Robust Rambles

Section 17

Laughton to Ringmer

Walk Details

Walk Instructions

GREATSTONE TO GILLINGHAM ROBUST RAMBLE

Section 17  Out

Laughton to Ringmer

Map: Explorer 123 Eastbourne & Beachy Head

Distance/Time: 6 miles/ 3 hours

Start: The bus stop shelter opposite the Roebuck Inn and village shop in the centre of Laughton.

Comment: Mostly pasture and arable land, easy going without too many problems. Excellent views across to the South Downs. Going can be rather ‘lumpy’ in dry weather and muddy in wet. This is horse country and certain sections of path have the surface destroyed by hooves. Some short sections of country road walking.

Start from the bus stop shelter in the middle of Laughton village, opposite the old Roebuck Inn and nearby village shop. Cross the main road to Shortgate Lane going off uphill. Walk up this lane for 50 metres then turn right up a bridleway. Expect lots of mud in or after wet weather.

Near the top of the rise, by a stable block and a stout post in the path, turn left over a footbridge to a footpath enclosed between fences. At the end, exit via steps, to a road. Turn left to a T-junction, then right uphill.

In 50 metres, just short of a house, turn left off the road, over a footbridge into an enclosed path between hedges. Continue through woodland, thick with bluebells in Spring, ignoring side paths. Drop down to cross a footbridge.

Continue on to the end of the wood. Leave near a pond and cross a scrubby area to a stile. Over this go diagonally right across a field aiming just left of buildings. Cross a stile to reach a road.

Go straight over to the private road opposite and continue up it. Go through a metal fieldgate and on past a barn on your left to a further metal fieldgate. Through this continue through an area of new woodland. Keep straight on in the same direction along the edge with a hedge on your left. Horses use this section too.

Go through a metal fieldgate at the end and bear left to a T-junction with another bridleway. Turn right. In 10 metres, look for rusty poles and a stile on your left. Cross into a field and go straight ahead along the edge to distant trees.

At the end of the field cross a stile and turn right on a switchback path on a bank between trees. Soon reach a stile where the path divides.

Do not cross but turn left along a field edge with a wire fence and a hedge on your right, towards a busy road. At the far end cross a metal fieldgate with integral stile to reach the road.

Cross the road with care and turn left up a wide grassy verge. Pass two cottages and turn immediately right down the access drive to Upper Lodge Farm.

At a Y-fork, bear left towards a gate into a garden. Just before the gate swing right over a stile into an enclosed path. Turn immediately left up through trees. Emerge at the top, by a house. Go over the stile ahead into a rough area at the back of farm buildings. Keep forward with a hedge on your left.

At the top of the farm site, bear left through double fieldgates. Turn immediately right to go down the side of a large sloping field with a hedge on your right. Soon bear diagonally left, diverging away from the hedge across the corner of the field to a stile and footbridge in the middle of the treeline at the foot of the field.

Cross and continue up the field ahead with a ditch and stream, then a wood on your right. When the wood ends continue up a wide green way. At a solitary tree bear left to pass a barn and cross a stile by a metal fieldgate out to a road.

Turn left on the road for some way. The road keeps along the edge of the wood on your right, around a bend, to the  end of the wood by a slate house. Turn right off the road just before the house and follow a path along the bottom edge of the wood. Walking is difficult as the surface is wrecked by horses with no attempt at any reinstatement.

Do not go up into the wood but bear left over a stile by an equestrian gate to continue in the same direction with a wire fence on your right. Cross another stile and go on along a field edge, still by the fence. Ignore fieldgates into fields on your right and bear left across the end of the field to a stile into a small wood.

At the far side cross a footbridge into a large field and go forward up the side with a hedge on your right to a stile in the corner ahead. Cross and bear diagonally right, uphill, towards a house at the top. Join a gravel track and keep on past the house to a road.

Bear slightly right and cross to go down Broyle Land. On reaching farm buildings laying back on your left, turn right off the road over a stile into a horse paddock. Pass a sand school on your right and continue past an earth bank. Keep up the centre of the grassy paddock as it narrows.

In the very top left corner find a footbridge hidden in the hedge. Cross, and bear right to a gap in a hedge, with a house beyond. Through the gap, bear diagonally left down and across the centre of the field to a stile, by a metal fieldgate, in the bottom opposite corner. Cross and go down to a road. Turn left on the road for ¼ mile.

Pass Norlington Gate Farm. The road crosses a small bridge in trees. Opposite a seat on your right, turn left, on a footpath into a field.

Bear diagonally right across the field, aiming just right of a distant wind turbine. At the far side cross a footbridge and continue to a second footbridge in a hedge. Through the hedge the path divides (actually in mid-field). The easiest way is to turn sharp left along the edge of the field with the hedge on your left.

Head towards phone masts and a line of evergreen trees. Stay on the field edge, around and past the trees. Beyond, stay by the hedge and ignore a gap off left. The hedge bends right then left. Now leave the field edge and bear right across the field towards a busy road at the far side, aiming just left of buildings.

Pass under power lines, midway between two poles, and eventually exit onto the pavement by the road. Turn left to soon reach the Green Man pub in Ringmer and the end of the section.

GREATSTONE TO GILLINGHAM ROBUST RAMBLE

Section 17  Return

Ringmer to Laughton

Map: Explorer 123 Eastbourne & Beachy Head

Distance/Time: 4 miles/ 2 hours

Start: The Green Man pub, on main road (B2192) at east end of Ringmer

Comment: This route is generally weaving up and down footpaths in arable fields either side of the Ringmer to Laughton Road. Two short sections on quiet country roads.

Leaving the Green Man pub, cross the main road and turn left along the pavement looking for Chamberlaines Lane going off right, just before a fork in the road.

Turn down here and walk to the far end. Pass a business park halfway. The land continues but with a rougher surface. At Chamberlaines Farmhouse bear left and join a green lane into a field. Turn right to walk up by a line of poles to a house. Cross a stile onto a road.

Turn left up this country road for ½ mile, ignoring a road off on the right. At the top reach a T-junction with a main road. Turn right along a sunken pavement for 200 metres. Pass a side road called Half Mile Drove off left and continue, to reach a side turning on the right called Moor Lane, with a house beyond. Here turn left across the main road to a gap in the hedge opposite. Go through into a field (this is a path diversion and avoids walking further along the main road).

Bear right across the field to the far bottom corner by trees and a stream. With the stream on your left, go through a gap into the field beyond. Continue along by the stream for a short way to reach a farm bridge.

Go left across the bridge, then immediately right to continue along the bottom edge of the field, beneath power lines, with the stream now on your right. Pass a wood on your right to reach the end corner of the field. Here turn right down through trees. Cross a footbridge and stile and keep along the field edge to a road.

Cross with care and turn left past houses for 30 metres. Turn right, off the road, through a little wrought iron gate by a metal fieldgate, and go forward into a large field.

Bear slightly diagonally left across the field aiming initially for the highest point of the South Downs in the far distance, then, as it becomes clearer, for the far corner of the field. Find a hidden stile and cross into the field beyond.

Go diagonally right across the corner of the field to a hedge. Turn left down the edge of the field with a hedge on your right. At a corner ahead cross a stile and continue down the edge of the next field.

At an old wooden gate in the corner do not cross but turn sharp right through a metal fieldgate (chained but not locked). Turn immediately left down the field edge towards a house with a hedge on your left. Exit through a metal fieldgate onto a wide, unmade vehicle track.

Turn left on this up to farm buildings. At an iron barn, turn left to a house, then turn right, still on the track, for ½ mile, passing a farmhouse midway. Finally reach a T-junction with a road. Turn right along it.

Where the road turns sharp left, by a house, go straight ahead up a farm entrance track. At a barn, bear right then left along by a cattle shed. At the end of the building go over to a squeeze stile by a metal fieldgate and continue on a broad grassy way between trees.

Soon come to a farm access track and turn left to pass a stable block and a pond beyond. Keep forward past a sand school over on your left, to reach a stile by an old much chewed wooden fieldgate. Cross and walk up the pasture, bearing slightly left to a stile by a metal fieldgate in the end hedge.

Cross into a small plantation and continue to a field. Bear left along the field edge with a hedge on your left, under power lines. Where hedge turns sharp left, go diagonally left across the field to the far opposite corner.

Bear right through a gap into next field and continue by the hedge on your left for about 10 metres. Look for a kissing gate in the hedge and turn left through it. The path divides here. Keep left to go straight up the field edge with a hedge on your left. At the top corner turn sharp left through a wooden fieldgate then immediately right through another into a large field.

Bear right across the middle, just right of distant farm buildings and just left of a lone tree in the hedgeline at the far side. Find a squeeze stile hidden in the hedge.

Squeeze through and bear left across the corner of the field to a wooden fieldgate in the hedge. Enter a rising field and go diagonally right uphill to the top right corner. Cross a stile into an enclosed path at the foot of gardens.

At the end, cross another stile and turn left on a broad track out to a main road. Cross and turn right to reach the Roebuck Inn (currently closed) and the village shop and post office in Laughton and the start of the section.