SOUTHWATER COUNTRY PARK,

WEST SUSSEX

Madeleine Howell enjoys a gentle lakeside loop with level paths suited to every generation

I’ve visited Southwater Country Park a few times recently to meet assorted siblings and their broods, in the requisite groups of six, for socially distant reunions. On a particularly pleasurable day out in early July, my sister Nikki and I spent the morning there with my nephews Theo, 10, Isaac, six, and two of their school friends – joyous respite from home-schooling for them, and the chance to indulge in their company (and in takeaway ice cream from the café) for me. For us, it’s a convenient midway point between our respective abodes.

Wind through the villages south of Horsham, perhaps passing the George & Dragon pub in the hamlet of Dragons Green, and you’ll come to it: a 70-acre oasis featuring a flat, easy-access surfaced path circling around Cripplegate Lake (where paddle boards and canoes hired from the watersports centre glide soothingly besides swans and waterfowl), and plenty else besides to occupy all ages.

The boys’ bikes needed to be dismounted to walk the gentle 0.6-mile wheelchair-accessible round trip around the lake as we passed families with prams and grandparents with walking sticks, but there are also cycle paths nearby for them to speed along on two wheels afterwards at a more exciting pace, including an open stretch of the off-road Downs Link bridleway trail. Bikes are available to hire, though we brought their own. The paddling beach by the lake is closed for now as a safety measure, but the undulating path around its perimeter still offers a dreamy wander with its reed beds, sloping grasslands and pockets of coppice, along which it’s possible to spot lizards, kingfishers, common blue butterflies and broadbodied chaser dragonflies.

Not least of the other attractions on offer is Dinosaur Island, a themed play area where swings, climbing frames, wheelchair-friendly equipment and adventure trails for older kids, now open, prove an effective energy burner to precede a picnic on a grassy verge by the water. We packed sausages in a food flask, to keep them hot (although there are concrete plinths for disposable barbecues if you are feeling ambitious) and decanted ketchup: just the kind of impossibly wholesome, escapist Enid Blyton-esque occasion that fond memories are made of. There’s a skate park and two other lakes to discover, too: the quieter Quarry Lake, surrounded by wildflowers, and a fishing lake.

The park is usually open every day of the year, 8am to dusk, and is free to enter; Station Road car park is currently open, though Worthing Road and Ben’s Field car parks remain closed.

horsham.gov.uk/ parks-and-countryside