Town Creep

The earthworks at Town Creep are easy to walk past without noticing them - which rather proves the point. This Saxon settlement site near Battle sits on unremarkable looking ridges and ditches, the kind of landscape feature you'd normally mistake for a farmer's drainage system. But that's exactly what makes it worth stopping for if you're walking the Battle area anyway.

It's a proper archaeological spot rather than a visitor attraction with interpretation boards and gift shops. You'll need to use your imagination, though the layout of the defensive earthworks becomes clearer once you know what you're looking at - essentially a series of banks and ditches that once enclosed an Anglo-Saxon town. The site sits on open ground, so it's exposed; come in winter or spring when the vegetation isn't obscuring the contours.

Histor types and serious walkers will find it genuinely interesting. Families with young children might get bored after twenty minutes unless they're the sort who enjoy scrambling on banks and spotting ditch lines. There's no admission charge and no facilities - just the landscape itself.

If you're based at Beech Estate Campsite or Seven Acre Woods for a Sussex holiday, Town Creep works as a short detour during a walk rather than a destination in itself. Give it an hour maximum. Best paired with a proper look round Battle Abbey down the road, which has the context and the visitor facilities this site lacks.