On the farm
The wood and the footpaths
Ten acres of ancient coppice, bluebells in late April, and footpaths leading off across the fields. Our favourite walk is to the bakery in Northiam, 20 to 30 minutes each way.
Woodgate Farm / Things to do
Things to do near Woodgate Farm
Beckley sits between Rye, Hastings and Tenterden, in country full of gardens, castles, vineyards and quiet beaches. These are the places we send our guests. Distances are by road from the farm.
On the farm and on foot
10 minutes’ walk
The Rose & Crown, Beckley
Our village pub, half a mile from the door. A free house with two real fires, home-cooked food, and a garden with a view. Walkers, families and dogs are all welcome.
Food isn’t served on Sunday evenings.
On the farm
Yuri’s Pop-up
A Japanese kitchen based here at Woodgate Farm. On selected Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings you can collect a sushi sharing platter or bento boxes to eat at your lodge, and on pop-up restaurant nights there is a tasting menu at shared tables.
Numbers are limited each night, so order as early as you can.
Gardens
3 miles
Great Dixter
The home of the gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd, in the next village. A medieval house extended by Edwin Lutyens, surrounded by a garden famous for its exuberant mixed borders and flower-filled meadows. The nursery sells plants raised on site.
Late June and July for the Long Border at its peak.
12 miles
Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson’s garden, laid out from the 1930s as a series of outdoor rooms. The White Garden is the most famous. You can climb the Elizabethan tower where Vita wrote, and walk the wider estate. National Trust.
It’s quieter on weekdays.
Castles, churches and steam
7 miles
Bodiam Castle
A moated castle built in 1385 and now looked after by the National Trust: towers, battlements and spiral stairs, reflected in a wide moat. You can arrive by steam train, or by boat along the River Rother from Newenden.
Northiam station, 3 miles
Kent & East Sussex Railway
Heritage steam and diesel trains through the Rother valley between Tenterden and Bodiam. Northiam is the nearest station, and Bodiam station is a short walk from the castle.
Trains don’t run every day outside summer, so check the timetable first.
10 miles
Battle Abbey and the 1066 battlefield
The site of the Battle of Hastings. English Heritage looks after the abbey that William the Conqueror founded on the battlefield, where the high altar is said to mark the spot King Harold fell. A path takes you round the field itself.
Allow a couple of hours.
10 miles
Winchelsea
Laid out on a grid by Edward I in the 1280s, after storms destroyed the old port, and never finished. That is why one of the smallest towns in England has such wide, quiet streets. St Thomas’s church has fine fourteenth-century tombs, and medieval wine cellars lie under many of the houses.
From 9 miles
The churches of Romney Marsh
Fourteen medieval churches scattered across the marsh, each one different. The nearest, St Mary’s at East Guldeford, is just beyond Rye. Brookland has a detached wooden belfry, St Thomas à Becket at Fairfield stands alone in the fields, and the film-maker Derek Jarman is buried at St Clement’s, Old Romney.
The churches trust publishes a highlights tour with a map.
Towns and coast
7 miles
Rye
A medieval hill town above the marshes and one of the ancient Cinque Ports: cobbled Mermaid Street, the Ypres Tower, antique shops and good places to eat. Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, on the coast just beyond, is a great sweep of shingle, saltmarsh and lagoon and one of the best places for birds in the south-east.
There’s a farmers’ market on Strand Quay every Wednesday.
11 miles
Camber Sands
A wide sandy beach backed by dunes, rare on this stretch of coast and big enough to find space even in August. Winchelsea Beach, a little nearer, is shingle and much quieter.
Check the tide times: at low water the sea is a long walk out.
12 miles
Hastings Old Town and St Leonards
The Old Town sits in a valley between two cliffs. Fishing boats are hauled up the beach on the Stade beside the tall black net shops, with the Hastings Contemporary gallery next door and fish straight off the boats. St Leonards, along the seafront, has Decimus Burton’s Regency terraces and plenty of places for coffee and lunch.
20 miles
Dungeness
A shingle headland like nowhere else in Britain: lighthouses, fishermen’s cabins, Derek Jarman’s garden at Prospect Cottage, and an RSPB reserve with hides over the old gravel pits.
Bring binoculars.
Vineyards
In Beckley
Oxney Organic Estate
An organic vineyard and winery across the parish from us, centred on an old square oast house. Call in for a wine flight or a board of cheese and charcuterie. Vineyard and winery tours run on Saturdays from May to October.
Tours need booking online.
4 miles
Tillingham
A biodynamic farm and winery at Peasmarsh, with seventy acres looking down the Tillingham valley towards Rye. There are daily tours and tastings, wood-fired pizza, and a restaurant with a Michelin Green Star.
Six vineyards
The Rother Wine Triangle
Oxney and Tillingham are two of six vineyards on this trail between Rye, Hastings and Flimwell. The others are Charles Palmer at Winchelsea, Sedlescombe Organic, Oastbrook near Bodiam and Mountfield Winery. Between them they offer cellar-door tastings, tours and places to eat.
In summer a Sunday vineyard bus has run from Rye and Robertsbridge stations. Check for this year’s dates.
Stay in the middle of it all
Our best rate, a personal welcome and no booking fees. Tell us your dates and we’ll reply by email — or simply ring.
- Eco lodgesSleep four each. Price is per lodge, per week.
- from £600peak weeks from £900
- Lodge short breaksMonday to Friday, or Friday to Monday
- ask us
- B&B double roomPer night for two, breakfast included
- £120
- B&B single occupancyPer night, breakfast included
- £100