for over a millennia and which now has the biggest beachside fishing fleet in Europe. Check out the area’s tales at the Shipwreck Museum and at the Lifeboat Station and Visitors’ Centre, or take a boat trip out to find your own deep sea wreck. If your history interests – or more likely, the kids’ – tend towards the more nefarious, a big local treasure is St Clements Caves back on West Hill, which tells the tales of the area’s smuggling exploits via Hairy Jack and the team. At White Rock Gardens in the town, Clambers Play Centre has huge indoor and outdoor play areas for all ages and picnic tables, café and free parking; while retail therapy can be had at the Priory Meadow Shopping Centre near Hastings’s seafront. Walks through 1066 Country and the High Wealds AONB are also easily accessible, as are Sussex beaches; a golf course at Battle and a golf school in Rother and stacks of other Sussex highlights such as sweet English vineyards, theme parks, watersports and cycling the Sussex Downs.