The best villages in Britain: Three 'unspoilt' Sussex villages named among the country's best by experts

The Daily Telegraph has published a list of the UK’s 30 greatest villages ‘untouched by mass tourism’ – and East Sussex villages Alfriston and Ditchling, and Bosham, in West Sussex, feature.

Daily Telegraph writer Teresa Machan was full of praise for Alfriston and Ditchling. She said ‘even Disney couldn’t create Alfriston’, while Ditchling was the ‘unofficial cradle of the South Downs National Park’.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, she said: “Even Disney couldn’t create Alfriston. For a start they’d get the scones all wrong.

“Brim-full of historic charm this Sussex village has a green, or “Tye,” in the shadow of a splendid church, a generous sprinkling of listed buildings exhibiting knapped flint walls, a trio of ye olde pubs, a lowland river, a village square, a chalk figure standing watch on nearby chalk downland and a claim to fame in Alfriston Clergy House, which was the first building to be saved by the National Trust.

“This thatched-roofed beauty has a cottage garden and a meddler tree in the rear orchard. Tea stops include Badgers and the refreshingly un-twee Singing Kettle (with arguably the best scones in East Sussex).

“It’s not just the village, but what’s on the doorstep. Friston Forest, the Cuckmere Valley, Beachy Head, Drusillas Park and the undulating vineyards of Rathfinny make Alfriston worthy of a long weekend.

“Ditchling, at the foot of Ditchling Beacon, is the unofficial cradle of the South Downs National Park.

“It was here, in 2009, that then secretary of state the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP signed the order creating the UK’s newest National Park.

“The village has over 40 listed buildings, among them Wings Place, also known as Anne of Cleves House, a divorce-settlement manor bestowed by Henry VIII.

“An arty heritage is celebrated at Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, which shines a light on the stone carvers, carpenters, printers and weavers that made their home here, including sculptor and type designer Eric Gill and weaver Ethel Mairet.

“Pruden & Smith offers tours of its workshop and displays the original tools and work bench of silversmith Dunstan Pruden. There are 15 studios, gardens and galleries on May’s Artist Open Houses trail.”

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph‘s Laura Fowler said ‘the loveliness of Bosham cannot be overstated’.

She said: “The loveliness of Bosham (pronounced “Bozzum”) cannot be overstated. Approach the old heart along Shore Road – which gets covered at high tide, only adding to the charm of the place – and you may just expire from sheer overload of beauty.

“Between a quay pleasingly strewn with little wooden boats and a Grade I-listed church, Bosham village green is perfectly orientated for sunset, when locals and regulars gather to picnic, pop corks, play badminton, drag sailing dinghies up the ramp from the water – the whole blissful bucolic scene painted rosy by the sinking sun.

“Find a seat in one of the pub gardens in summer, and life doesn’t get much better.

“Sailing is very much Bosham’s raison d’etre. It is situated at the end of an inlet in Chichester Harbour, a peaceful natural estuary encompassing islands, inlets, and backwaters where samphire grows wild and birds nest in their thousands.”

You can read the Daily Telegraph’s list in full here.