Some of the county’s most picturesque and most sought-after locations are in mid-Sussex.

Homes in this area of Sussex range from retirement bungalows to country estates.

The choice is vast and the friendliness is legendary.

From the busy commuter towns of Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill, to the picturesque villages of Lindfield and Hurstpierpoint, the area has so much to offer.

Lindfield and Hurstpierpoint were both recently named, along with Henfield and Horsted Keynes as villages with a high percentage of £1million-plus home.

With easy access to the seaside, the South Downs National Park, Brighton and Gatwick, and good rail links to the coast and London, it has the best of everything on its doorstep. It also ranks among the best places to live for a long and healthy life, and has some of the lowest recorded crime figures in the UK.

According to the Halifax Rural Areas Quality of Life survey mid-Sussex regularly features in the top 20 best places to live. Burgess Hill has long been popular with young families. It has a strong community spirit, good schools and leisure facilities, a modern business park and a busy town centre with a wide range of shops.

Since the early 19th century when it was a small town based on the local brick and tile industry it has expanded and is now a thriving community of some 30,000 residents and has the second largest business park in Sussex. It is a compact town and a nice place to live with good amenities.

In Hurstpierpoint the High Street shops offer good, old-fashioned friendliness and a good variety of businesses. The butcher, the baker, the greengrocer and the fashion shops are all there alongside banks, health specialists, plumbers and builders. It is this atmosphere that has helped Hurstpierpoint grow in popularity.

The pattern is repeated in picturesque Lindfield with its traditional High Street; beautiful old houses, quaint shops, churches, pubs and, of course, the famous village pond.

Horsted Keynes is probably best known as a stop on the famous Bluebell Railway. The station is about a mile from the village which is centred on a village green with traditional pubs, post office and village stores. The home of former prime minister Harold MacMillan is on the outskirts of the village and just weeks before his assassination in November 1963 President Kennedy was a guest there.

Henfield is another of Sussex’s desirable locations. Even though it is a small town it offers a good mix of shops, pubs and restaurants, a library and a village hall containing an excellent local museum run by Henfield Parish Council.

The town is flourishing and there are several new housing developments on its fringes making it extremely popular with young families and people looking for a quieter lifestyle than in the coastal towns.

Among the many historic buildings is Parsonage House, once the home of Henry Bishop, the man who set up the postal service. Bishop owned the property during the 17th century, bought the title of Postmaster General of Great Britain and Ireland in 1660 and was the first to introduce a type of postmark to date the letters when they left London.

Nathaniel Woodard, founder of Lancing College, Ardingly College and Hurstpierpoint College among other famous public schools, lived in Martyn Lodge in Church Street until his death in 1891.