Im heading down to near there tomorrow for a few days camping (its the missus bright idea and shes cocked it up but thats another story…), anyhow im taking the road bike with me. Can anyone recommend a couple of good road routes in the area, ideally avoiding major roads, sort of 40-60 miles. If i can squeeze in a climb of Box Hill even better….

I live just outside Lewes, there’s plenty of nice lanes, and would recommend looking at the following:

Ditchling Beacon
Beachy Head Road
Road between Alfriston and Seaford (but you don’t want to get there via the A27)

Personally I wouldn’t bother going up to Box Hill as the bits in between though pleasant enough are not that interesting.

If you like I could make a GPX for you?

You’re quite a way from Box hill. That’d be 80-100 miles from Lewes.

I work there! If i was out for a road ride, I’d probably head north to ashdown forest via the back lanes. The route to Haywards Heath is mostly quite nice (my old commute).
I also really like the Eastbourne -> Birling gap road over Beachy head, but i tend to get there via a loop that heads down into Eastbourne with a steep climb up to beachy head to avoid the busy A259.
If you are there when the airshow on even better as you can watch the planes from above.

You’re on the doorstep of some great off-road over the South Downs though, that’s what I usually do. A CX would be fine, though the climbs can be very steep. Head to stanmer/friston for singletrack.

I live there, all of the above have fairly long bits on busy roads. Can email you some gpx files if you want, email in profile.

Duner and DirtyLyle, ygm. Cheers!