Section 5 Out
Appledore to Small Hythe
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 125 Romney Marsh |
|---|---|
| Distance/Time | 5 miles/ 3 hours |
| Start | Appledore village centre and the Black Lion pub. |
| Comment | The museum at Small Hythe Place is often open and the section ends at Tenterden Vineyard which has a shop, picnic area and restaurant. There is no pub here. This walk crosses the Isle of Oxney and offers splendid views. As usual many paths are not evident on the ground so constantly use the map to keep an accurate sense of direction. |
Walk Instructions
With the Black Lion pub and church entrance behind, cross the main road, to go up Court Lodge Road opposite. Keep along, to eventually pass Court Lodge itself on your left. Immediately past the buildings, by an entrance drive on the left, go left, up a stepped stile, into a pasture. This path is on the Saxon Shore Way.
Go ahead along the top of high ground with splendid views. At the far side, drop down, to a stile and footbridge, into the field beyond. Follow the ditch and treeline on your right (unless a path is marked out straight across the field). Keep in the field to the far end, to reach a wide waterway called the Reading Sewer. Turn right, to go along the edge of the next field, with the Sewer down on your left.
Eventually reach the end of the field and cross a stile, by a fieldgate, onto a road. Turn left on the road, over a bridge and reach the Ferry Inn. Turn right into the inn car park. (The inn offers 7 day food).
Cross the car park and go ahead along the Reading Sewer again, this time down on your right. Keep on for some way to eventually reach a water pumping station.
Pass the building and immediately turn left along the back of the building, with a ditch down on the left. Go along, to eventually reach a wide farm bridge on the left. Here turn right, up a concrete track. Where this swings sharp right, go straight ahead, up a steeply sloping field.
Head to the right of trees at the top. Pass the trees on your left and go on, over the brow. Drop down towards Chapel Bank Farm. At the bottom cross a stile into a small pasture. Cross this to another stile and go into a field. Go ahead with a ditch on your left. At a corner turn right up towards the farm.
Just before the farm buildings, turn left, over a grassy farm bridge, into the field on your left. Turn diagonally right, across the corner of the field, towards white railings at the far side and emerge onto a road,
Turn left along the road. Just after an iron building on your right and a bridge, turn left, off the road, into the field on the left. Follow the field edge along by the road for a short distance, then turn left, across the field, heading towards a distant oasthouse.
Do not climb the hill but cross to the lowest part of the far side of the field. Look for a footbridge and fieldgate leading into and old orchard. Bear left up through the orchard, to emerge into a field. Cross to the far left corner, to a wooden fieldgate. Go through and on, along the side of a garden, to a further gate and up a drive to a road.
The other side of the road is a house. Cross just right of the house and climb into the field to the right of the house. Go diagonally right, away from both house and road, along the top of the slope. Over the brow, drop down to the right, to a metal field gate. Go through into a pasture.
The walk now goes diagonally left, over the hill, to the far left corner, although this cannot be seen at the start. Walk up and across the slope. The far corner has a fieldgate and a sheep fold. Go through the fieldgate into the field on your left. Pass the sheepfold and immediately turn right, through a rusty fieldgate. Go ahead down the pasture with a fence and bush line on your right.
At the bottom, go through another fieldgate and go on a short distance to the bank of the Reading Sewer. Turn left along the bank, with the sewer down on your right. Keep along for a mile and a half through the occasional gate and a stile to emerge over a final stile to a road.
Turn right up the road, passing Small Hythe Place, and in 200 metres reaching the Tenterden Vineyard on the left and the end of the section.
