Saturday
23rd February 2008
Hassocks - Clayton - Ditchling Beacon - East Chiltington - Ditchling - Keymer -
Hassocks
12 miles
This is a beautiful
walk and takes in: woods that will soon be carpeted in bluebells, meadow land on the downs, 3 windmills, 3
ancient churches, at least 3 pubs and some very beautiful, unspoilt villages.
We started at hassocks and wound our way through Butchers Wood up to Clayton. The view of the
windmills from the churchyard at Clayton can be taken in from a perfectly sited
bench, which ranks as our "bench of the month". The walk soon after encompasses
the highest point on the downs, Ditchling Beacon (813 ft). There was no view at
all from the top today, as we were blanketed in low, scudding cloud, which
reminded us both of hiking on the Yorkshire Moors.
We dropped down at Plumpton and stomped our way through to East Chiltington via
Novington Manor. Some of these hidden country houses are just incredible. They
really must be seen to be believed. A quick visit to the village headquarters
(church) and we were off on a whistle stop tour of Sussex churches via Streat
and Ditchling. We were on a bit of a march by then to be back at Hassocks by
sunset so we had to fly through Ditchling. The village is
very, very picturesque though, with a magnificent Tudor house called "Wings
Place" next to the church. Apparently the house was part of the divorce
settlement to Anne of Cleves from good old 'enri.
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The very first part of the walk produced 3
green woodpeckers and 1 great spotted woodpecker
Jack & Jill just above
Clayton.
We were lucky to get this view as the cloud soon descended and blocked off all
visibility on the downs
A clear patch of weather at one of the
dewponds
The view from Ditchling Beacon, the
highest point on the downs
The first of many churches, St John the
Baptists at Clayton
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East Chiltington Church
Streat Church
St Margaret's Church at Ditchling.
The nave is pre 1066 and the south aisle from the 12th century. The church and
village are mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Most of the bridges and stiles we used
today (of which there were many) were made by the Monday group.
Our thanks and appreciation to them, for all of their hard work.
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Some local and friendly, but sadly not indigenous, wildlife