Section 33
Easebourne to Trotton
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 33 Out
Easebourne to Trotton
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The White Horse in Easebourne (pronounced e (short) – sh – bourne)
Comments: Bracken – check for ticks. Farms, fields and trees with plenty of stiles. The Keepers Arms in Trotton is closed so the section ends at a garden centre and cafe. The busy A272 runs through the village and is a very bad section for walkers as the road is narrow and there are virtually no verges. Contact has been kept to a minimum but ENORMOUS CARE AND PATIENCE IS NEEDED. The pub and restaurant in Stedham is currently open if you care to make a short diversion into that village, it is not on this route.
From the White Horse pub car park, turn right, back up the road, past the village shop, to the main road. Turn right, and walk along to where the main road swings left.
Here, keep forward, along the quieter road ahead. Continue, to pass a school on your right. Soon reach a junction, with another main road. Cross with care, to the minor road opposite, and go on up it.
At the top of the rise, turn right, up a cul-de-sac called ‘Upperfield’. Walk a short distance along by a wooden fence, then bear left, in front of a white house, to an enclosed footpath, between wooden fences.
At the top, go through a kissing gate, and on in the same direction, with a fence on your right. Cross a stile and keep on, to another one. Over this, go steeply down a bank, to a farm drive.
Turn left, down the driveway, to a road. Turn right along the road, for some way.
Just after a small road comes in on your right, pass a complex of housing on your left. Soon afterwards, reach a stile in the hedge on your left.
Cross this, into a field and turn right, up the field, with the hedge on your right, for ½ mile.
Eventually the path descends, to a corner and a gap in the hedge. Drop down a bank to a road.
Turn left on the road, past a house, to soon reach a road junction. Cross carefully to a footpath the other side, just right of the road sign, going up steps into a field.
Turn right, to follow the hedge and trees on your right, to the far end of the field (going a bit rough).
At the far end, drop down onto a road, and turn left, to pass a farm. Immediately, turn left, across a concrete parking area.
At the far side, go through a wooden fieldgate, into a wood. Follow the track a short distance. Where it swings right, go straight ahead, ignoring a path off left, and go steeply downhill, under a holly tree.
After an attractive descent, reach a river. Turn right and go along with the river on your left, to soon reach Stedham Mill.
Cross the river on a narrow concrete bridge. At the far side, bear right, up the entrance drive, and follow this for ½ mile.
Eventually pass St. James Parish Church on your right. Bear right, around the churchyard, and soon reach a road by Stedham village.
Turn right, downhill. Just before a bridge, turn left on a bridleway. Follow along by the river, on your right, for some way. Where the river bears off right, keep straight ahead, again for some way.
Eventually the path is edged by fences and reaches a fieldgate. Go through to a drive, then forward, past a house.
Where the drive swings left, go straight ahead, to a cobbled path, going steeply down to a road.
Opposite are two house drive entrances. Cross, to go up the lefthand drive. Pass a brick building on your right, and immediately turn right, up and enclosed path, to a gate and stile. Cross into a field.
Turn right, and go along the field edge, with a ditch and hedge on your right (it may be necessary to wriggle around heaps of earth and bushes at the start).
At the end of the field, go through a swing gate, into a wood. Turn sharp left, and follow the path around to a footbridge and on, to a stile, by a wooden fieldgate.
Cross into a field, and go ahead, with hedge and trees on your right, up to a stile, by gates.
Go on, with the River Rother, far down below, on your right.
The path becomes enclosed between fences, and eventually emerges onto a road.
Turn left on this road, Chithurst Lane, down to a T-junction with the very busy and narrow A272.
Turn left with great care a short distance to a Garden Centre and café and the end of the section in Trotton.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 33 Return
Trotton to Easebourne
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Ayling’s Garden Centre in Trotton.
Comments: Bracken – check for ticks. Farms, fields and woods. Every contact with A272 main road is difficult and dangerous, take great care and wear a HiViz top. The approach to Midhurst across warren and common is not always easy to follow. There is a substantial section through this market town.
With the Garden Centre behind, turn right, back along the main road a short distance to Chithurst Lane. The lane splits into two branches as it meets the main road. Cross the first branch and go over the grassy patch to the other branch.
With great care turn left to cross the main road to a bridle path going into woods.
Go down to a T-junction with another bridle path and turn left on it. This main track soon reaches a Y-fork.
Bear left, up through trees, to emerge at the top of Iping & Trotton Common.
Basically, keep on the same track. Bear right, on a straight track, downhill, close to woods on your right.
Keep on, steadily down, always with the edge of woods on your right (ignore paths going off left across the common).
Swing down, to reach a corner in the woods, with fields and the distant South Downs ahead.
Bear left, still on the same path, through trees, and keep forward, over a very wet section.
Soon reach a road. Cross to the other side, to find a footpath going through a wooden swing gate, onto a grassy path.
Keep forward a good way. Ignore a bridlepath in from the left. Cross an asphalt drive, and go forward, downhill. Ignore a turning off left and keep downhill, on a sunken track.
Swing left, in front of a cottage. Just after passing the cottage garden, keep forward on the main track, ignoring a turning right.
In the woods, pass a bridleway coming in on your left, and soon emerge, by a vast lake and sand pit.
Keep right, along the side, to reach a junction of paths, at the far side (the path seems slightly different to the OS map – possibly due to the expansion of the sand pit).
At the junction, turn right, to soon wind left, past cottages, and out to a road.
Turn right along the road for a short distance, then turn left, down an asphalt drive. Soon bear right, then left, past two cottages.
Keep straight on, into a field, with a wire fence on your left. At the end of the field, cross a stile into a narrow pasture, then cross to a stile and bridge at the other side.
Go forward into a wood, and walk between pines and rhododendron bushes for ½ mile.
At a junction of paths, bear left, and keep forward on a raised brick path, to reach a drive, by a pink house.
Turn left to a road. Cross to enter a rough car park area. Go immediately left up a footpath (ignore gate and bridleway ahead). Soon emerge on a track under power lines.
Turn left, up the track, to the first post supporting the power lines. Here turn right, off the track, and go up a few metres, to a track at the edge of a cliff, with an old sand pit below.
Turn left on this track, and follow it for some way, uphill. Eventually the cliff disappears, but keep on up, into woods.
Pass under twin power cables. Keep on up, ignoring a path off right. Soon reach a crossing of paths.
Turn right, downhill, on a feint path through holly trees. Eventually reach a clearing. Turn left on a track, to immediately face a Y-fork. Bear right, on the broader, higher, track.
Follow this for some way, ignoring cross paths, and eventually emerge at power lines. Go forward, under them, to a narrow sunken path, going steeply down.
Follow this for some way, with an industrial estate appearing, over on your right.
At the end, meet a works road, and turn left, opposite the old Station House. Go down to a main road. Keep forward on this for nearly a mile, through the centre of Midhurst.
At the top of the town, reach the Tourist Information Office, by a bus stand and car park, on your right. Turn right, to a footpath going up the side of the car park, towards a Tudor gateway.
At the far end, cross a river, and go through gates to a road. Turn left up the road. Soon, where the road swings left, go straight up a stoney track, by the side of playing fields.
At the top, go through a gate, and on up the side of Cowdray Polo Park. Keep going to the very end, and emerge onto a busy road, by Easebourne Church.
Cross the road and turn left. Go along to the first road going right. Turn up this to reach the ‘White Horse’ pub and the start of the section.
