Cowdray: Luxury Countryside Escape

At the beginning of April we said goodbye to the fast paste of London for the day and hopped onto a train and headed to Cowdray, a beautiful Estate an hour from London, located in West Sussex. Cowdray is a 16,500-acre estate, combining rural tranquillity with spectacular beauty.

The beautiful Cowdray house has 15 ensuite rooms, all decorated independently, with it’s own warmth and charm for guests to enjoy. It was the former home of Lord & Lady Cowdray and now available for hire, for weddings, celebrations and corporate retreats. On the day we visited they were getting the estate ready for a wedding and you can certainly see why. This place oozes luxury and it’s captivating from the moment you step through the door. There is also an indoor swimming pool and a bowling alley, I mean what more could you ask for?

Below are photos of some of the en-suite rooms

Guests can also enjoy the different activities on the Cowdray estate, such as clay pigeon shooting, polo lessons, where there is 450 matches a season, you can also enjoy fly fishing, and golf, in the 18-hole championship Golf Course. If you’re looking for smaller accommodation, but equally as charming you can stay at the self-catered Holiday Cottages with stylish bedrooms and suites.

Cowdray also caters for those that are wanting to get away for a pampering weekend. You can indulge in the Wellbeing Center at Cowdray Hall, with yoga, pilates, mindfulness and meditation classes.

After visiting the beautiful Cowdray house and golf course, we headed to the Cowdray’s Farm Shop & Café which was a right treat! The Farm Shop stocks specialist ingredients, local produce, artisan cheeses, fresh bread with an indoor butchers and home section at the back. The cafe offers home cooked food and what I loved about their menu was how well it catered to vegetarians and vegans, being lactose intolerant it was great to see some dairy free options offered.

Needless to say the Salmon and vegetables dish I choose was delicious, the ingredients were fresh and the dish was flavoursome. The chocolate cake was a melt in your mouth experience, catering nicely to my sweet craving.

After lunch we visited the Cowdray ruins, which was once one of Englands most important early Tudor houses, it was unfortunately destroyed by a fire in 1973. Guests can visit the Tudor kitchen and and the Tower room, by signing up to the tours on offer throughout the year.

The tower which you can see below on the right, was the only tower to survive the fire. It is now being used for Art workshops, Cowdray’s Artist-in-Residence, David Cranswick, is the course instructor, you can see his magnificent art studio below. Needless to say just standing in the room, got my creative juices flowing.