East Grinstead

East Grinstead is an historic market town in the High Weald of West Sussex, set on a sandstone ridge close to the borders with Surrey and Kent. The town centre is notable for its long High Street, lined with timber-framed buildings, Georgian frontages and one of the finest groups of medieval and Tudor merchants' houses in the south east. Sackville College, a Jacobean almshouse founded in 1609, remains a quiet highlight just off the main street.

The parish church of St Swithun, with its tall eighteenth-century tower, dominates the skyline at the western end of the High Street. Nearby, the town is closely associated with the pioneering reconstructive surgery carried out at the Queen Victoria Hospital during the Second World War, where Sir Archibald McIndoe treated badly burned aircrew who later formed the Guinea Pig Club.

East Grinstead is also a popular base for exploring the surrounding countryside. The Bluebell Railway terminates at the town's station, offering heritage steam services south through the Sussex Weald, and the Ashdown Forest, famous as the setting for Winnie-the-Pooh, lies a short distance to the south.