Walks 2019

November 2019    Walk from: ‘The Mucky Duck’, Tismans Common, nr. Rudgwick.  3.8 miles, 17 walkers, lunch at ‘The Mucky Duck’

Weather:     A rare dry day within a week of wet ones. Although the route had been chosen to avoid the worst of ‘Autumn Sussex Mud’, it still made its presence felt during this walk.

We started with 200yds. of road walking, noting that in this Surrey countryside, the ‘pleasant’ houses, which have now replaced all the ‘peasant’ shacks and hovels of yester-year.

Soon we left the road to follow Barnsfold Lane, a surfaced bridleway, passing “Barnsfold Farm House”. The bridleway now became unsurfaced and our first encounter with ‘Sussex’ mud followed, however, on crossing the County Boundary this now changed into identical ‘Surrey’ mud. We passed the fine 16th  C.  timber framed “Barnsfold” before entering an area of mixed woodland and small fields.

We now re-routed, to stay on Hook Street, a better surfaced bridleway, through Hope Rough and Monckton Hook. A footpath took us slightly up hill to follow the Sussex Border Path for the next mile of our walk.

This took us through the west gate of the Rikkyo School, a Japanese boarding school, founded in 1972. The school buildings were previously a country house named “Pallinghurst”.

Here we stopped to see the new memorial plaque to the eight airman who were killed in 1944 when their planes collided, on return from a bombing raid in France.

A short climb over The Knob brought us to another muddy section of the route. Unfortunately here, one of our number stumbled on a tree root and fell over, bruising and muddying herself.

Our return route, through Hornshill woods took us to the complex of Tismans, with its wide access road lined on both sides with young Beech Trees.

Crossing a final field returned us to our starting road and a short walk back to the pub   where 14 of the walkers stopped for lunch. The staff soon served us drinks and our selection of home cooked, traditional, food items.

September 2019    Walk from The Kings Head, Upper Beeding. 4.5 miles,    9 walkers, lunch at ‘The Kings Head’

Weather:     A beautiful day for walking, cool at first, but sunny with a light breeze.

The route started south, alongside the river Adur. Leaving the village, we passed under the busy A283 to continue along the low-lying land alongside the river. After a mile or so we crossed the river on a footbridge to continue our walk upstream along the other bank of the river.

Soon we left the river to visit the church at Botolphs. The parish church of St Botolphs dates from 950 and large parts of the Saxon building remain. The building was rededicated to St Peter by the Normans, the village was then known as Annington. But eventually the Saxon saint was reinstated and now gives his name to both the church and the village. Of the village only a few houses now remain, but it was a busy port until the river silted up in the 15th. Cent.

July 2019    Walk from The Red Lion, Ashington.   4.0 miles,    15 walkers, lunch at ‘The Red Lion’

Weather:     A damp day: A wet morning; the overnight rain cleared as the walk started and the day rapidly warmed up as the walk progressed. Mostly dry underfoot.

We started by crossing the old main road, now bypassed, but still busy with local traffic. A new green path took us between the village and the bypass to cross the A24 by a high pedestrian bridge. We were now in area of small farms and woodland, which still had some medieval parish boundary markers. We continued north on a bridle path still close to the main road until we reached East Wolves Farm. Here we followed the path alongside Baldwins Wood to Hook Farm where we found some small enclosures, one of which was home to a group of very friendly sheep. Now we turned right onto a concrete track. Our walk leader suggested that a diversion into Frenchlands Wood would add interest. In the middle of deep woodland, we passed Frenchlands Barn, isolated from any farmland. We rejoined the track at Brownhill where we stopped for our ‘Banana break’. We then took a right-hand turn onto a wooded footpath and after passing some newly constructed fishing lakes we found some small enclosures (allotments), one of which was home to a group of very friendly sheep. This brought us back to the main road, with fine views of the Downs topped by Chanctonbury Ring. At Kensett Corner we passed under the A24 and were soon back at the Red Lion, where our previously ordered meals were, after a slight delay, served up. The meals were to a high standard, and completed our very enjoyable walk.  

June 2019    Walk from the Black Rabbit Arundel.    4.4 miles,    9 walkers, lunch at ‘The Black Rabbit’

Weather:     A dry day: A fine morning, but with very high humidity, the day rapidly warmed up as the walk progressed. Mostly dry underfoot.

Leaving the Pub, we walked north alongside the river Arun, at first with a good view of the castle, then with the railway line surprising close to us on the other bank. Although we were walking on the high flood prevention bank of the river little could been seen of it, due to the extensive growth of riverside vegetation at this time of year. Where the river loops around the hamlet of South Stoke, we crossed the bridge to continue along the other bank, and heard a cuckoo in the distance.

The two Stokes were originally ‘Stakes’ in the river where boats were tied up to be unloaded.

Soon we were into woodland following an old route of the river crossed by the substantial new Gurkha Suspension Bridge built by the army. Soon the path came out to an open field with fine views of both the Downs and Arundel Park.

At the top of the field is the tiny hamlet of North Stoke, Five or six flint and brick houses and Manor Farm, a fine building, the doorway has fluted Doric columns in antis (Nairn & Pevsner -look it up; I had to). The lovely small church is Norman, unrestored, with some mediaeval wall paintings still visible.

Retracing our route to South Stoke we passed the church, St Leonard, with its very thin tower capped by a strange frilly roof.

We now walked along a bridle path through fields, with high ground to our right and a herd of very large black cattle in a fenced field on our left. The path rather overgrown at this time of year gently climbed through woodland past the interestingly named ‘Foxes Oven’.

A minor road now took us downhill to return to the Black Rabbit, where our previously ordered food was speedily served up to us.