Crowhurst to Battle
By Ben Parsons
As a promised follow-up to my recent walk between the railway stations at West St Leonards and Crowhurst, published on December 1 and available on the Argus website, this is the first of a new pair of linked walks which, this week, will take you on from Crowhurst to Battle.
It is an attractive walk, starting along the quiet valley of the tiny Powdermill Stream with the option of a detour into the RSPB nature reserve at Fore Wood.
It then climbs to higher ground, passing through Powdermill Wood and joining part of the long-distance 1066 Country Walk for the last mile or so.
It is a fairly short walk which should leave time and energy for a visit to Battle Abbey and a tour of the site of the Battle of Hastings.
1.Return along the Crowhurst station approach road to the road junction, opposite the parish church. Turn left and immediately go right along a driveway, passing to the right of the ruined fragment of the hall of a 13th-Century manor house.
Where the drive ends, go ahead through a gate and forward across a field to another gate. Continue across the next field, over a low rise, then aiming for a solitary oak tree where you should bear right for a few yards to join a small stream on your left, following it for a few more yards to a swing gate and footbridge in the field corner.
2.Carry on beside the tiny Powdermill Steam to another swing gate and footbridge and through the next field. At the far end, where the field narrows to a point, go over a stile.
The path to the right from here offers a there-and-back detour into Fore Wood, an RSPB nature reserve, worth exploring if time permits. Our walk, however, continues to the left, over a footbridge.
By car: Start from the village of Crowhurst, most easily accessible from the A2100 Hastings-to-Battle road at Telham. Roadside parking is possible in several places along the access road to Crowhurst Station, which starts opposite the church at GR 758123, or at the station itself where there is plenty of room at the weekend.
By public transport: Train to Crowhurst and back from Battle, both stations on the Hastings-to- Tunbridge Wells line.
What's underfoot: A straightforward walk along good paths and tracks. Gently undulating.
Thirsty work: Choice of pubs and tea rooms at Battle.
So you don't get lost: OS Explorer map 124 and a compass for general direction.
3.Once across this bridge, turn right on a path which winds through an area of regenerating woodland. At the end of this area, turn left along a left field edge. In the field corner go through a gap and ahead within an area of rough pasture and patchy scrub, passing a pond on your left.
A path continues through woodland, passing to the right of another, larger, pond before emerging to a follow a left edge.
4.In the field corner, bear left, now on a dirt track and, after a few yards, at a T-junction, turn right, soon passing to the right of yet another pond. Emerging into the open, turn right to climb across an area of rough grass and scattered young trees to enter woodland through a gap in the trees where there is a useful sign.
Leave the wood over two stiles sandwiching a plank bridge, turn left for a few yards to cross a third stile and turn right to head out across a large field, where the path may, depending on the season, be undefined due to ploughing and planting.
Pass beneath power lines and aim for a wide gap in the next hedge where there is a farm gate. From this point there is a good view across the valley to Battle Abbey and the site of the Battle of Hastings.
Drop down across the next field, aiming for the bottom right corner where you can go through a gate and ahead along a rising fenced track which heads for the buildings of Millers Farm.
5.About 40 yards short of the first farm building, turn right over a stile to follow a signed and stiled path which skirts tightly to the right of the farm area. At the far end of the buildings, ignoring a signed path ahead, turn left through a gate to join the access drive from the farm.
Turn right to follow it for the best part of a mile out to Powdermill Lane.
6.Cross the road, go through the gate almost opposite and follow the main path through Powdermill Wood, ignoring all side paths. At the bottom of a slope, go ahead with a high fence, enclosing Farthing Pond, on your left.
A few yards beyond the point where this aggressively fortified fence turns away to the left, the path ahead divides. Fork left here along the narrower uphill route, once again ignoring side paths.
Leave the wood over a stile and head squarely across a field to join a track over a second stile. From here into Battle you will be following part of the 1066 Country Walk with its distinctive red signs.
7.Turn right along the track, shaded by trees at first. Beyond a bridle gate it runs within a wide grassy strip before climbing across more open ground to feed into a more substantial track which takes you on, unmistakably, out to Battle High Street, passing in front of the entrance gateway to Battle Abbey and the Battlefield site.
Turn right beside the road, using a raised path with the Abbey Wall on your right, soon passing the substantial sandstone parish church on your left.
At a mini-roundabout, fork right. At the bottom of the hill, a few yards short of the Senlac Inn, turn left along the station approach road to reach Battle Station, where the walk ends.
If you would like an extended circular walk, avoiding the need for train travel, I shall, in two weeks time, be describing a return route from Battle to Crowhurst, offering a manageable total circuit of just under ten miles in all.