HISTORY is being made in the south, as it has just been agreed to designate the precious rolling landscape across Hampshire and Sussex as England's newest National Park.

The South Downs National Park will be officially designated early next year. England's first long-distance bridleway -- the South Downs Way (99 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne) already crosses this hilly backbone of the south-east ending at the dramatic Seven Sisters chalk cliffs above Beachy Head.