Many thanks for your help. I love Alastair Sawdays website too...we have gone as far as India with his recommendations, but I forget he is also expert closer to home

Susannah, I was driving through Cowdray park today and remembered they have holiday cottages. That's quite a glorious location and lots to do around there for the whole family. Look up "Cowdray holiday cottages" on google. Re-East Sussex, you can go down a bit towards Rushlake Green. Dallington is AMAZING and the area around there is truly stunning (albeit a good 15-20 min more getting back to London than Stonegate area).
Finally I forgot to mention the Sawdays website. I've never really had a bad surprise with any of their recommendations. The National Trust also has some lovely holiday cottages.
Hope you find something nice!

Thanks for the tip Jules1978!

Hi Susannah,
I have rented a few houses in the UK (but generally only for a week at a time) and have always found www.ownersdirect.co.uk really helpful as you can negotiate directly with the owner rather than having to go via an agent or management company.
I hope you find somewhere.

Thank you so much for your reply, that is amazingly helpful as we honestly had no idea where to start as we are not familiar with much outside SW4 !

Hi Susannah, we used to live in Clapham Old Town and recently moved to Sussex. We spent so much time going around East and West Sussex, we pinpointed the nicer areas as the following:
For East Sussex, the area between Mayfield, Burwash, Ticehurst and Wadhurst. It's not too far from the sea and about 1.5hrs to SW4. Fair Oak Farm in Mayfield and Bardown Farm in Stonegate are in beautiful surroundings. Rye is also lovely albeit a bit more town than country.
For West Sussex, the area between Petworth, Amberley, Goodwood and Midhurst is nice. That's about 1-1h30 to SW4 depending on traffic. From there you are less than 30 minutes to the sea and I've been told there is a nice beach (not tried it yet) in Wittering (?). Also, it's not too far from Southampton, if you want to go to Cowes for the day.
I would avoid the "corridor" from Horsham to Haywards Heath and down to the sea. It's quite built up with a lot of pylones and in my opinion, generally not as nice.
I hope this helps.

Hello,

We are looking to rent a min. 3 bed house/cottage in Sussex (or somewhere close to SW4 London, max 1.5/2 hr drive) during Summer 2013 (for min 2 months, maybe 4 months) that is within driving distance to the sea. Fully furnished. Please let me know if any ideas!

Thanks.

Susannah.