About

At The Willows Lakeside Retreat  we have 3 cabins and a communal area around a lake. People wishing to connect with Nature can cook on a fire, lay in a hammock on an island and see our resident kingfishers, glow worms and 38 bird species who make this land their home.

With Wilder Horsham District , a wonderful coalition between Sussex Wildlife Trust and Horsham District Council we have had some brilliant conservation days. We have learnt from the beavers and built 15 leaky dams to clean our stream from pollutants and provide more wildlife habitats. We have created wildflower meadows and seen a return in pollinators and grasshoppers. Together we have layed hedges in the traditional Sussex style as well as building dead hedges to provide wildlife corridors and we have put up habitat boxes such as a Kingfisher box, a Tawny owl and Barn owl box and a Swift and House Martin tower complete with solar panel and speaker to call them in.

As well as creating habitat we have a Nuttery with different varieties of walnuts, cobnuts and chestnuts. As we move towards a more plant based future it is vital we start growing more nuts in this country. We also have set aside a field to agroforestry where we are growing nuts and timber to be intercropped in the future.

This is a 10 acre educational site and shows that conservation and rewiding can be done on a small scale.

Our guests often also visit Knepp Wilding to see rewilding on a much larger scale and enjoy a delicious lunch. On their way home they can stop at Kinsbrook Vineyard for a glass of wine to see a more Regenerative way of growing grapes.  After a dinner cooked on the fire under the stars they can walk to the rustic local Rising Sun to enjoy a pint at a traditional independently owned pub.

Small groups can book the entire site.  It would be a perfect artist or photography destination, also an area of Dark Skies for astronomers or place for cooking out on the fire.