Cowdray House in Sussex is a beautiful country home dating from the Tudor period. Home to the Cowdray Park Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup, this exclusive-use venue is owned by Viscount Cowdray.
Cowdray House
Arriving at Cowdray House, you immediately get the wow factor. This Sussex estate has a beautiful building that dates from the 19th century and is surrounded by 110 acres of parkland.
There’s an 18 hole championship golf course on the estate and a clay pigeon shooting school. The iconic Goodwood racing track is less than 20 minutes away.
Formerly the home of Lord and Lady Cowdray, this luxurious retreat is available for private hire. The Viscount and Viscountess still own Cowdray Estate, live nearby and take a keen interest in the running of the house.
Lady Cowdray is a talented artist and her sculptures are dotted around the grounds. These have a spiritual element as she and her husband are practitioners of transcendental meditation.
At Cowdray Hall, also on the estate, visitors can sign up to a variety of wellbeing classes, including mindfulness, tai chi and yoga.
Cowdray House Interior
Buck Hall is the jewel in Cowdray Park House’s crown with its double-vaulted ceiling and stained glass window. It can be hired for a private dinner seating up to 150, with musicians playing from the minstrel’s gallery if you wish.
Family portraits adorn the walls, including those of the Viscount and Viscountess.
There’s a lovely billiards room and a grand wooden staircase leads up to the bedrooms.
The Diamond Room is the bridal suite and has a huge walk-in wardrobe, beautiful bathroom with a sunken mosaic bath and panoramic views over the South Downs.
However, Golden Topaz could well be our favorite for its wood-panelled walls and four poster bed. There are 22 en-suite rooms in the main house and North Wing, sleeping 42.
Guests can also enjoy indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts and even a bowling alley.
After our tour we enjoyed champagne and canapes in the Drawing Room with Jonathan Russell, the CEO of Cowdray, before heading to lunch in the beautiful wood-panelled Dining Room which seats up to 60. As you can see, the food was a real treat.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup at Cowdray
You drive a short distance to Cowdray Park Polo Club for the iconic Gold Cup. Cowdray is considered to be the home of British polo and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup ranks alongside the Argentine Open and USA Open in importance.
Taking place from 27 June to 23 July, it’s a great day out for the whole family. Children under 12 enter for free and tickets cost from a very democratic £5, depending on the match.
Each team is composed of four players, with the game divided into periods known as chukkas. I was fortunate to learn how to play polo last year and it makes you appreciate the real players’ skill even more!
To make each game fair, players are given a handicap depending on their ability. A beginner, for example, would have a handicap of -2 whereas a top player would have a 10 goal handicap.
By adding together the team’s handicaps, you arrive at the team handicap with low goal polo being from – 8 to 8 goals and high goal polo such as the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup being from 18 upwards.
Polo is an incredibly fast-paced game and an excellent spectator sport. Sipping our Louis Roederer Brut Champagne, we admired the dexterity of the horses and players.
The Carlos Gracida Memorial Trophy was a tough contest between Edouard Carmignac’s Talandracas team and Corinne Ricard’s Murus Sanctus team. Corinne is the only woman playing in the Gold Cup and she brought her team to a 9 goals to 8 victory against Talandracas.
The second match was a 11 to 9 goal win by the El Remanso team, playing against La Bamba de Areco.
Cowdray Ruins
From the polo grounds, you can see the remains of Cowdray House, a Tudor mansion once visited by King Henry VIII. Cowdray Ruins was a filming location for Mary Queen of Scots.
Much of the medieval tower was destroyed by a fire in 1793, however a surprise awaits you inside.
Cowdray Renaissance Art Studio
This Renaissance Art Studio inside the tower is where art courses and private dinners are held. If you have the chance to hire Cowdray House or to visit for a polo match, you’ll be impressed with the friendliness of the people you meet as well as the beauty of the estate.
Cowdray House Farm Shop & Cafe
When visiting Cowdray House, make a stop at the charming Cowdray Farm Shop and Café. They have some fantastic artisan cheeses and estate-reared meat.Cowdray Farm Shop are also making local food deliveries at the moment and there is a click and collect service available.
The gift shop and cafe are currently closed. When open, there’s a good selection of gifts in the shop, whilst the cafe serves up delicious healthy food and afternoon teas.
Getting to Cowdray House
Cowdray House is located 54 miles from London. It’s a one and a half hour drive via the A3 to Cowdray House from London.
If you prefer to visit Cowdray by rail, you can take a train from Waterloo Station to Haslemere. In a little over an hour you arrive at Haslemere and from there it is a 20 minute cab ride to the 16,500 acre Cowdray Estate.
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Yes it was a great day out, Candice!
I’ve never been to polo! It looks so fun 🙂
I’m sure you’d enjoy it, Angie, it’s a great day out
Snow polo must be even more tricky! I’d definitely like to watch that
The Diamond Room was so pretty, you can tell that there’s a woman’s touch (Lady Cowdray) in the design
Wow – this looks beautiful. I love the polo and usually go every year; I even had a lesson myself once – bad experience!! X
I also took a lesson and found it rather stressful as all the other particpants were expert horse riders ;-). This was a more relaxing experience thankfully
I think that’s good of them to open this and make it available for people to stay in. One word to describe it is of course luxurious. Oh, to stay in a place like this even just for a night. You must have felt like a royalty yourself.
I do love a good polo match, and Cowdray House looks beautiful!
The big question here: did you get to wear a suit of armour? 😉
I adore the polo at Cowdray, it’s quite close to where my parents live and where I grew up, and each year I’ve been to the Gold Cup I’ve absolutely loved it!
C x
Wow how gorgeous! Looks like a wonderful event too.
Gemma x