Section 36
Sheet to Hawkley
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 36 Out
Sheet to Hawkley
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Queen’s Head in Sheet
Comments: The urban spread of Sheet to be negotiated initially and meeting of major roads and railways. Some steep and demanding climbs on this section with, often, rutted tracks. There are good views and many stiles of varying designs. Allow plenty of time.
With the Queens Head on your left, go a few paces up to the road junction. Turn right on the main road through the village.
Pass the little triangle of grass on your right, and bear left, to follow the road, past the village church, on your right.
Ignore a side road going off left, and keep forward and downhill. After the last cottage on your right, immediately turn right, down a rough road called Mill Lane.
Continue along and downhill for some way.
Near the bottom, turn left, across a rough car park, to steps up to a stile into a meadow. Go forward, to soon reach a second stile.
Cross and go on up, by a line of trees on your left.
At the top bear left, off the main path, to go through trees, to an old brick railway bridge. Cross and arrive at a golf course.
Bear diagonally right, across the fairway, to a bushy hedge, just left of a large pond.
Go through a gap. And on along a field edge, with a hedge on your left. Emerge onto a road. Turn right and walk up, and under, the A3 dual carriageway.
Immediately after the road bridge, turn left, up a drive, to double fieldgates and a stile. Cross, and immediately turn right, up steps, to follow the edge of a field, with trees on your right.
At the far corner, by a house, leave the field through a gap, and go down a pleasant woodland path, for some way.
It bends right at the bottom, and emerges at a T-junction of paths, with a cottage on your right and a stream ahead.
Turn right, to pass the cottage on your right, and follow the path back uphill, into woods. Follow this for some way, with a steep ravine on your left. Eventually reach a rough country road at a bend.
Turn left, uphill, on the road, then gently downhill.
Just after a large house and outbuildings on your right, go left, off the road, up a farm track by a metal fieldgate and stables.
Head away from the road, with a fence on your right and a treeline on the left. The route is not quite as simple as the map indicates.
At the end of the trees on your left, the track turns right and downhill. At this point, cross to a stile by a fieldgate. Cross into a large field and immediately turn right, to go downhill with the fence on your right.
At the bottom of the dip, turn diagonally left, uphill, to a stile into woods at the top.
Follow the path into woods, then steeply downhill to a stile and a junction of tracks beyond it, just before the bottom.
Do not go right down, but turn sharp right from the stile, up a muddy track, back into woods.
This goes uphill, with the edge of the wood over on your right, then bears left a little, into the heart of the wood.
Soon reach an isolated house. Keep going, across the front of the house and the entrance drive, and pick up the path in the woods at the far side. Keep forward.
Ignore a footpath coming in on your left, and go on through the woods. Soon emerge into a clearing with massive battery hen houses.
Pass these on your right, and reach trees at the far side. Bear left to a footbridge and stile into the field on your left.
Go forward, along the edge of the field, with a treeline on your right.
At the corner ahead, leave the field, and weave right and left, onto an enclosed path going uphill, by a fence. At the top reach a giant stile on your right.
Cross into a meadow, and continue straight across, parallel with power lines, to a stile into woods, at the far side.
Bear left and follow the path, up through woods, then on by a field – very narrow here – to emerge onto a road.
Turn right along the road for some way. At a Y-fork, keep left on the upper road. Soon turn left, up a bank, to a formidable stile into a field.
Go straight up, soon entering an avenue of trees. At the top, cross a stile and go forward to a broad byway.
Turn left on this, and begin a never-ending climb for over ½ mile. Ignore any tracks coming up from the left. Just keep climbing !
Eventually go through a half-fieldgate barrier, to a junction of gravel tracks, by a tin hut.
Turn right here, through another gate barrier, and begin to descend a steeply rutted chalk track, for nearly a mile.
At the bottom, emerge onto a road. Turn right along this public road. Cross a private drive going off up right.
A short way along the road, turn left, off the road, on a rough, stoney track (a cycleway).
Follow this for some way. As the track begins a definite descent and views open up on your right, look for a footpath by a barbed wire fence, going up a bank on your left, to a little stile.
Cross the stile into a field, and follow the edge and hedge on your right, to the far corner. Here, turn right, over a stile, and go downhill, along a field edge, to a further stile.
Cross this, and a field entrance track, and go forward, still downhill, with a fence and trees on your right.
Soon reach a stile on your right. DO NOT CROSS BUT STAY IN THE FIELD. Keep on along the field edge, up to the very end. Ignore a stile in the fence ahead, and go over a stile going down to a footbridge.
Cross and go on, up the path ahead. This becomes increasingly steep. Half way up, Hanger’s Way Path comes in from the left. Keep on up.
Eventually emerge onto a concrete farm track. Go forward and down to a road. Turn left on the road and go uphill, to a road junction.
The village green is on the left and some houses on your right. Turn right here, along the road to the Hawkley Inn, and the end of the section.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 36 Return
Hawkley to Sheet
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Hawkley Inn, with initial return down the outward route.
Comments: Hangers Way used for the return as no viable alternative. There are steep climbs and some boggy bits. Expect stiles and short sections of road walking. The final return through Sheet is on roads but at least with pavements.
With the Hawkley Inn on your right, walk back down the road to the junction just before the village green. Turn left, into Cheesecombe Lane, with houses on your left.
Go downhill to a concrete farm track rising off on your right. Go up this, then forward on an enclosed footpath. On reaching a junction of paths, with a house and swimming pool over on your left, turn right on the Hangers Way, going diagonally away downhill.
Keep on, to the bottom of the hill. Here cross a footbridge, then an open area, to a further footbridge and stile. Cross this, and bear right, to go around the side of a hill.
Keep on for some way, to emerge over a stile, onto a road at Middle Oakshott Farm. Turn right for a few paces, then left, up a gravel drive.
This drive soon reaches the buildings of Lower Oakshott Farm. Do not turn, but keep on, through the buildings, onto a smooth asphalt drive, passing garages on your right, to reach a wooden fieldgate.
Turn left to a stile in the corner, and cross into a field. Go forward with a fence and house on your left. Keep all the way along the edge of the field, to a corner.
Cross a stile and bear diagonally right, uphill, over an open area of scrubland.
Reach a stile at the far side, and cross into a wood. Keep forward, up into the wood, to a further stile. Over this, continue up, with a wire fence on your right.
Go a good way along, passing through a swing gate halfway. Eventually reach a fence ahead, as the wood opens out.
Turn left, along with the fence on your right, to soon reach a stile, by a rusty fieldgate. Turn right on the muddy track beyond.
In 25 metres, turn left off the track, into woods. Keep forward, through a wooden barrier, and out to a meeting of tracks on the brow of a hill.
Go forward and begin to descend. In a few paces reach a Y-fork of paths. Bear left, very steeply downhill (at halfway, pass a seat to enjoy the wonderful views and a dedication stone to the poet Edward Thomas).
At the foot of the hill, emerge onto a road. Turn right a few paces, then left, down a gently sloping broad gravel track.
At the bottom, bear left, off the track, to a muddy footpath over a footbridge. Continue on up into woods, with a fence on your right.
Go up on a clear path. Zig-zag right and left at the top, then begin to drop down between lakes. The path becomes metalled with a fine surface of gravel. Keep all the way down to a road.
Turn right along the road and follow it down by a stream, then around a bend to the left.
The road begins to rise. Where a side road comes in on your right, turn left, off the road, through an old metal kissing gate. Turn sharp right up the side of the field.
At the top corner, turn left, to continue along the edge, with trees on your right. At the end, leave the field over a stile into woods, and follow a muddy track, uphill, for a good way.
Eventually emerge onto a school playing field. Go across to the exit gate with Steep village church beyond. Emerge onto a road.
Turn left and follow the road all the way back to Sheet (there is no footpath alternative). Pass a pub on your left and a side road. Keep on, over the A3 main road bridge.
In a further distance, (bear left) and cross a railway, then begin to pass houses. At a T-junction, turn right, to soon reach the green and the Queen’s Head pub in Sheet at the start of the section.
