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INTRODUCTION

The quintessential Downs: the eastern Downs, from above Wilmington

The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy; walk and be healthy. The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.

Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

A few days ago we walked the last of the routes for this book. The forecast was not promising; the late summer sky was heavy with impatient clouds, and rain fell as the Downs hove into view. But half an hour into our walk the cloud cover broke, and sunshine swept the great open spaces like searchlights picking out individual features before moving on. It was midweek and we had the world to ourselves – plus a few hundred sheep and skylarks that hung as tiny specks over our heads hour upon blustery hour.

We walked southward, the distant sea speckled with white. In one direction a harvested field had been rolled into pillows of golden straw; in another cropped grasslands stretched into infinity. The spire of an ancient church beckoned from a wooded hollow, and as we wandered down the slope to investigate, we ate our fill of sweet, juicy blackberries and breathed in the fragrance of honeysuckle.

The church was a gem. For over a thousand years it had marked the hopes and aspirations, the joys and sorrows, new life and tearful parting, of countless generations of South Downs folk. Its carved arches caught our breath with wonder. Its windows cast patterns on a floor worn by prayerful knees; its walls echoed the peace of ten centuries and more. On a memorial tablet we discovered a verse that struck a chord, so perfectly did it sum up what the World Out There meant to us. It could become our epitaph.

At a junction of paths just below the crown of a hill but sheltered from the wind, we settled on the grass to eat our sandwiches with a panoramic view of something like 300° to gaze upon. A local woman exercising her dogs stopped to pass the time of day, to share enthusiasm (hers and ours) for the beauty of the scene, for the enriching goodness of the Downs, for the freedom and energy to be able to enjoy them. If anything, her appreciation increased ours and we parted with smiles of friendship.

Having crossed and recrossed the Downs we arrived back where we’d begun several hours earlier, and now gazed northward across the Weald – the Weald patterned with field and meadow, blotches of woodland, a few tiny villages, and more hills far off and blue with distance.

In a little over a month we’ll be in the Himalaya among sky-scratching peaks and tumbling glaciers. But it’ll be no more beautiful or rewarding than our days wandering on the South Downs. Just different. The ‘blunt, bow-headed, whalebacked Downs’ are no substitute for bigger hills. Complete in themselves, they’re enriching, fulfilling, uplifting, and anyone who enjoys a walk with a big broad view and the brush of an unchecked breeze will find all they need here.

The walk across the Seven Sisters is a much-loved outing (Walk 5)

Some of England’s loveliest villages are found in the South Downs; this thatched cottage is in Amberley (Walk 24)

This book is a guide to some of the most rewarding walks to be had in the South Downs National Park, and is the result of many years spent exploring these lovely hills, valleys and villages. Literally hundreds of miles have been walked, in all seasons and in all weathers, and we’ve enjoyed every one of them. The difficulty was in choosing just 40 routes to represent the essential Downs.

The Essential Downs

The Weald is good, the Downs are best – I’ll give you the run of ’em, East to West.

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)

These smooth green hills stretch for about 90 miles from Beachy Head near Eastbourne to St Catherine’s Hill, overlooking the River Itchen, at Winchester: an ample, generous land characterised by skylarks, cowslips, poppies and sheep. Angled slightly inland away from the coast, the narrow band rising above Eastbourne broadens into sometimes heavily wooded, parallel ridges further west, while nestling in their folds lie ancient churches and villages of flint, half-timbered brickwork and thatch, some owing their history to estates like Firle, Goodwood and Parham which today preserve large areas of unspoilt grassland.

Kipling was right when he said that the Weald is good, the Downs are best, and millions of visitors a year would probably echo that sentiment, for hills are more seductive than plains and valleys, and the South Downs have a subtle beauty that defies comparison with bigger hills and mountains. Size plays no part in their attraction; after all, the highest Down is only 886ft. Puny, you might think; just a wart, a pimple. But it forms part of a larger whole; a cherished landscape, in perspective as impressive as many a mountain range, and every bit as beautiful.

Anyone who loves open space, an unchecked breeze and a long view will find the Downs rewarding. ‘Hills roll on after hills, till the last and largest hides those that succeed behind it,’ wrote Richard Jefferies in Nature Near London. In countless places no buildings are visible, only hills and valleys – a land without limits under an immense sky. Walking alone up there one can enjoy solitude, although some may find it a little intimidating. Dr Johnson did. He thought the sense of isolation enough to make a man want to hang himself, if he could only find a tree. But many more will welcome the peace and lack of people as invigorating.

There is no wild nature on the South Downs. This is a man-made landscape, and history has left its mark on almost every mile, beginning with primitive Stone Age settlers who grazed sheep, cattle and pigs here before the last Ice Age. A few of their long barrows (communal tombs) remain, and at Cissbury the ground is rucked with the pits and spoil heaps of a Neolithic flint mine; some crude flint implements were also discovered at Slindon.

Many hundreds of tumuli (round barrows) in which Bronze Age people buried their dead line the ridgeway, and at the head of several dry valleys are cross-dykes, reminders of the same period. These may have been part of a defence system to protect routes across open land, or were used perhaps as the boundaries of agricultural estates.

Hillforts, such as those on Mount Caburn, Devil’s Dyke and Old Winchester Hill, proclaim the one-time presence of Iron Age man, but none is more impressive than Cissbury Ring, a massive earthwork covering 65 acres. Although the site had been mined for flint in the New Stone Age, Iron Age settlers built their fortification here some time between 300BC and 59BC, with two clearly defined ramparts and a protective ditch from which around 60,000 tons of chalk had to be dug.

The knowledge of how to smelt iron had reached Britain prior to 500BC, but when Belgic tribes arrived sometime around 100BC, they used this knowledge to create a heavy wheeled plough with which they turned the downland soil, creating in the process lynchets (or field systems) whose rippled evidence can be seen today all along the Downs. The wheeled plough revolutionised agriculture to such an extent that it is said to have dominated the region until the arrival of the Romans in AD43.

Under Roman rule, Chichester (Noviomagus) became the regional capital, with the construction of Stane Street around AD70 being the major link, for both military and economic purposes, with London (Londinium) some 56 miles away. This was a major feat of engineering, for the road was metalled, had a camber, and climbed over the steep-sided Downs between Chichester and Pulborough. Sections of this road are still clearly visible across Bignor Hill, while an important estate was sited at the foot of the Downs outside Bignor village. In 1811 a mosaic of a dancing girl was unearthed here by a plough, prompting excavations which revealed the site of a large and luxurious fourth-century Roman villa. Farmsteads and country houses built around the same time have also been discovered along the foot of the Downs.

By the time the Saxons arrived, landing around AD477 somewhere between Beachy Head and Selsey Bill, the South Downs had been farmed for more than 2000 years, but unlike their predecessors these newcomers preferred to work the valleys spreading into the Weald, where the soil was better watered and more productive. It was the Saxons who cleared large swathes of woodland and created drove roads to connect the scattered parishes in which they built their simple churches. Some of these still stand, like that of St Andrew’s at Bishopstone, while others that were modified numerous times through the centuries retain Saxon features, such as the stumpy tower at Jevington.

Following the Norman Conquest much of the region was divided into ‘rapes’, each of which controlled a strip of coast, an area of downland for grazing, farmland for cultivation, and a section of Wealden forest for hunting. The Normans built castles at Arundel and Lewes, and aided the spread of Christianity by erecting many more solid-looking churches which add character to the villages they serve.

Over the following two or three centuries the population grew, communities expanded, market towns were established and sheep grazing dominated the Downs, while cornfields spread along their base. Reaching a peak in the 18th century, it is estimated that some 400,000 ewes grazed the Sussex Downs, their fleeces being worked into cloth by Wealden woolmasters, or sold across the Channel to merchants in Flanders.

Although the Downs escaped the ravages of the industrial revolution, food shortages and high prices during the Napoleonic Wars spurred local sheep farmers to return to the plough. When food prices fell, much of the land was restored to pasture, until the First World War once again called for greater food production. With higher yields resulting from improved fertilisers there was no going back, and in the Second World War the extent of this cultivation increased even more.

It was this destruction of traditional downland that effectively blocked the 1947 proposal by Sir Arthur Hobhouse for the South Downs to become one of England’s first National Parks. While several other areas included in his report gained National Park status, in 1956 the South Downs was rejected on the grounds that its recreational value had been ‘considerably reduced by extensive cultivation’. Instead, two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty were established: the Sussex Downs and East Hampshire AONBs.

The SDW traces the length of the Downs from Eastbourne to Winchester

But walkers were unimpressed by official rejection. Voting with their feet they were drawn in greater numbers to explore the region when, in 1972, its ‘recreational value’ was enhanced by the establishment of the South Downs Way between Eastbourne and Buriton on the Sussex–Hampshire border. Designated an official long distance route by the Countryside Commission, the SDW was the first in Britain to be both a footpath and bridleway. Today this increasingly popular National Trail stretches as far as Winchester.

In 1990, the South Downs Campaign was launched by a coalition of pressure groups representing local, regional and national organisations to fight for National Park recognition. Several million visitors to the Downs each year could not be wrong. Could they?

Twenty years later, after lengthy Inquiries and Appeals, and more than 60 years after the Hobhouse Report to the post-war government of Clement Attlee included the Downs in a list of 12 proposed National Parks for England and Wales, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn finally gave the go-ahead. The South Downs would become the 10th National Park south of the border, in 2011.

Plants and Wildlife of the Downs

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come

Song of Solomon

What makes the South Downs so special?

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, everyone drawn to the National Park will have their own response to its lure. It could be a sense of space that attracts, or the subtle curves and folds of the landscape, the steeply plunging north-facing slopes, the dazzling white cliffs at the eastern end, the intimate inner valleys. It could be its history, or its villages. For the walker with an eye for more than just a view with a footpath disappearing through it, a good part of its appeal must surely rest on the flowers that speckle the downland and the birdsong that serenades each mile.

The thin soil of the downland, lying on an immense bed of chalk, is sorely deficient in certain minerals, yet a variety of plant species will be in flower from spring right through to autumn. Among those that favour chalk-rich soils are the rough hawkbit, common milkwort, bulbous buttercup and salad burnet. On open grasslands, the regular grazing by sheep and rabbits over hundreds of years has kept the natural spread of scrub and woodland in check, which has enabled flowering plants to thrive, but elsewhere isolated deposits of clay-with-flint indicate the existence of deeper, more fertile soils that encourage small clumps of trees to stand out in an otherwise bare and open land.

The South Downs is a natural habitat for many different orchids

Cowslips are an unofficial symbol of the Downs

In West Sussex and the Hampshire Downs beechwood ‘hangers’ characterise the steep flanks and continue onto the escarpment. But the beech is not the only tree to flourish here, for oak, ash and yew are also common – the ancient yews at Kingley Vale, northwest of Chichester, are thought to be among Britain’s oldest living plants and are well worth a visit.

In springtime the cowslip (Primula veris) makes its appearance on open downland, and on a few select slopes overlooking the Weald it spreads a great carpet of yellow in April and May. Almost ubiquitous on the South Downs, with some justification the cowslip could be taken as its symbol, for the collection of lightly scented, tube-shaped flowers opening to a cupped ‘face’ are among the natural gems of the National Park – a single stem can host literally dozens of individual flower heads.

At the same time the common bluebell (Hyacinthoides nonscripta) drifts across steep banks where there’s ample shade, and fills acres of broadleaved woodland with its brilliant colouring, sometimes interspersed with greater stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) or red campion (Silene dioica). In those same woodlands, wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) also comes into flower in April and May.

In spring and early summer a number of different orchids appear: the early purple, common spotted, and the scented fragrant orchid among them.

Spiky bushes of gorse (Ules europaeus), the yellow kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) and horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) are all members of the pea family and are common to chalky soil, the last two flowering from May to August, while gorse flowers golden almost year-round. On rough grasslands and sunny woodland margins, marjoram (Origanum vulgare) is mainly a summer-flowering plant whose leaves, when crushed, smell of mint. Also seen throughout the South Downs on the chalk grassland, the small scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) flowers from July to September.

But the prize for the most eye-catching and colourful display must surely go to the common poppy (Papaver rhoeas), which invades grassland and arable field alike. It’s not unusual on a summer’s day to gaze across a broad view where swathes of brilliant red or scarlet reach into the distance. Draw closer and you may find long-stemmed chicory (Cichorium intybus) growing amidst the poppies, their beautiful pale-blue flower heads appearing delicate by contrast with their more powerful neighbours.

Writing about the South Downs in 1893, the Victorian essayist Richard Jefferies commented: ‘Under the September sun, flowers may still be found in sheltered places, as at the side of furze [gorse], on the highest of the Downs. Wild thyme continues to bloom – the shepherd’s thyme – wild mignonette, blue scabious, white dropwort, yellow bedstraw, and the large purple blooms of greater knapweed. Grasshoppers hop among the short dry grass; bees and humblebees are buzzing about, and … the furze is everywhere full of finches’ (Nature Near London).

Finches, yes, gathering in flocks in autumn and winter; brambling and chaffinch, thrush and warbler swarm over areas of scrub, attracted by the insect life that scrub supports. Redwing and fieldfare are common migrants, returning to the Downs in the autumn from their breeding grounds in northern Europe. The wheatear is a summer visitor, scavenging on the ground in search of insects. Ground nesting birds such as the meadow pipit and corn bunting are downland favourites, as is the lapwing (or peewit) which lays its eggs among open plough tracings.

Poppies, seen almost everywhere on the South Downs in summer

But it is the skylark that will suddenly rise from the ground trilling its mellifluous song, then hovers as a tiny speck, singing all the while. No song could better conjour a landscape than this; it is the unmistakable soundtrack to the South Downs.

Typical butterflies, such as the adonis blue, chalkhill blue and common blue all feed on chalkland plants like the horseshoe vetch, while the marbled white is attracted to thistles on rough grassland.

Animal life ranges from tiny spiders and grasshoppers to roe and fallow deer. Rabbits and hares graze the open grasslands; badgers, being nocturnal creatures, usually emerge from their setts in the evening to feed, while foxes can be quite brazen in their daylight journeys.

Used by the SDW, this track carries the walk beyond the Clayton windmills (Walk 15)

Walking on the Downs

Discover some excuse to be up there … and, if not, go without any pretext. Lands of gold have been found, and lands of spices and precious merchandise; but this is the land of health.

Richard Jefferies (1848–1887)

The very best of the Downs can only be enjoyed on foot, and the 40 walks described in this guide have been chosen to serve as an introduction to some of the finest countryside in southern England. Stretching throughout the National Park, each of the routes is circular, beginning and ending at the same place; wherever possible, these places can be accessed by public transport.

No walk is more than 11 miles/17.5km long – the shortest is just under 5 miles/8km – but there’s as much enjoyment to be had in a ramble of modest length, as may be found in a march that covers 20 miles or more. Size and distance have no meaning here: it’s what you experience as you wander, and what you remember afterwards, that count.

Enthusiasts know full well that walking should not be confined to the summer months, for every season has its own unique brand of beauty, its own rewards, and a frosty winter’s day can hold as much magic for the walker as any in balmy July. Nature serves each season well: spring’s vibrant eruption of flowers and jubilant birdsong; summer’s warmth and long hours of daylight encouraging full growth in field, meadow and woodland; autumn’s touch of Midas, its mists, migrations and mushrooms; and winter’s stark outlines of naked trees, long shadows and harsh frosts.

As someone once remarked, there’s no such thing as bad weather when you’re properly dressed. But being properly dressed will make all the difference to one’s enjoyment of a day spent wandering the Downs.

Choose clothing suitable for the season; clothing that is sufficiently adaptable to accommodate the vagaries of our climate. Footwear needs to be comfortable: if it is you’ll feel almost as fresh at the end of the day, as when you set out at the start. For summer walks, shorts may be adequate on the majority of footpaths described in this book, but bear in mind that brambles and nettles often stray across infrequently used paths. An inexpensive pair of overtrousers (preferably with a zipped ankle-gusset so they can be pulled on or off without removing walking boots) will prove useful. A lightweight collapsible umbrella can be worth carrying for protection from a sudden shower. Since much of the region covered by this guide is open high ground, windy days can seem much colder than they really are, so remember to carry some warm, windproof clothing.

The escarpment near Devil’s Dyke (Walk 16) makes a popular launch site for paragliders

Carry a few plasters in case of blisters or the odd scratch; take a flask of liquid refreshment, and something to nibble should energy wane. An Ordnance Survey map will be needed in the unlikely event of your getting lost. It will also present you with a broader picture of the countryside through which your walk leads than may be gained from the OS extracts included within these pages. Details of the specific map sheets required are provided at the head of each walk described. I’ve also noted the availability of refreshments, where they occur. Most of these are to be found at country pubs, although I stress that I have no personal experience of the majority of those mentioned, so no endorsement is intended (I’d sooner chew on an apple while enjoying an open view than sit in a pub!). There has also been a spate of pub closures in recent years, so be warned that you may find the one you’d planned to visit is no longer open. If this is the case, a note to me via the publisher (address given at the front of the book) would be welcome, and I’ll ensure a correction is made in the next edition of this guide.

Amberley (Walk 24) is one of the most attractive villages at the foot of the South Downs

Should you plan to stop at a pub or café during your walk, please be considerate if your footwear is muddy and either leave your boots in the porch, or cover them with plastic bags.

It is assumed that anyone out for a walk in the countryside will have a love for that countryside, and treat it with respect. Sadly, evidence contradicts that assumption, for litter is still found where only walkers go. So I make a plea that all who go walking in the South Downs National Park will be careful not to leave litter, and help make the Downs even more attractive for all by removing any you find. A plastic bag is useful for carrying rubbish away – keep one in your rucksack for this purpose.

It has taken millions of years of evolution to create the South Downs. It has taken thousands of years for Man to mould it into the living landscape we cherish today, and more than 60 years to establish it as a National Park. Let each of us treat it with the love and respect it deserves.

Using the Guide

Maps

This guide contains sections of the Ordnance Survey map relevant to each walk described, and are taken from the 1:50,000 series which it is hoped will be sufficient at 1¼ inches to the mile (2cm = 1km) to provide an overview and a general outline of the route to be walked. However, for greater detail and a wider perspective the Explorer series drawn at a scale of 1:25,000 (2½ inches to 1 mile; or 4cm = 1km) is recommended, with the individual sheet information given at the head of each walk description. Most of these Explorer sheets cover several walks.

Grid references are frequently quoted to enable you to locate a given position on the map. Each OS sheet is divided by a series of vertical and horizontal lines to create a grid. These lines are individually numbered, and these numbers are quoted at the top, bottom, and sides of each sheet. Numbers increase from left to right for vertical lines (known as ‘eastings’), and from top to bottom for horizontal lines (‘northings’).

Each grid forms part of a much larger 100,000m square identified by a unique two-letter code. These letters are printed within the section headed The National Grid Reference System found in the key to each sheet, and are quoted in this guide immediately before the six-figure grid reference.

To identify an exact position on the map from a given grid reference, take the first two digits from the six-figure number quoted. These refer to the ‘eastings’ line on the OS map. The third digit is estimated in tenths of the square moving eastwards from that line. Next, take the fourth and fifth digits referring to the ‘northings’ line, and then the final digit estimating the number of tenths of the square reading up the sheet. Using this grid reference you should be able to pinpoint the exact position referred to in the text.

Times and Distances

Distances quoted in the text have been measured on the individual OS maps and double-checked using a pedometer, so they should be reasonably accurate. Please note that heights quoted on OS maps are in metres, not feet, and grid lines are spaced at intervals of 1km.

Allow 2–2½ miles per hour for your walk, without prolonged stops. Reckon on walking a little slower after rain when conditions may be heavy or a little greasy underfoot. When accompanied by children or inexperienced walkers – or indeed, when walking in a group – allow extra time, especially if there are stiles to cross.

Leaving the route of the South Downs Way, this stile takes the walker onto Salt Hill (Walk 34)

Public Transport and Car Parking

Several railway companies operate lines that run in the vicinity of the South Downs National Park, and where specific walks may be accessed by train, a note of the nearest station is given. The same goes for bus services, but it would not be practical to give details of times – or even the frequency of services (bus or train) – since these are likely to change during the period this guidebook is in print.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT INFORMATION

Southern Railways operate services from London Victoria to Brighton, Chichester, Eastbourne, Lewes, and Portsmouth

South West Trains operate services from London to Brighton and Portsmouth

First Capital Connect operate between Brighton and Bedford

First Greater Western have a twice daily service between Brighton and Cardiff

National Rail Enquiries tel 08457 484950 (24 hour service) www.nationalrail.co.uk

Traveline Bus Service tel 0870 608 2608 www.traveline.org.uk

National Express Coaches tel 08705 808080 www.nationalexpress.co.uk