Just back from four days in Sussex and thanks to all for their comments and recommendations above. We had, with the exception of one sharp thundery shower, lovely weather throughout with sunshine and a bit of breeze, and Albion was looking particularly Fair after the recent burst of growth. The golf was challenging and enjoyable and sometimes very good indeed but not quite, we thought, great, and this latest tour only confirmed that, in the end, ours is a better game played by the sea.
Three of the four courses we played (Piltdown, Royal Ashdown, Crowborough) all feature in the original (1962) edition of Frank Pennink's Golfer's Companion, and there is a very nice article by JJFP on RAF (of which he was a loyal member, commemorated in the RAF clubhouse) in his Homes of Sport (1952): the fourth venue, Copthorne, had lovely greens and some nicely shaped holes but with otherwise rather forgettable, with far too many trees for this claustrophobe.
We loved the club atmosphere at RAF (and the buffet lunch served as part of the Day Ticket is highly recommended) and it's clearly a special and historic golf place with some cracking holes: Crowborough was very tough and challenging, and unquestionably contained the worst hole (its 5th) of the 72 we sampled in Sussex. The wonderful photo that adorns the clubhouse of Henry Cotton driving from the back tee there in 1937 only shows how much better Crowborough would be with proper clearance of tree and scrub, but even then we did find its elevated English ranking a little surprising: CB did have one truly excellent feature, namely a 'meet and greet' rota of members for visiting parties, and this was a genuinely nice touch, and for a sensory experience redolent of the way British golf used to be (and used to smell) I would recommend all visiting American friends to sample the CB locker room. The treacle tart and cream was without doubt a Category One clubhouse dessert.
For fun and value, Piltdown unquestionably took the prize: £25 with a County Card at 3.30 on a perfect Sunday afternoon, with a lovely club vibe of families enjoying themselves: a really intriguing and compact design, with parts akin to West Sussex, parts akin to Huntercombe, and parts redolent of the Sacred Nine (and it's no surprise that Piltdown was one of Henry Longhurst's favourite courses), made this perhaps the surprise Pick of the Four for many of us. Warmly recommended, and perhaps Sean might visit for one of his photo-tours in due course.
We played 18 at Piltdown, 36 at RAF and Crowborough, and 18 at Copthorne, thus cunningly choosing the two severest tests and walks for two rounds in a day. Our base was the Brambletye Hotel in Forest Row, an earlier version of which was apparently the site of the foundation of the Ashdown Forest Golf Club. Excellent Harvey's beer served almost everywhere, and very fine club claret at RAF (although not cheap), and lots of friendliness from club staff and indeed members at all four locations.
Back to the seaside though for this Tour next year (Silloth and Southerness, very probably): as we all get older (and I still carry 12 clubs) flattish duneland gets more and more enticing!