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| Leconfield Hall |
It’s been a long winter &
regular readers of this blog must have wondered where I have got to. Since the last outing on the Serpent Trail I
have been thwarted by a combination of bad weather, lack of motivation and then
a broken arm.
Now thankfully all these things seem to
be behind me and I can think about the spring season and hopefully getting some
mileage under my belt quite quickly. It
seemed appropriate to start out where I had left off last time and move on to
the next stage of the Serpent Trail.
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| Shimmings Valley |
This was the occasion of my
birthday, giving me a bonus day during the week to go walking.
I always like going midweek since I
rarely meet anyone else on my travels and can enjoy the trail that much more. The Serpent Trail does a dog-leg around
Petworth as it turns to head back westwards at Fittleworth. This provided an opportunity to do a loop walk
and allow extra time on the trail rather than wait for public transport.
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| Turnstile |
I was a cloudy day at the beginning
of my walk but there were definitely hints of sunshine and I got lucky for a
brief spell as I headed through the town centre of Petworth. Small but perfectly formed, Petworth is a
delightful place still full of shops and with an air of affluence about it. I soon realised though that most of the
remaining shops are selling antiques, trinkets and tea/ cake. It is certainly a place geared up for tourists
and yet it has managed to retain its charm.
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| Breakfast with a View |
I headed along the High Street
and past the small cottage museum, set up in the same way that a past resident
would have had it back in the day. Sadly
at this early time so despite clean boots still I was denied a snoop around. Maybe next time? The path headed out of town past houses full
of character, with scarcely a bad looking one among them. My moment of brief sunshine passed sadly and
the clouds came back over for the time that I headed past the Catholic Church
and out of town entirely.
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| Goanah Lodges |
The path out of town was
protected by a small turnstile. When I
first encountered it I wondered whether it would actually turn and to my
amazement it did, very easily! I walked
along the back of some houses before turning to gaze across a small valley and
the next mile of so of walking. It
looked green but when I got down into the valley I soon realised that the
veneer of grass was disguising a significant mud problem. I squelched my way across the field and up the
hill opposite, finding it very tough going as I did so. Despite the blue sky and hints of sunshine
above I discovered that very little had changed terrain wise underfoot since my
last outing in November!
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| Flexham Park |
At the top I felt hot and
bothered already and hoped to goodness that the remaining 12 miles of my walk
wouldn’t be like that. A group of horses
were waiting for me at the top, looking rather bemused at a red and puffed out
looking bloke with no food for them…
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| Bedham Church |
For me though the views from this
point were a decent reward for an early climb. In fact it would be pretty much my only climb
of the day surprisingly so perhaps it was good to get it out of the way so soon
into the day. The views back to Petworth
were pretty special, with the church tower
of Petworth House
dominating the scene. Off in the
distance were the brooding shadows of the South Downs, but perhaps what
interested me more was the fact that if I looked way off into the distance in
the other direction I could also see the North Downs, I am guessing somewhere
near Guildford. Having drunk in the
views I headed into the woods, crossing first through Brinkshole Heath and then
Flexham Park.
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| Catkins |
In the first part of the woodland
I passed a couple of unusual looking lodge houses. When I looked them up on my return home I
discovered that this was intended to be an eastern gateway to the Petworth
Estate. However, although the lodges
were built the driveway across the valley to the main house never materialised.
One theory suggests that the valley to be
crossed (the one I did) was just too fertile to be left uncultivated and so it
remained as farmland.
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| Weather Vane |
Between the two tracts of
woodland was the rather busy road of Kingspit
Lane. It
was a pretty unpleasant few hundred metres of walking and a glance at the map
suggested that it could be unnecessary if only some of the forest tracks could
become public rights of way. I was most
glad to leave the road and head down into Flexham Park.
By now the sun was making more of a
concerted effort to shine and I soon had my outermost garment off and stowed away
in the rucsac. The path ahead was
straight and true for quite awhile. I
find this slightly disconcerting as it gives an indication of how far you have
to walk! All through the woodland though
the sun was shining off the sliver-grey trunks of the coppiced trees and there
was definitely a bit more strength in the rays than we have been used to of
late.
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| Fittleworth Wood |
I eventually reached a road and
turned to follow that for a bit. Even
though the tracks through the woods had been reasonably solid it was a relief
not to have to battle the mud for a short while. The road wound around the woodland for a few
bends until I suddenly came upon the most astonishing sight. Despite living less than 20 miles away from
this spot I came upon a derelict and ruined church that I had never bfore heard
of let alone visited. Its location was
slightly odd, down in a dell below the level of the road such that it would be
very likely not seen by passing motorists. I climbed down the slope to have a poke around
the old place as it was completely open for inspection.
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| Fittleworth Church Gate |
I discovered that this was Bedham Church
and when I looked its history up I found that Wikipedia described it thus “The
small schoolhouse was built by local landowners and the Church of England to
provide elementary education for children from the hamlet and surrounding area.
Built in the style of a chapel it doubled up as the church on Sundays. The
single room was divided by a curtain for infants and senior classes. At the end
of the school week the chairs were turned to face the east and ink pots removed
from the desks. In the 1930s services would be held there once or twice a month
by the Rector of Fittleworth, with one of the local ladies playing the
harmonium.”
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| Fittleworth Church |
Whoever owns it now, some effort
is going into ensuring that it doesn’t deteriorate any more. The bell tower is being propped by a couple of
RSJs and the walls look like they have had some work to maintain their
integrity. The roof is missing though,
so any interior detail is no longer in situ. All that remains is the dedication plaque,
confirming the date of completion in 1860.
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| Fittleworth Daffodils |
I pushed on, heading out of the
woods and across a ploughed field that was luckily not to difficult to walk
across. At the other end I was greeted
by a number of cut back trees that were sporting catkins. I couldn’t help thinking that these were a bit
late and that we should be seeing proper buds by now. I passed a small farm that had obviously had a
lot of money spent on it to change its purpose to residential units, possibly
even holiday lets. I found myself on
another road just beyond and as I got there I spooked a couple of deer browsing
by the side. They ran off at astonishing
speed leaving me a bit bewildered. I
turned off once again onto a track that rather resembled an old road, which of
course is what it could well have been. This led me down into the small village of Fittleworth, which I reached around
noon.
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| Hesworth Common |
By now the sun was out and the
day was turning out to be quite warm. I
was pleased that the sun had come out for there were sounds of playing children
in the local school playground and even a lawnmower in the distance. For me these were sounds that suggested that
at least most of the long dark days of winter were behind us. I pitched up at the church and found myself a
nice sunny spot in which to have my lunch. Sadly my boots were caked in mud and although
I would have liked to, I thought better of going inside the church itself.
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| The Swan at Fittleworth |
Once lunch was consumed I headed
up onto Hesworth Common and found the second fantastic view of the day this
time purely southwards along the line of the South Downs. This is a place I had never previously been
to and clearly I have missed out. The
path wound around the common down to Lower Fittleworth
where I once again picked up the road I had crossed at the church. I looked at the Swan pub, with its unusual
pub sign straddling the road and thought how inviting it looked. With a fully tummy though I smugly saw that it
wasn’t serving food that day so my reason for going inside had been stymied on
two counts!
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| Former Fittleworth Station |
I headed south along the road,
glad of the pavement that was provided.
I crossed the River Rother, very swollen and full of water despite the
fact that most of the nearby fields were also flooded. It did make me wonder whether my later route
might need to be adjusted. Further down
the road and I crossed the former Pulborough to Midhurst railway line, now
nothing more than a distant memory having closed as long ago as 1955. Despite that Fittleworth station was still
intact and lovingly restored as someone’s home. Its distance from the village it served surely
being a factor in the closure of the line though.
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| Sutton Common House |
If I’m honest the next few miles
were rather forgettable. I turned off
the road and headed across more common land. This is probably not the best time of year to
cross this kind of landscape. The heather was brown and grey, completely devoid
in colour and there were surprisingly few gorse bushes to brighten up
proceedings. Added to that the sun had
gone in once again and with it took all the colour out of the landscape. What interesting features there were seemed to
be provided mostly by bodies of water, from puddles to much larger lakes. Each in turn showed off some great
reflections, courtesy of the trees and bushes all around and the remarkably
still conditions at ground level. I also
passed a small house with some very outsized chimneys at Sutton Common and
guessed that maybe this was a school house once?
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| Reflections |
The last of the ponds I reached
was Chingford Pond and by now the day had turned into a grey and bleak looking
one. Thoughts of pictures were few and
far between as a result yet the walking was pleasant enough. I crossed the dam at the end of the pond and
headed through an area of very posh looking housing. I am guessing they were granted planning permission
to replace earlier buildings associated with the nearby Burton Park.
Somehow though this estate looked rather
incongruous in the landscape – it surely would have suited a suburb of Horsham
or Chichester rather than here.
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| Puddle Art |
The path continued around the
rather bleaker end of Burton
Park, with glimpses of
the main house some distance to the south.
Briefly I had joined forces with the West Sussex Literary Trail, surely
a future project? As I wandered up
towards Duncton Common the clouds suddenly opened and for a few minutes I was
confronted with a hail shower. Yet, this
seemed to encourage the clouds to part once again and the sun came back! At Duncton Common I finally said goodbye to
the Serpent Trail for today and headed along the A285 briefly back towards
Petworth. It was not a pleasant walk,
especially as I approached Petworth Station, the next stop along the same line
that I had crossed at Fittleworth. This
was even further from the place it was supposed to serve and looking at the
road I cannot imagine many passengers wanting to make the long walk along it to
catch the train when a bus would have surely been far easier. Happily the station has survived and is now a
very well appointed country house hotel with some of the accommodation provided
in Pullman Carriages parked in where the platforms would once have been.
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| Petworth Station |
I needn't have worried about
changing my onward route into Petworth. I initially thought I might have to
follow the main road but when I saw how scary a prospect this would be I headed
along the track I had originally intended. This provided a quiet and safe route back to
the town and even had the extra feature of a well appointed footbridge across the
River Rother, which rather defied my expectations of a wet walk!
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| Rother Bridge |
I ended up back at Petworth
around 3pm, approximately 5 hours after starting out. Not too shabby considering I ambled a lot of
the day and had a leisurely lunch. It
felt really good to be out and getting my legs working again. Thankfully, weather willing, I shouldn’t have
too long to wait until the next one. Certainly not 4 months + anyway!
