East Grinstead Museum is free, the 15th-century Priest House is £6.56 until 1 September, and the Bluebell Railway is diesel-only right now. What is open, and what it costs.

Two things are true in Mid Sussex this month that will not be true in a few weeks. The Bluebell Railway is running diesel trains only, with steam suspended since 30 July because of the fire risk. And admission prices at several attractions go back up on 2 September, when the temporary VAT reduction on admissions ends.

Both are worth knowing before you book. Everything below was checked against each venue’s own website on 10 August 2026, with prices as published on that date.

What is on, and when it stops

Dated events and seasonal closing dates in Mid Sussex, August to December 2026 A timeline from 10 August to 23 December 2026. Hickstead holds the Al Shira’aa British Young Horse Championships from 13 to 16 August; Borde Hill Garden closes at 1pm on those same four days for concerts. Reduced summer admission prices end on 1 September. Hickstead holds the National Schools Jumping Championships on 1 September and the All England September Tour from 2 to 13 September. Borde Hill’s family summer prices and the High Beeches fairy trail end on 6 September. Sackville College’s last guided tour day is 12 September. The South of England Autumn Show and Horse Trials run on 26 and 27 September. High Beeches and The Priest House close for the season on 31 October. The Winter Fair at Ardingly is on 21 and 22 November. Borde Hill closes for the year on 23 December. Six things end before November Dated events and seasonal closing dates, taken from each venue’s own website on 10 August 2026. SeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember Hickstead: British Young Horse Championships, 13 to 16 Aug Borde Hill closes at 1pm for concerts, 13 to 16 Aug Reduced summer admission prices end, 1 Sept Hickstead: All England September Tour, 2 to 13 Sept Borde Hill family prices and the High Beeches fairy trail end, 6 Sept Sackville College: last guided tour day, 12 Sept Ardingly: Autumn Show and Horse Trials, 26 and 27 Sept High Beeches and The Priest House close for the season, 31 Oct Ardingly: Winter Fair, 21 and 22 Nov Brown marks an event you can attend; amber marks a deadline after which something costs more or shuts. Borde Hill Garden stays open daily until 23 December. East Grinstead Museum and the district’s parks are open all year.

The Bluebell Railway: diesel only for now

The Bluebell Railway runs eleven miles from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead, where it connects with the national network, so you can reach it by train from London without a car.

A notice on the railway’s own site says that because of the fire risk, no steam locomotives will operate from Thursday 30 July until further notice, and that diesel trains are running to timetable B instead. If steam is the reason you were going, check the site before you set out.

Fares for an all-day rover on the full line, Sheffield Park to East Grinstead:

  • Adult: £27.00 in advance, £30.00 on the day. Advance tickets carry a £1.95 booking fee and can be bought until midnight the day before.
  • Child aged 3 to 15: £13.50 in advance Monday to Friday, £15.00 on the day.
  • Family, 2 adults and 3 children: £63.00 in advance, £78.00 on the day.
  • Single, one way: £16.00 adult, £8.00 child, on the day only.
  • Carers travel free with a registered disabled passenger on normal running days.

If you only want to look at the locomotives, platform admission is £5.00 an adult at Sheffield Park and £3.00 at Horsted Keynes. Tickets are for third class; a first class upgrade is £10 an adult at the booking office on the day.

Gardens

Borde Hill Garden, Haywards Heath. Open daily from 14 February to 23 December, 10am to 5pm, with last admission an hour before closing. Adult £13.95, concession £12.95, child aged 3 to 16 £8.95, family of two adults and up to three children £45.80. Under 3s and carers free.

Two live notes. The garden closes at 1pm on Thursday 13, Friday 14, Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August because of large concerts in the parkland, with sound checks in the mornings on those days. And until 6 September, children’s and family tickets are reduced under the government’s summer savings scheme, taking a child ticket to £7.86 and a family of five to £40.08. Borde Hill is also an RHS partner garden: individual RHS members get in free during March, July and September 2026, excluding special events.

High Beeches Woodland and Water Garden, Handcross. Twenty-seven acres of woodland and water garden in the High Weald. Open 29 March to 31 October, and closed on Wednesdays. Monday, Tuesday and Sunday noon to 5pm; Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10.30am to 5pm; last admission 4.30pm. Adult £13.00, child aged 3 to 16 £8.00, groups of 15 or more £11.00 a head. A single season ticket is £30, a double £60.

Two practical warnings from the garden itself: the paths are unmade and uneven and not suitable for wheelchair users, and there are no toilets in the garden, only at the car park. Dogs are welcome on Mondays only, excluding bank holidays. The Fairy and Dragon Trail runs to 6 September and needs pre-booking.

Wakehurst, Ardingly is Kew’s wild botanic garden and the home of the Millennium Seed Bank, and it is the largest visitor attraction in the district. We could not read Kew’s ticket page from here, so rather than quote a price we cannot stand behind, check it on kew.org before you go.

The same applies to the two National Trust properties in the district, Nymans at Handcross and Standen House and Garden at East Grinstead. Both are open and both are worth a day, but the Trust’s site would not load for us, so check prices and opening times on nationaltrust.org.uk directly. National Trust members get in free at both.

History, indoors

East Grinstead Museum, Old Market Yard, Cantelupe Road, RH19 3BJ. Free. Open Wednesday to Friday 10am to 4pm and Saturday 10am to 1pm. It covers the town from its beginnings, and its strongest material is on the Guinea Pig Club, the pioneering burns and plastic surgery unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital during the Second World War. Display areas and the toilet are wheelchair accessible. The car park needs a scratchcard permit from the front desk.

The Priest House, North Lane, West Hoathly, RH19 4PP. An early 15th-century timber-framed house once owned in turn by Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell, Anne of Cleves, Mary I and Elizabeth I, now furnished with 17th and 18th century country pieces, in a cottage garden of more than 170 herbs. Open 1 March to 31 October, Tuesday to Saturday 10.30am to 5pm and Sunday noon to 5pm.

Prices are reduced until 1 September, with the September figure in brackets: adult £6.56 (£7.50), child aged 5 to 17 or student £3.50 (£4.00), senior £5.68 (£6.50), family of one adult and up to three children £8.75 (£10.00), family of two adults and up to four children £14.87 (£17.00). Under 5s, essential carers and Sussex Archaeological Society members free.

Sackville College, East Grinstead. A Jacobean almshouse built of Sussex sandstone around a quadrangle in 1609, and still an almshouse today. It is open by guided tour only, on Friday and Saturday afternoons from 2pm to 5pm with last admission at 4pm, between 12 June and 12 September. Adult £7.50, children and students £2.00. It is a fifteen minute walk from East Grinstead station.

Horses, shows and big days out

Hickstead, the All England Jumping Course, sits on the A23 at Sayers Common and draws close to 100,000 spectators a year. Still to come in 2026:

  • 13 to 16 August: the Al Shira’aa British Young Horse Championships.
  • 1 September: the Hurstpierpoint College National Schools Jumping Championships.
  • 2 to 13 September: the All England September Tour.

The Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby Meeting and the Agria Royal International Horse Show return on 24 to 27 June 2027 and 27 July to 1 August 2027, with tickets going on sale in December.

The South of England Showground at Ardingly runs four seasonal shows for the South of England Agricultural Society. The two still ahead this year are the Autumn Show and Horse Trials on 26 and 27 September and the Winter Fair on 21 and 22 November, which combines shopping with workshops and a Santa’s grotto. Spring Live! returns on 17 and 18 April 2027.

Free, and open all year

Muster Green, Haywards Heath. The town’s best green space and the western gateway to it, a Conservation Area since 1979 with traditional flowerbeds, an avenue of mature trees and the war memorial at its apex. It has just taken its twelfth consecutive Green Flag Award, according to Haywards Heath Town Council. It was also the site of a Civil War skirmish, which is why it appears on the town’s logo and the mayoral chains.

The district council’s parks, all free and listed on its parks page: Victoria Park and St John’s Park in Burgess Hill, Beech Hurst in Haywards Heath, Lindfield Common, Cuckfield Recreation Ground, Whitemans Green, Mount Noddy, Leylands Park, Court Bushes Recreation Ground, and East Court and Ashplats Wood at East Grinstead.

The Worth Way and the Forest Way. Two surfaced trails along disused railway lines, good for walking or an easy family bike ride, running out of East Grinstead. The council lists them among its local cycling routes.

The South Downs Way clips the southern edge of the district near Pyecombe and Clayton, and is the only National Trail that is a public bridleway for its whole length.

If it rains

The district council funds three leisure centres: the Dolphin in Haywards Heath, the Kings Centre in East Grinstead and the Triangle in Burgess Hill, all with pools, gyms and classes, and all running holiday activity programmes for children in the school holidays. The council’s page names Places for People as the operator, though that page has not been updated since 2023, so check the centre’s own site for current opening hours and prices.

Parking at the Dolphin and the Kings Centre works differently from the town car parks: you enter your registration on a touchscreen inside the building, with a three hour limit and no return within two hours. Tariffs for the ordinary town car parks, and the short-stay trap that can add £2.80 to an afternoon, are on our roadworks and parking page.

Getting here without a car

East Grinstead has its own station at the end of the Oxted line, 56 minutes from London Victoria, and it is a fifteen minute walk to both the museum and Sackville College and a shorter one to the Bluebell Railway platform. Haywards Heath is 43 minutes from Victoria and is the nearest station to Borde Hill. Full times and fares are on our trains to London page.