Section 33
Chilgrove to Stoughton
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble
Section 33 Out
Chilgrove to Stoughton
Map: OS Explorer 120 Chichester
Distance: 5 miles/2.5 hours
Start: The White Horse; there is no other parking available so ask at the inn and call in later, it’s open all day.
Comment: Wonderful country and excellent walking. This is downland so very hilly, expect long inclines and steep descents. There is every sort of walking with stony tracks, grassy pastures, enclosed footpaths, stiles and woodland. Lots of views. Historic church at East Marden open daily.
From the front of the White Horse, turn right up to the main road. Turn left along the verge for ten metres then cross to a bridleway opposite going up a gravel vehicle track.
Climb steadily for ¼ mile. At the very top is a junction of ways. Here turn right through a wooden gate, to walk along the top of the ridge with a wire fence on your left and views in all directions.
Follow the grassy path to the right of a copse of trees, then continue on, along the ridge, to wooden gates at the far end. Go through and on along the top edge of the next pasture.
Leave the field at the end onto a farm drive, passing bungalows. Where the drive swings right, by barns, go left over a stile onto a narrow overgrown path between wire fences.
Pass farm buildings and paddocks, and keep on in the same direction to a stile. Cross and turn right on a farm track.
Reach an asphalt roadway and turn left uphill (ignore path going straight ahead). Pass Hill Barn house then opposite Flint Barn, turn right downhill through trees.
Leave the wood over a stile and head steeply downhill. Near the bottom of the slope, look for a stile on your left behind a bramble bush.
Cross and continue downhill in trees. Traverse a patch of scrubland and reach a stile. Cross this and go forward along the top edge of the field with a hedge on the right.
Leave the field through a stile and gateway onto a farm track heading down towards a pylon and barns.
Emerge into farm buildings. Immediately past the first barn on the left, turn left through metal fieldgates (to visit the hamlet of East Marden and the charming Downland church continue down and around, returning to this point afterwards).
Pass between farm buildings to a metal kissing gate and on down a pasture, by a hedge on your right, to a stile hidden in the bottom corner.
Cross and turn immediately left, down the side of the field, with a wire fence on your left. Reach a metal kissing gate by a metal fieldgate and go on down the next field with the hedge on your left.
At the bottom, go forward, out of the field, to the edge of another which fills the valley floor. Go straight on, across the centre of this field.
At the far side look for a gap in the hedge and exit onto a road. Turn left a few paces then right up past a metal fieldgate.
Keep uphill a good way, ignoring side tracks. Emerge at the very top into a field corner. Go forward along the edge with woods on your left.
At the end of the field by a concrete block, is a junction of paths. Turn left on a bridleway going up into woods.
Go steadily up, ignoring a cross track soon reached. Eventually begin to drop downhill. Look for a footpath going right, off the bridleway. Turn right along this path and continue on this excellent woodland way for some distance. Finally pass under power lines and emerge at the top corner of a field, with good views beyond.
Keep on along the top of the field with trees on your right. At the end, leave the field to drop down onto a sunken track. Turn left down it.
At the bottom reach a road. Turn right on this and follow it all the way into the village of Stoughton to reach the Hare and Hounds pub and the end of the section.
Greatstone to Gillingham Robust Ramble
Section 33 Return
Stoughton to Chilgrove
Map: OS Explorer 120 Chichester
Distance: 3.5 miles/2 hours
Start: The Hare and Hounds; limited parking on street with discretion.
Comment: A short but varied return. Initial roadwalking but a quiet valley road, followed by a rough but manageable field edge path with stiles. Finally a bridleway all the way back but gravel giving way to grass, then a carpet of beech mast and a glorious avenue of trees. Expect a long incline and steep descent.
With the Hare and Hounds behind, turn left, back down the road out of the village. Reach and pass the sunken track used on the outward route and keep on along the road for 200 metres.
Where the road swings right go forward over an old stile into the field ahead. Go on along the edge with the hedge on your left. It looks rough but is currently quite walkable.
Eventually, at the far end, find an overgrown stile out to a road. Turn right along this.
Where the road swings right, turn left on a bridleway going along the bottom of the car park for Stoughton Down. Basically, the route is now straight back to Chilgrove.
Go forward on a clear gravel track with woods on your right and a field on your left. Just after the field on the left ends, reach a Y-fork. Bear left off the gravel onto a grassy bridleway.
After some distance reach another Y-fork. Again, keep left, along the lower track (still the bridleway). Soon begin a long upward climb under a majestic avenue of beech trees.
Eventually reach the top of the incline and meet a junction of paths. Ignore paths to right and left and go forward, now downhill (this was the track used on the outward route).
Eventually reach the main road in Chilgrove and cross to the White Horse opposite.
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