Ashurst

ASHURST is very rural and slightly reserved. You may have to spend six months waiting on the platform with the other six passengers at Ashurst station before they get round to acknowledging you. Though the village is very small it has a modern village hall where keep-fit groups, yoga classes, IT tutorials and a pre-school group strut their stuff. Property in Ashurst is more expensive than nearby Eridge (see below), but houses in both villages rarely come up for sale and you’ll have to move quickly if you want to buy. There is a bus service of sorts but, as ever in this area, car ownership is essential.

The larger villages of Langton Green and Groombridge are also close to Ashurst. Groombridge straddles the county boundary with the modern dormitory village forging into Sussex and lovely Old Groombridge lingering in Kent. The old part, including the 16th-century terraced cottages, the Crown Inn, which faces the triangular green, the 17th-century moated manor house, Groombridge Place, and its 200-acre estate, was marketed in 1992 with an asking price of £3.25m.