Robust Rambles

Section 19

Barcombe Cross to East Chiltington

Walk Details

Walk Instructions

GREATSTONE TO GILLINGHAM ROBUST RAMBLE

Section 19  Out

Barcombe Cross to East Chiltington

Map: Explorer 122 Brighton & Lewes

Distance/Time: 6 miles/ 3 hours

Start: The Royal Oak, Barcombe Cross

Comment: An excellent section of quiet, reflective walking in secluded countryside. A couple of busy roads to cross and a short section on a quiet country road. A good number of stiles but some excellent views in all directions with the South Downs always in the distance. A railway crossing was temporarily closed, so a diversion is suggested. Hopefully this will not be needed. If making the circular walk please read the comments in the return section.

With the Royal Oak behind, turn right down the main road for 30 metres. Look for a little side road on your left called Grange Road. Turn up here. At the end continue into a recreation ground and go on down the edge with trees and a hedge on your left. Pass a Tennis Pavilion and keep on down to a footbridge.

Here the path divides. Bear left, uphill, towards power lines and a gap in the hedge. Go through the gap (formation of an old railway) and turn left. Almost immediately turn right by a wooden pylon, to go up the field edge with trees and a ditch on your left.

At the top corner cross a footbridge and gate, and continue up the side of the field ahead, with hedge on your right, to a gate at the top. Go along an enclosed footpath to a road. Turn right on the road.

Soon reach a Y-fork, bear left still on the main road. Opposite the garage of the last house on the right (and a pineapple decoration), look for a gap in the hedge opposite by a post. Go through the gap into a field and bear diagonally right across to another power pole with a house in the distance beyond.

At the pole bear left. Head down the field aiming midway between power lines on your left and the house up on the right. Reach a footbridge in the bottom hedge. Cross into next field. Bear slightly left across the field to the end corner of a hedge at far side.

There is a junction of paths here. Turn right to cross a large field, going uphill to the far top left corner. Pass a lone tree midway. In the top corner pass through bushes by a farm to a stile into a corner of a field.

The path divides here. Ignore the path off left and go straight ahead across the field to a stile in the hedge at the far side by two trees. Continue up the field edge ahead, and on by the edge of a wood to a metal fieldgate by a radio mast leading out to a road (excellent views on this section).

Cross the road and continue in same direction on a heavily rutted track. Bear left around a pond, then right to go along the top edge of the field with a hedge on your left, towards distant woods.

Go through a gap in the top corner and continue along the edge of the wood towards a distant radio mast. Exit via a stile(broken) at the end of a garden and emerge onto a busy road.

Turn left for 10 metres. At a house, turn right across the road with care to a gap in the hedge opposite. Bear right across a field, passing just right of a power pole, to the far end of the field. Just right of the corner is a gap out onto a road.

Cross to a junction of two paths. Bear right, through a gateway into the corner of a field. Walk directly away from the road, across the middle of the field to the far bottom corner. Find a ladder stile in the bushes.

Cross into the next field and bear slightly diagonally left down to a footbridge. Cross and continue straight up the field towards a cottage. Exit over a stile by a wooden fieldgate to a road. Turn right on the road for ¼ mile ignoring paths off left and right.

At a house on the left, by a sharp right bend, turn left off the road up a rough track. Do not cross the railway, but turn right by a metal fieldgate along the field edge with a hedge and the railway on your left. Go through an improvised hurdle gate and on, for 100 metres, to reach a railway foot crossing on your left. Cross with care and turn immediately right along the other side of the railway to emerge onto a road. Turn right, under a railway bridge, then immediately left, through a metal fieldgate into a pasture, to follow a fence and railway on your left.

(If the crossing is closed turn right to walk down the large field, aiming slightly diagonally right of the hedge around houses at the bottom. Keep on to the far bottom corner and a ladder stile beyond a grey, galvanised water trough. Emerge onto a road.

Turn left on the road for some way. Cross a stream and head uphill to reach houses by a blacksmith’s forge. Here turn left off the road over a footbridge and iron stile(!) into a field. Bear right across the centre of the pasture to the far opposite bottom corner. Exit through a metal fieldgate onto a road. Turn left a few paces, then right, before a bridge, through a metal fieldgate into a pasture. Go forward along the edge with a fence and railway on your left.)

At the top corner of the pasture, at a junction of paths, reach a railway foot crossing. Turn left over the crossing with great care (trains may be travelling at up to 90 mph) to a field at the far side.

Bear right to go down the side of a wood. Where the wood swings off right, go straight ahead, on down the field, ignoring cross tracks, to pass two isolated trees. Reach a footbridge and ladder stile in the end hedge.

Cross and turn left to an iron gate. Go on between gardens to reach a little gate with a metal horse silhouette on top. Go through, with difficulty, and on down to a road.

Opposite is the Jolly Sportsman in East Chiltington and the end of the section.

GREATSTONE TO GILLINGHAM ROBUST RAMBLE

Section 19  Return

East Chiltington to Barcombe Cross

Map: Explorer 122 Brighton & Lewes

Distance/Time: 6 miles/ 3 hours

Start: The Jolly Sportsman, East Chiltington

Comment: A good, varied walk with constant changes of path and scenery. Several stiles and one section of road walking on a quiet country road, plus a shorter section into Barcombe. The main problem is a path on a cattle farm near Cooksbridge. This goes under a railway bridge and collects a deep sea of liquid mud after rain. This is not passable in shoes or fabric boots. A serious suggestion is to take Wellington Boots or a pair of plastic bags to cover footwear. Otherwise a longer alternative route is suggested involving main road walking.

With the Jolly Sportsman behind, turn right along the road. In 10 metres turn right up a bank to a stile into a field. Go diagonally left across the centre, aiming just right of a house at the top.

Cross a stile out to a road. Cross over, to go down a farm road, to Wootton Farm. Keep along the concrete roadway to pass the farm on your right and all of its entrances.

A hedge then begins on your right. 2 metres up go over a stile in a gap and go diagonally left across the centre of the field to a stile. Continue down to the bottom corner.

Ignore a cross path and go through a metal fieldgate, to continue on in the same direction, diagonally left across the field.

At the far side, cross a footbridge and go up steps to a junction with a raised path. Go across and down to a footbridge and ladder stile into a field.

Go straight across to the far opposite corner to meet a hedge. Continue through a gap, with a hedge and trees on your left. Pass a gap into a field on the left and continue uphill with a hawthorn hedge on your left.

At the top of the rise, go left down steps, to a cross track. Cross over to a tall wooden gate in a deer fence. Go through and bear left down to another gate. Through this turn right up by a wood.

At the top emerge into a field. Continue with a hedge on the left towards a house. Where the hedge bends left down to out buildings, turn right, by posts, with a plantation of trees on the left over to a field. Go straight down this field, parallel with a flint wall over on your left.

At the bottom, go forward into trees on a narrow raised path between ponds. Emerge into a field. Go straight up, bearing slightly left, to a gap in the hedge on the left onto a road.

Turn right on the road to soon reach a Y-fork. Bear left on the higher road for ½ mile. Go walk uphill to pass a house on your left, then gently down to a farm. Just before the last building, Warren Lodge, turn left into an entrance drive.

Bear right across to a lawned caravan site, then left down with a hedge on your left to a squeeze stile at the bottom. Cross into a pasture and bear slightly left down to the bottom corner and a stile by a fieldgate.

Cross onto a farm track and turn right under a railway bridge. A DEEP SLURRY OF LIQUID MUD CAN COLLECT UNDER THIS BRIDGE. IF PASSAGE IS IMPOSSIBLE TAKE THIS ALTERNATIVE.

(Return to the road. Turn left and continue along looking for the next footpath left. This crosses a pasture and then goes to the right along the side of the railway to Cooksbridge Station and a level crossing on the main A275 Lewes road. Turn left up this main road, with great care, to reach the Rainbow Inn in ½ mile).

If passing under the bridge is possible, at the other side turn immediately right over a footbridge into a large pasture. Turn left to go down the edge with a hedge on your left, to a footbridge in the bottom corner.

Cross to go up the field ahead just left of farm buildings on your right. Past the farm, keep on up towards red roofs. Exit through a gap onto a main road and cross with care to the Rainbow Inn opposite. Head across the car park and over another road onto an entrance drive by a flint house. Continue for ½ mile.

Keep on past farm buildings on the rough middle track, becoming concrete again. Where the concrete ends go forward through a gap into the corner of a field and keep on along the edge with a fence then a ditch on your left.

Look for a footbridge on your left and cross into a rising field. Bear left across the top of the field, aiming right of a distant house. At the highest point of the field reach a stile in a fence. Do not cross but go on past and follow the fence on your right, along the field edge, then around to a broken stile by a gateway. Go through to a road.

Go straight across and up the edge of a field a short distance, towards trees. At the top of the rise, turn diagonally left across a narrow neck of field to a gap where trees end and a hedge begins.

Through the gap, bear diagonally left across the field towards Balcombe Church, just visible in distant trees. Cross a footbridge halfway, then continue up to the churchyard.

Go straight through, passing the church on your right. Join the entrance path which becomes an asphalt drive (ignore a path off right). Follow this drive to a road.

Bear left and cross to a kissing gate. Go up the edge of a field with a wire fence on your right, to a stile. Cross the stile and immediately turn diagonally left across the field to a dead tree (no waymark for this path).

Go through an iron kissing gate by the tree and bear right across a pasture with a garden on your left. Exit through a little wooden gate onto a drive. Cross to a plank bridge and a stile opposite and go forward on an enclosed path.

Cross a stile at the top by a church meeting house, and continue out to a road. Cross to a stile and go forward up the field ahead. At the far side exit over a stile and footbridge to a road. Turn right on the road for ¼ mile.

At a major road junction, bear right to continue in the same direction. Cross an old railway bridge. Immediately over, at the end of the brickwork, turn right through a small wooden gate down into a garden. Go through to a poor stile into a field.

Bear diagonally left up towards concrete houses. At the top, cross a stile into an enclosed path between a hedge and a fence.

Reach an open parking area. Cross to another narrow enclosed path opposite. Go down to a T-junction. Turn left on another enclosed path to emerge onto a road. Bear left down the road, over a crossroads and on to emerge in the centre of Barcombe Cross with the Royal Oak on your left.