First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
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Foggy moors and misty mountains aren't the only places where a walker can do with a little helping hand from technology. The rolling, heavily wooded Wealden country where Kent and Surrey join hands with Sussex, for example, is beautiful for walking, but baffling enough. What with tree-shrouded tracks, mazy field paths and ancient holloways tunnelling through the hedges, Jane and I were glad of the direction-finding miracle called Satmap – not to mention the ever-reliable OS Explorer.
Among the beeches and oaks of the North Sussex Weald, bramble flowers screened old iron-working ponds and pits, reminders of a time when these deep woods smoked and roared with industry. The only man-made sound today was the hoot and ‘chuff-chuff’ of a steam locomotive on the Bluebell Railway just beyond the trees. We wandered north through buttercup fields, skirting Fen Mill Place with its wonderful meadows of wildflowers – moon-like marguerites, red bursts of campion – and newly planted hedges of maple, rose and blackthorn. How good to see someone putting time, thought and money into enhancing the biodiversity of this countryside.
Splashing sounds came from a pond just beyond Fen Mill. Carp? Pike? Young otters? We couldn’t tell, but it was a great way to spend half an hour, craning between the trees and watching the dragonfly-haunted water while a squirrel in the oak canopy kept his beady eyes on us.
From Crawley Down we went south down a sunken lane whose banks had been burrowed into fans of sticky yellow clay dimpled with rabbit paw-prints. Holly hedges were hung with long strings of the shiny, heart-shaped leaves of bryony. It was quite a shock to come back to civilization in the form of Pots & Pithoi Pottery, a fabulous place where giant earthenware vessels stood out under flowery trellises as if waiting for a visit from Ali Baba.
A cake and a cuppa here fired us up for the last few miles, through the birch and heath of Selsfield Common, round the parkland of Gravetye Manor – all silver-grey stone and ranks of mullioned windows under tall brick chimneys, high and handsome above its lake. ‘Forsyte Saga country,’ murmured Jane as she gazed, and that exactly summed it up.
Start & finish: Kingscote Station, Bluebell Railway, near East Grinstead (OS ref TQ 367657); or Forestry Commission car park, Minepit Wood (360350).
Getting there:
By train/bus: Kingscote Station from Sheffield Park (TN22 3QL) or Horsted Keynes (RH17 7BB) by Bluebell Railway (www.bluebell-railway.co.uk); or by Bus 473 from East Grinstead Station (www.thetrainline.com). By road: Kingscote Station signposted off B2110 East Grinstead – Turners Hill (NB no parking at station). FC car park ½ mile further.
Walk: (7½ miles; moderate, OS Explorer 135. NB – GPS or Satmap are helpful): FC car park – from bottom right corner, right on gravel path; it bends left to follow power lines east. In ⅓ mile cross gravelled roadway (364350; house on right); continue, trending left away from power lines; in 150 yards, forward at double fingerpost to road (368351). Left (‘High Weald circular walks’), passing right turn to Kingscote Station (fingerpost) to cross road (365355; fingerpost). Keep left of Tickeridge Farm buildings; through 2 gates, across field, through kissing gate, across brook. Keep hedge on right (fingerpost, stiles) for ¼ mile to cross B2110 (363362).
Left for 50 yards, right up drive (‘Mill Wood’); in 20 yards, right (fingerpost). Following ‘High Weald Landscape Trail/HWLT’ and footpath fingerposts, skirt round Fen Place Mill. By gate on left marked ‘Private’, HWLT turns right; but keep ahead (fingerposts). Pass pond (360369); right through kissing gate (fingerpost). Cross field; left on West Sussex Border Path (357372) for ½ mile. Left up Sandhill Lane (349372); in ¼ mile, right (footpath fingerpost); in ⅓ mile, left at T-junction (349362) to pass Pots & Pithoi Pottery and reach B2110 (NB Metrobus 84/684 stops here).
Cross road and on (fingerpost); cross stream (353357); right (fingerpost) on track to recross stream. Left up field edge; follow fingerposts under power lines (351355), along field edges and sunken lanes for ¾ mile to 3-way fingerpost on NW edge of Selsfield Common (348346). Left here; in 10 yards pass another fingerpost; ahead (east) across Selsfield Common. Through kissing gate; through grounds of Selsfield Place, through kissing gate; follow grass and flint ride to Vowels Lane (354345). Left to next corner; right up drive (‘Moatlands’); left (fingerpost) through trees to skirt Moatlands. Path descends for ¼ mile to T-junction (360341); right past Old Moat house. Over stile, diagonally up field slope opposite Gravetye Manor. Aim for far right corner of field; cross stream; left (363336, HWLT) on path. Left at field corner; right across lake bridge (363339); up path to drive by Manor gates (363341). Follow drive, in 300 yards bear right (HWLT) past Home Farm; on into Bushy Wood. In 200 yards, right (HWLT) down ride; under 2 sets of power lines; then in 20 yards, left, and retrace steps to car park.
NB: Detailed directions (highly recommended!), online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk.
Tea and Cakes: Pots & Pithoi Pottery, on B2110 near Turners Hill (01342-714793; www.postandpithoi.com)
More info: East Grinstead TIC, Library Buildings, West Street (01342-410121; www.visitsussex.org) www.ramblers.org.uk; www.satmap.com