Historic houses and other heritage sites around Camber Sands and Rye

You want houses? You want castles? You want gardens? We’ve got them on the doorstep. Here’s a checklist – click on the links for details

*St Mary’s church, Rye. Fantastic views (left) over the town and the surrounding countryside from the tower.

*Lamb House, Rye. Former home of writers Henry James and E F Benson (whose books are in the bookcase upstairs at Dunescape)

*Rye Castle museum. At the Ypres tower and East Street in Rye

*St Anthony of Padua, Rye

Bodiam Castle. The perfect, moated castle at Bodiam

Battle Abbey. Former monastery on the site of William’s defeat of Harold in 1066. At Battle

Great Dixter House and Gardens. Legendary gardener Christopher Lloyds’s remarkable gardens, seven miles from Rye

*Smallhythe Place. Victorian actress Ellen Terry’s early 16th-century house and cottage gardens. Near Tenterden

Film-maker Derek Jarman’s shingle garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness

Port Lympne Gardens, Port Lympne

*Sissinghurst Castle and gardens. Vita Sackville West’s former home at Sissinghurst

*Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s former home, Burwash