Cal :
I would do Rye.
The Mermaid is a lovely pub, round the corner from Lamb House (look at the list of authors that have passed through).
There's train connections to Lewes (which has a castle, is the birthplace of Tom Payne, has a home that 1 of Henry 8th's wives lived at), Hastings (1066 and all that, plus the following people lived here for a time: Alister Crowley, Grey Owl, John Logie Baird, Alan Turing, Queen Victoria - also haunted Old Town with a history of smuggling), Pevensey (castle), Maidstone/Dover/Canterbury (via changing at Ashford), Brighton (George 4th's party town), Battle (the abbey that's the site of the Norman conquest), Bexhill (home of the Sackville family that owned Delaware state and linked to Spike Milligan - as is Rye).
By bus you can get to Hawkhurst (home of the 18th century Hawkhurst Gang [smugglers, pirates, brigands, ganster-af]), Hurstmonceux and Sodium (both have lovely castles), Burwash (home of Rudyard Kipling).
2026-05-21 11:43:51