SATURDAY
10am Check-in at The Alfriston (doubles from £150 per night, thealfriston.com) isn’t until 4pm, so we drop our bags, score a coveted table at tearoom The Singing Kettle (above) and order an English breakfast tea (£3.50), iced oat latte (£4.20) and sausage sandwiches (£7.75 each).
11.30am Time to explore the medieval High Street. We admire the timber-framed cottages, marvel over the antiques at Emmett & White, peruse the designer archives at the Dressing Room (above), and flick through the secondhand volumes at Much Ado Books.
2pm At family-run wine estate Rathfinny we skip the tour (£30pp, rathfinnyestate.com) for sparkling rosé (£69 a bottle) and a cheese and charcuterie plate (£15.50 each) at its outdoor bar. The rolling views of the vineyard and surrounding South Downs are splendid.
4pm Back to The Alfriston. While many original features remain, the 14th-century manor has been renovated – our bedroom has exposed beams, pale blue walls, Pooky lamps on pink bedside tables, and a bed with an upholstered patterned headboard.
7pm Dinner at the hotel restaurant 1554 Brasserie with a bottle of Aix rosé (£50). First, potted smoked trout (£12) and cauliflower popcorn (above, £8) – a favourite, we’re told. Then chicken milanese with creamed spinach (£24) and a big portion of fish and chips (£20).
SUNDAY
8am Waking early (is it the fresh country air?), we hop from our king-size bed to the hotel’s The Orangery for a help-yourself breakfast. There’s a decent spread of teas and coffees, yogurts, fresh fruits, pastries and all the ingredients needed to build a full English.
10am With a couple of hours left until check-out, we consider our options. Pétanque on the lawn? A board game in the bar? We opt for a dip in the outdoor pool, but not before slipping on our robes and flip-flops and sweating it out in the sauna and steam room.
12pm Showered and dressed, we borrow Muck boots from the hotel’s ‘welly wall’ and head through the kissing gates behind the hotel for a walk along the banks of the Cuckmere River. We pass grazing cows and cross a footbridge for the return stroll.
3pm Sunday roast in the village at The Star (£30, thepolizzicollection.com), with its 15th-century façade, oak beams, herringbone brick floor and fiery hearths in winter. We eat in the courtyard then, sated, drop the wellies off, grab our bags and cab it to the station.
