If you ask tourists from around the world about their favourite destinations in the UK, they’ll almost certainly mention London, Edinburgh, Windsor, Cornwall, Stratford-upon-Avon, Brighton, Cardiff and Burgess Hill. Wait… what? I know, I know, you’re asking yourself who on earth goes to Cardiff? Well, many people do, and quite rightly so. And of course some people also go to Burgess Hill on a regular basis, and why wouldn’t they? After all, it’s the gateway to, er, somewhere or other.
There are so many reasons to visit this lovely West Sussex town, although being sandwiched between Brighton and London means too many people simply pass through it. If you stopped for a while, you could head to the local nature reserves, for example, and reacquaint yourself with tranquillity once again. Or, of course, you could head to Rose Media Group’s head office, the almost mythical Rosy Towers, and gaze in awe at the building for several hours. Bring your autograph book with you, though, because you might just get to meet our founder Aneela Rose, if you’re lucky.
Sussex in general is home to a number of highly popular attractions. Brighton’s Palace Pier, for example, attracted more than 4.5 million people in 2017. Cuckmere Haven, the Birling Gap, the Ashdown Forest, the Observatory Science Centre at Hailsham and the site of the Battle of Hastings are all permanent fixtures on the tourist trail, and each of them are just a short drive from Burgess Hill.
If you’re a regular reader of the random musings that we call blog posts, you’ll know that we already claim that Burgess Hill is the centre of the known universe. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Now, having studied the cosmos in even greater detail, we’re starting to wonder if the town is where modern civilisation actually began. There is sufficient evidence of this to spark interest in the occasional conspiracy theorist, at least. Well, maybe.
All roads lead to Sussex, and they always will
Did you know, for example, that the world’s first scientific acknowledgement of dinosaurs occurred in the 1820s, after the discovery of a fossilised tooth in nearby Cuckfield? The creature it came from was named the iguanodon, and this particular fellow is thought to be around 130 million years old. Did you also know – of course you didn’t – that the National Trust’s first ever purchase was a clergy house in Alfriston?
And let’s not forget that the Hundred Acre Wood, where Winnie the Pooh is alleged to have lived, is a matter of minutes away. Having said that, everywhere is a matter of minutes away, of course. Venice, for example, is a matter of 1,020 minutes away by car. Anyway, back to the world’s favourite bear. Sussex was his home, and was the place where he played his favourite game, pooh sticks. In case you’re wondering, pooh sticks isn’t as rude as it sounds. If it was, our little bear would never have played it.
AA Milne, Winnie the Pooh’s creator, lived in Sussex, as did Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Hilaire Belloc, William Blake, HG Wells, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Julia Donaldson and Brendan Behan. They all knew there was something special about this place, and now you know as well.
There’s something in the air here, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s the coffee, maybe it’s the wine, maybe it might just be the B2B PR Sussex has to offer. Who knows? One thing’s for sure, though, next time you’re in a car or on a train and you’re passing through Burgess Hill, you really should get out and have a wander around.
