Section 10 Out
Sandhurst to Bodiam
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 136 The Weald |
|---|---|
| Distance/Time | 4.5 miles/ 3 hours |
| Start | The New Swan pub in Sandhurst. On street parking to be found around the village. |
| Comment | Varied walking through woodland and fields. Currently many stiles in poor condition. This is a busy walk with many instructions and small changes of direction and terrain. Allow plenty of time. |
Walk Instructions
With The New Swan pub on the left, walk down the main road out of Sandhurst for ¼ mile. Where the pavement ends, cross to the other side. Keep on until the houses finish on both sides. Just before a farm shop on the left, turn left with care, over the road, and cross the verge to a footbridge and stile into a sharply rising field.
Go straight up the field. At the top weave through a gap in the hedge to a monolithic stile and cross into the field beyond. Keep forward with a hedge on the left, up under power lines, then down to the bottom corner. Cross a stile on the left then drop down to a further stile. Cross this and turn immediately right to a third stile.
Cross onto a slightly raised path between lines of trees. At the end, go forward on a drive to a junction with a road. Cross, bearing slightly right, to a metal gate. Go through into a sloping field and bear right to follow the fence and trees on the right.
At the corner ahead cross a flimsy stile into woods. Bear left to a footbridge then forward up through the wood. Leave the wood by a broken stile into the bottom of a sloping field. Go away from the wood with a hedge on the left.
Reach and cross a stile at the far side into a wood. Drop down to cross a footbridge and go forward with the edge of the wood over on the left. At the end, cross a broken stile into the corner of a vast field.
Turn left down with a fence on the left. Where this ends, go forward across the open field. Halfway across, turn right, towards a block of woodland jutting out into the field. On reaching it, keep on, passing it on the left. In a short distance, reach a stile. Turn left over the stile into the wood.
Pass down through the wood to a stile at the bottom. Cross into a field. Turn right along the edge with trees on the right. After 10 metres, bear right into the trees by a pond on the right. Turn left on a sunken path down through the trees.
At the bottom reach a rusty fieldgate with a farm beyond. Turn left here on an enclosed path going down past oasts on the right. At the bottom, cross a broken stile, to a drive. Ignoring the path opposite, turn left on the drive for some way.
The drive makes a righthand bend and crosses a stream. Immediately turn right off the drive over a broken stile into a field. Walk away from the drive along the edge of the field with hedge and stream on the right. At the corner of the field turn right through a wide gap over the stream into the adjoining field. Immediately turn left and follow the stream on the left to a long and narrow footbridge. Cross this and go across a field to a corner of woodland.
Go up into the field ahead and continue along the edge with the wood on the right. Where the wood ends keep forward on a grassy track to eventually reach a T-junction with a farm track by a large brick stable building (this track is on the Sussex Border Path).
Turn right on the track and walk past the stable building. Stay on the track as it passes a pond on the right and then a farmhouse on the right. The track is now a vehicle drive, go along it for ¾ mile.
Just before a pond on the right and the end of the drive at a T-junction with a main road, look for a stile in the hedge on the left. Cross this stile into a pasture. Turn left up by the hedge on the left but soon bear right across the pasture to a stile by a lone tree. Cross the stile (currently half gnawed away by horses), and walk down a large field towards woods at the bottom. Pass the wood on the right and reach a broken stile in the far corner of the field. Cross into a further field and go forward with a wire fence on the right. At the end of the field, go through a wooden fieldgate and bear left along the edge of the field with a hedge on the left.
At the corner ahead, cross a ridiculously high stile into a path enclosed by bushes. Soon emerge into a field and go on down with a hedge on the right. Well before reaching houses at the bottom of the field, look for an old stile in the hedge on the right. This is the start of a difficult section of a path obviously little used as the Sussex Border Path runs the other side of the houses.
Cross the stile and go down the field parallel to the fence on the left. Find a stile in the hedge. Cross it to a footbridge then on, over a broken stile and up a bank to a conifer wood.
There is no trace of a path but go straight up the wood keeping fairly close to the edge of the wood on the right. At the top right corner of the wood is a stile into a field. Cross into a field and go straight ahead towards an evergreen tree. Go through a metal fieldgate and down a pasture to another metal fieldgate by a barn.
Go forward passing a pond on the right and on down to yet another metal fieldgate over a stream. Go through to a steeply rising field. Go up, bearing diagonally right away from edge of field on left, aiming just right of a bungalow between houses at the top. Find a stile into a path enclosed by fences and go through to a road.
Cross the road into a wood and bear right, away from the houses, to reach a children’s playground, at the far side. Turn left here to a main road. Turn right down this to a T-junction. Turn left here, downhill. Where the pavement ends, go up onto a pathway above the road and follow this down to a village green and The Castle pub opposite Bodiam Castle and the end of the section.
