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1. Chichester
was founded by the Romans.
2. Three cultural events take place
in Chichester in summer.
3. Tourists can get a good idea of
what the original palace looked like.
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The county town of West Sussex and its only city, Chichester
is an attractive market town, which began life as a Roman settlement, and the
Roman street
plan is still evident in its symmetrical layout. The city has built itself up
as one of southern England’s
cultural centres, hosting the Chichester Festival in early July with a fairly
interesting programme of plays, though the studio theatre is a bit more
adventurous. The track for racing horses at Goodwood
Park, north of the city, hosts one
of England’s
most fashionable racing events at the same time. The Gothic cathedral is the
main tourist attraction in the city, but two miles west of the town are the
restored Roman ruins of Fishbourne, one of the most visited, largest and
best-preserved Roman palaces in the country. An audio-visual programme gives
a fuller picture of the palace as it was in Roman times.
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4. There are few forests left in the
New Forest.
5. The best way to explore the
region is by car.
6. Tourists can go camping all the
year round.
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Covering about 144 square miles the
New Forest is one of southern England’s
main rural playgrounds. About eight million visitors come here every year to
enjoy a breath of fresh air, often after spending hours in traffic jams. The
name of the New Forest is misleading, for much of this region’s woodland was
cleared long before the Normans
came. Some wooded areas still remain and they are around Lyndhurst,
“the capital” of the New Forest. To get the
best of the region, you need to walk or ride through it, avoiding the places
cars can reach. There are 150
miles of car-free gravel roads, making cycling a good
idea. The region has ten campsites run by the Forestry Commission, all of
them closed between October and Easter. In Lyndhurst you can pick up numerous walking
books and natural history guides.
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