Surrey, Sussex and Kent boast some of the most beautiful countryside in Britain and the National Trust owns and cares for 35,445 acres within these counties.
Much of the countryside with free public access in Surrey falls within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. With exceptional nature conservation Sites of Special Scientific Interest, it ranges from steep chalk downland at Box Hill, to lowland heath at Devil’s Punch Bowl. And from ancient woodland at Leith Hill to flower-rich meadows on Denbies Hillside. Only 20 miles from London, Surrey is the most wooded county in Britain and includes some of the highest points in the South East.
In East and West Sussex, the Trust cares for large areas of the South Downs – one of the first areas to be farmed and occupied by our Neolithic forebears. On the East Sussex coast, Birling Gap offers beautiful views of the Seven Sisters, whilst Crowlink, a wide open landscape of rolling downland also has stunning coastal scenery. Devil’s Dyke, with its steep escarpment, is ideal for many leisure pursuits and Ditchling Down, a sheep grazed scarp slope with plenty of downland flowers in the summer, also features Ditchling Beacon, one in a chain of prominent beacon sites.
The Trust owns and manages a variety of countryside properties in North Kent. Many of these are Sites of Special Scientific Interest and lie within the Kent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The properties vary from ancient woodland at Toys Hill and Oldbury Hill to a Neolithic Long Barrow at Coldrum. The White Cliffs of Dover have to be one of Britain's most instantly recognised natural landmarks. The cliffs stretch for 10 miles between Folkestone to the west and Walmer to the east. South Foreland Lighthouse is a striking landmark on the White Cliffs. It was used by Marconi for his successful wireless telegraphy experiments in 1898.
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