Steyning is one of Sussex's many beautiful rural towns. It's a fantastic day trip out of town for the more explorative Brightonian as it's packed with all of the little features that you could want from a rural town experience. It has a fantastic selection of pubs such as the modern almost metro feeling "White Horse" and my personal favourite pub lunch venue "the star Inn". It also has a fantastic museum offering a little insight into how this historic (over a thousand years old) port/market town came to be. Its' high street is a lazy and picturesque wander with a fine selection of tea rooms and hobby shops and the surrounding area makes for some excellent countryside walking. There's one thing about Steyning that sometimes bothers me though. To paraphrase Mike Skinner "you're fit but my gosh don't you know it". As a first time visitor to Steyning I was over whelmed by all the great things it seemed to have to offer in terms of the rural Sussex experience. In recent years though I've come to find that it's a bit like a countryside theme park, the whole town seems to be a little too self aware and prepared to capitalize on all of its' assets. Perhaps this is the result of it being so accessible from London. The result being that it's not just owned be people who made their money in "the square Mile" but visited by people desperate to spend a day out of it. All this aside though it still retains a great deal of character and is a brilliant destination for those of us who just need a day out of the hustle of Brighton. read more

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