LOCAL ACTIVITIES AND FACILITIES
LINKS
By far the nicest place to shop is Midhurst, which has free parking and lots of high quality independent retailers, including a (mostly) organic butcher. The Cowdray Park farm shop (near Easebourne Priory, on the A272 on the way out from Midhurst to Petworth) is stunningly good, and has a wide range of organic food, and a café. Rother Valley Organics sells meat from Wakeham cattle, either from its own outlet in Nyewood or from a farm shop on the north of the A272 just west or Rogate (there is a big ‘Asparagus’ sign outside the farm drive). There is a very good Waitrose in the main car park in Petersfield, and an OK Tesco on the old road out of town towards Portsmouth.
The closest train station is Liss, which has easy parking. Petersfield has more, faster, trains. They are both about 15 minutes drive from us.
There is really good pub food just next to Wakeham, at the Keeper’s Arms in Trotton (on the way to Midhurst, after you cross the river), which also sells the Trotton-brewed Ballard’s beer; and at the White Hart, in South Harting. If I was you I would also try the pub in Rogate (and Midhurst in general).
If you have time, you could also go to Chichester (the best route is via Rogate and Harting).... The cathedral is interesting, and the Roman palace at Fishbourne is stunning.
Chichester Festival Theatre is very good indeed. You will often need to book in advance.
Cowdray ruins in Midhurst are extremely romantic - children love them.
Two major National Trust properties are also very close by - Uppark and Petworth.
In summer, polo at Cowdray Park is a wonderful spectacle and a brilliant and exciting spectator sport (especially of it is a high-goal (ie high-handicap) game, because that means it has the world's best players). If you like horse racing, or vintage motor racing, then Goodwood is a renowned centre for both - check the dates on their website.
There is a good climbing wall at Midhurst Rother Academy (formerly Midhurst Grammar School - the local comprehensive), with lots of sessions (and instruction) open to visitors. Cowdray Park Golf club offers lessons to beginners and also teaches clay pigeon shooting and fly-fishing!.
HMS Victory in Portsmouth is worth a major visit. You can get right down into the bottom of the ship. It's worth watching some Hornblower DVDs on your laptop before you go there! There is also a submarine museum in Gosport (just next door).
The other real star attraction locally is the Hollycombe Steam Collection, which was started by the enthusiast parent of some of my childhood friends, and is now really big and fun; you can ride on lots of old steam powered fairground attractions... (but not,alas, in winter).
You can click on the links to the left of this page in order to get information about some of these places.
The Wakeham Trust ( www.wakehamtrust.org )is also run from the farm. You may be interested in the sorts of things we do. We are always looking for applications from new projects. We try to reach the parts that other trusts don’t reach - small projects, start ups, less popular causes. We are especially interested in the moment in supporting, with start-up funding, initiatives in high-quality academic teaching - gifted & talented projects in schools, intensive teaching in universities (like old-fashioned ‘reading parties’ ) - as well as our core areas of activity such as community service and community action.