Reader travel tips: Best and worst things about a house swap in Sussex, reader Polly Price

NAME Polly Price

THE TRIP Three weeks in a home swap cottage in a Sussex village.

THE ITINERARY I drove the lanes and byways through cathedral-like arches of mature beech trees curving above me, a green tunnel worthy of Tolkien, and I visited stunning National Trust properties.

Standen, is an Arts and Crafts period house designed by architect and socialist Philip Webb. The servants had quarters on the same floor as the family, but were still not allowed to speak unless spoken to. A National Trust volunteer sat embroidering, wearing a jacket she had made from a William Morris fabric. I feared she ran the risk of being mistaken for a sofa and sat upon.

Bateman's, Rudyard Kipling's home, has a lovely garden, as does

Great Dixter, a beautiful Lutyens house; its garden was the life's work of Christopher Lloyd.

I attended a Queen's birthday lunch with a marquee on the village green, a brass band and village choir soldiering on despite the rain and the national anthem and Happy Birthday being sung with gusto and vigorous flag waving by the assembled royalists. The local GP arrived in his vintage Rolls Royce wearing Union Jack shorts and bow tie. There was even a very scary clown for the children – shades of Midsomer Murders.

BEST BITS: Morris dancers at the local pub dancing their stick-wielding, handkerchief-wafting dances; eccentricity ruled.

WORST BIT: Unpredictable weather

BEST TIP: Membership of National Trust Australia saves heaps in entry fees.