Midhurst West Sussex

 

Tuesday 8th September 2026

It's been a bit of a disappointing morning today, glorious sunshine yesterday evening for our evening walk around Shenfield on Loddon, but today's been a different story.

It started raining early this morning and it's not relented all day.

The weather apps said it would dry up by 1100, it didn't, then it would dry up by 1.00, it didn't.

3pm before the rain cleared off and the sun came out.

So my planned visit to The Vyne NT site didn't happen, instead I headed across the South Downs National Park to Midhurst West Sussex which sits on the River Rother.

It's a small market town with lots of history, castle ruins and other interesting buildings.

So I'll hope to get out and explore once the rain lets up.

We eventually had a walk around the town and it's an interesting place with some castle ruins nearby called Cowdray Castle and estate.

Cowdray Castle from a distance

From their website - The Cowdray Heritage Ruins are one of England’s most important early Tudor houses and Cowdray is known to have been visited by both King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. 

In September 1793, whilst undergoing repairs and refurbishments for the impending marriage of the 8th Viscount Montague, a devastating fire took hold and most of the property was destroyed. 

The Kitchen Tower is the only part of the mansion to remain intact.

The entrance to the walled garden, a sign says closed for a private event !

I tried to sneek a peek but it didnt show much lol

River Rother

The ruins appears to be closed to the public now except the walled garden and tea rooms.
I think they're carrying out safety work to the structure of the ruins.

So having a walk around the town and the castle ruins in the sun was a nice end to the day which didn't seem likely this morning.