The Ashdown Forest for Large Family Groups
The Complete Guide
If you are planning a gathering for a large family group, there is a particular kind of pressure involved. You want somewhere that has enough space that people are not on top of each other. You want bedrooms for grandparents, rooms for teenagers, space for small children to nap while the adults eat. You want an outdoor space that actually works — not a pocket-sized patio but somewhere you can spread out. And ideally, you want to be somewhere that has things to do — not a sterile countryside box in the middle of nowhere, but a place with genuine character.
The Ashdown Forest ticks all of these, and The Ashdown Escape sits at its heart.
The dining table seats up to ten — designed for the kind of long meals that become the memory of a trip
About the Ashdown Forest
The Ashdown Forest covers six and a half thousand acres of open heathland, ancient woodland and river valleys across East Sussex. It is the largest area of publicly accessible open space in the South East of England — larger than Richmond Park, larger than Epping Forest — and unlike many landscapes of comparable scale, it feels genuinely wild. No manicured paths. No café every hundred metres. Just heath, sky, and the kind of space that reorganises your sense of proportion.
It is also, of course, the landscape that A.A. Milne transformed into the Hundred Acre Wood. The actual Pooh Sticks Bridge, where Christopher Robin played, is a fifteen-minute drive from The Ashdown Escape, in the village of Hartfield. There is a small Pooh Bear shop in the village, a tea room, and a walk to the bridge that takes about twenty minutes through woods that look exactly as you would expect. For families with small children, it is entirely magical. For families with older children who have outgrown Pooh Bear, it is still, honestly, quietly magical.
The heated outdoor pool is open from April through September — the natural gathering point for summer stays
What to do with a large group in the Ashdown Forest
Walking and exploring the forest. The Ashdown Forest has thirteen mapped circular walking routes, ranging from gentle afternoon strolls to full-day hikes. The terrain is varied — open heathland with long views, dense pine woodland, stream valleys. Dogs are very welcome throughout, and The Ashdown Escape is a pet-friendly property.
The Bluebell Railway. Eight miles from the property, the Bluebell Railway is a preserved steam railway running through the Sussex countryside between Sheffield Park and East Grinstead. One of the finest heritage railways in England, it is genuinely charming for all ages — not a theme park attraction but a living piece of railway history.
Sheffield Park and Garden. Also eight miles away, Sheffield Park is one of the National Trust's finest gardens — a designed landscape of cascading lakes and rare trees, spectacular in every season but particularly in autumn and spring. A full afternoon for a large group.
Hever Castle. Twelve miles from the property, Hever Castle is the childhood home of Anne Boleyn — a genuine moated castle with gardens, a lake and extensive grounds including a water maze, a yew maze, a jousting arena and regular events. Excellent for families with children across a wide age range.
Brighton. Thirty miles south. A day trip rather than a main attraction, but Brighton offers the sea, the Lanes, the pier, excellent food, and the kind of vibrant energy that is a useful counterpoint to a few days in the countryside. Forty minutes by car.
Glyndebourne. For the musically inclined, Glyndebourne Opera House is eighteen miles from the property. The summer festival runs from May through August. A black-tie picnic on the lawns during the interval is one of those quintessentially English experiences that is worth having once.
The private spa — Finnish sauna, steam cabin and outdoor hot tub — means there is always somewhere to escape the main group
What The Ashdown Escape offers a large group
Five bedrooms sleeping up to ten guests: three king-size beds, one queen, and two singles — a configuration that works for multi-generational families, for groups of adults, or for families with children of different ages. Four bathrooms mean mornings are not a bottleneck.
The grounds offer a tennis court, heated outdoor pool (April–September), hot tub, Finnish dry sauna, private steam cabin and a full outdoor kitchen with wood-fired pizza oven and teppanyaki grill. Inside, there is a snooker table, a private gym, and a stereo system. The kitchen is fully equipped and genuinely sized for cooking for ten people.
For groups who want to self-cater and actually enjoy doing so, the outdoor kitchen becomes the centre of gravity. The pizza oven takes an hour to come to temperature and three minutes to cook a pizza. The teppanyaki is a different, very particular pleasure. Both tend to produce the sort of evening that lasts much longer than expected.