Section 29
Sutton to Graffham
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble
Section 29 Out
Sutton to Graffham
Map: OS Explorer 121 Arundel & Pulborough
Distance: 5 miles/3 hours
Start: The White Horse pub, Sutton; this is a small village with narrow roads, the pub car park is not large. Some on road parking near the pub possible and further up near the church, but not Sunday.
Comment: These villages are full of delightful buildings and the churches are always worth visiting, especially Barlavington. With hills and valleys and much tree cover the countryside is outstanding. There is a great deal of variety in landscape and terrain which has resulted in more detailed instructions. Generally good paths and fewer stiles than usual. Great views and pretty level on the outward leg.
With the White Horse pub behind, turn left, back up the road for 200 metres, ignoring paths off right and left. Reach the church at the top of the rise (well worth a visit). Continue for 25 metres, then turn left, steeply up a tarmac drive.
This becomes a rougher concrete track. At the end, where it turns right into a striking modern wooden house, go straight on into a narrow, enclosed footpath down through woods.
Keep on down to the very end of the path at a T-junction with a wire fence ahead. Here turn right on a path going steeply down the edge of the wood with the wire fence on your left.
At the bottom reach a footbridge over a stream and a stile into a rising field. Go up for 10 metres with a hedge on your right to a corner and junction of paths. Bear diagonally right up and across the field, to a tall stile in the hedge at the top.
Cross into a large field and turn sharp left up the edge. Enjoy the views as you go. Continue where the field ends into a broad track between a wire fence on your left and trees on your right. This soon reaches a T-junction with a wide farm road with buildings beyond.
Turn left down the farm road, past workshops. Swing right at the bottom and follow round looking carefully on your left for a small gate into Barlavington churchyard. Walk up to pass the church (a splendid place to stop for a moment, some excellent floor tiles) to exit via a gate at the far side.
Drop down to a roadway and turn left, downhill. Where the road swings left, still downhill, leave it and go forward on a gravel track between high hedges. Soon pass the entrance to extensive stables, and go on, through a wooden gate, into a footpath enclosed between hedges.
Stay on the path as it goes steeply down to a plank bridge and then on to a road. Cross and scramble up a long bank the other side to reach a stile. Cross into a field and go forward up the side of the field with a hedge on your right.
Where the hedge ends, continue across the open field, past a lonely stile and on towards a metal fieldgate in the far corner. Just before reaching it look for a stile in the hedge on your left and exit onto a road. Ignore the footpath opposite and turn immediately right on a bridleway past metal fieldgates. Continue along a grassy farm track towards trees (excellent views to the north).
On reaching the trees keep straight on (ignore a bridleway off right). Go down through woods for some way. Eventually reach a tarmac drive in a valley and Duncton Mill house on your right. Turn left uphill for a few paces, then right at a stile in the hedge on your right.
Go up the field edge for about 10 metres. Where the edge swings right towards trees, continue straight ahead up and across the open field (a vary feint narrow path was just discernable, it will depend on the crop). Walk parallel to the line of the Downs over on your left, soon see chimneys and a house roof ahead, aim just left of these.
At the far side of the field reach a junction of paths. Turn right along the field edge with the high flint wall of Manor Farm on your left. The path seems to have been diverted slightly. Stay on the field edge past the farm buildings and on down to a stile in the hedge at the bottom of the hill. Cross this and continue downhill with a fence on your right towards a telegraph pole and trees.
Cross a stile into the wood then immediately a footbridge. This leads to a Y-fork. The public footpath takes the right fork. straight up, to exit onto a main road by the pub in Duncton. It is then necessary to turn left along the busy main road for 200 metres to a sharp left bend and a school entrance.
To reduce the road walking, turn left at the Y-fork along by a stream on your left, ignoring all turnings right. Go down steps to meet two footbridges. Ignore the one on your left and go straight ahead over the small one.
Go up to a gate out of the wood and turn left still with a stream on your left. Soon reach a substantial new footbridge on your left. Here turn right, uphill to a stile by a metal fieldgate. Cross onto a busy main road. Turn left, using the narrow grass verge. Where it ends cross to the other side and continue to a substantial school entrance at a left bend in the main road.
Behind the school notice board, to the right of the vehicle gateway is a small arched doorway. Go through this and follow a feint path above, and veering away from, the school vehicle drive.
Keep on along the edge of a golf range following white posts. Reach a gravel track and bear right on this. Where this ends, go straight forward to a corner of woodland.
Keep forward with a golf course on your left and wood on your right. Follow a broad grassy way with a ditch on your left down to the bottom. Bear left over the ditch then immediately right to go on in the same direction as before.
Eventually emerge onto the edge of the golf course and keep on up with a wooden fence on your right. At a corner, by a tree, bear right to follow white posts again.
Keep an eye on the fence on your right. Where it suddenly turns sharp right (by a green on your left), drop down diagonally right to a stile hidden in bushes. Cross into a field.
Head down hill just left of a lone tree. Exit by a white fieldgate at the far side and go forward on a gravel track towards another white fieldgate (ignore a byway off left).
Follow the gravel drive for nearly a mile. At black-painted farm buildings, ignore a path off right and continue on.
At farm cottages, cross a drive and go forward again, now on tarmac, between a hedge and a fence.
In 150 metres, as the drive begins to rise, turn off right, up the bank, through a wooden barrier, to follow an enclosed path between a wooden fence on your left and a hedge on your right, down the side of a paddock. Soon drop down to the right through a gap and turn left by a fence to continue in the same direction.
In a corner, cross a plank bridge and continue (ignore a path off left). Soon the path bears left through trees to a stile (broken). Cross into a possibly marshy field.
Cross, bearing diagonally left to an old metal fieldgate with a stile (broken) in the hedge at the far side. Cross into a large pasture and turn left along the edge with the hedge on your left. At a corner soon reached follow round to the right (ignoring a path off left) and walk down the whole length of the pasture, past an old metal fieldgate, with hedge and trees on your left to a stile in the bottom corner.
Cross and turn left on a wide stony bridleway. Keep on this to eventually pass a recreation ground. The path becomes a roadway and continues to a T-junction by the War memorial in Graffham. Turn right a few paces to The Forester’s Arms pub and restaurant, and the end of the section. A 150 metres further on down the road is the Village Stores open every day.
Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble
Section 29 Return
Graffham to Sutton
Map: OS Explorer 121 Arundel & Pulborough
Distance: 5.5 miles/3 hours
Start: The Forester’s Arms, Graffham
Comment: A very flat and easy first half to the return but then a stiff climb up onto the downs and some secluded countryside and obscure paths on the way down. So only to be undertaken in good light and with plenty of time in hand. Wonderful views, an interesting church and the interesting settlement at East Lavington, formerly the home of the great reformer, William Wilberforce.
With The Forester’s Arms behind you, turn left back to the War Memorial. Turn left into the entrance to the Recreation ground, then immediately right on a path down the side of the War memorial garden.
Go right down the field to exit through a gateway at the bottom by a children’s playground. Continue down a grassy way to gates ahead.
Through these white gates, bear right to a narrow footpath between a wooden fence and trees. Keep on, to go up the back of farm buildings to a crossroads. Here, ignoring, side turnings, continue up a gravelly drive towards the spire of Graffham church.
Emerge through gates onto a road. Turn left, passing a school on your left and the church on your right (well worth a visit as it is a major work of the architect George Edmund Street in 1874).
Continue to the end of the road. here turn left through a gateway onto the drive to Lavington Stud. Continue on this drive for nearly a mile. Eventually pass the turning to the stud farm (ignoring a cross track), and continue forward towards the houses and school at East Lavington.
On reaching this pass new houses on your left and a playing field on your right to reach the village centre. Keep forward on the main road through car parking areas and past school buildings on your right.
Having passed all buildings and reached the end of the village, as the entrance road swings down and away to the left, turn right, past an entrance gate with two pillars and a red post box opposite, down to iron gates. Go through and turn left on a rough road.
Look out for a pretty Victorian house across a lake on the right. Turn right into its gravelled entrance, signed Willow Cottage. Pass a wooden fieldgate and cross a bridge. Pass the house on your right and immediately turn right up a grassy path with the hedge on your right.
Go through a Wooden kissing gate and continue steeply up. Pass a Wooden fieldgate and bear left as the path goes steeply uphill for ¼ mile.
Near the top, as traffic noise indicates a road ahead, reach a Y-fork. Bear right here to a junction with a gravelled cross path. Turn right on this as it goes uphill away from the road.
Go carefully along for 15 or 20 metres looking for a definite but narrower gravelled path off left. Turn left on this path which soon broadens out. Continue for a short distance to climb up to a farm roadway and a junction of ways.
Cross the roadway to a gateway. Ignore the stony vehicle track off right and bear left onto a narrow grassy footpath through trees.
Eventually emerge over a stile into a large sloping field. Do not turn right up the edge towards trees or down to the farm below, but straight ahead across the field keeping to the same level contour (there is currently a change of crop on the left which indicates the line of the route).
At the far side reach the bottom end of a line of trees. Just right of this is an old gateway into an overgrown area. Go through this on a narrow path. At the end of the wood continue on a raised path to meet a chalky farm track. Turn left down this directly towards the farm.
Just before the first farm building, turn right, down to a T-junction before a hedge. Here turn left to a metal fieldgate and emerge onto a busy road.
Cross with care and turn left, along infront of a row of cottages. Keep forward on a rough section of old road with the main road below. At the end, where the old road meets the new again, turn right up a flinty byway for ½ mile curving right then left in the middle.
At the top reach a crossing of ways. Turn left down a narrow bridleway. In 10 metres turn right on a narrow footpath into woods.
Follow this leafy path steadily down. Reach a waymark post which indicates a sharp left turn down a very steep bank. There is no sign of a path so continue on down the original path for a good way. Cross a vehicle track and keep on down the leafy track the far side, a little feinter now.
Eventually reach a junction with a definite footpath coming down from the right. Turn left on this and follow all the way down to a further junction with a chalky byway, just before an old barn. Turn left on this track down to a road.
Turn left on the road for 50 metres. By a farm entrance on the left, turn right, off the road onto a stony bridleway. Stay on this between fields for ¼ mile. With houses in sight ahead, reach a crossing of ways. Turn right on a footpath across the open field towards a high hedge.
Go through a gap in the hedge and cross a lawned area. Continue down the back of outhouses and across a concrete yard to a gate. Through this bear left down a path enclosed between a wall and a fence.
Go through a further gate and on down the side of a car park to emerge onto the road in the middle of Sutton with the White Horse on the right and the start of the section.
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