1 - On arrival, pause at the triangle (junction of Church Lane/A269) to view the stocks, preserved for possible future use! Go to the bottom (south) of the lane and, just before the parish church entrance (right), turn left along a tarmac path. This descends, and then rises to a road (Lower Street).

Turn left and, at the Post Office, cross into Morland Close opposite. Find a path on the right between board fences through to the main road.

Cross, with care, to a finger post almost opposite and follow the footpath over a stile, through two rough fields. On coming to a fence, turn right and follow to a stile into a farm lane.

Turn left and, just before reaching a five-bar gate, turn right and over a stile. Turn left across a narrow field, over a stile into the next field. Continue past a pond on the left to cross another stile, then bear diagonally right to a gate in the bottom corner of the field.

Follow a track through the wood ahead. On emerging, keep a generally easterly direction with the wood on the right. Nearing the bottom of the hill, bear slightly left to a clear path into the wood.

2 - Cross a footbridge, turning right, to go over a stile and ahead along a field path. Approaching the electricity sub-station, turn left uphill by a finger post on the left.

Cross a stile into a field then left over another stile into a wood, following the path for 400 yards and leaving through a five-bar gate. A small metal gate leads into a Christmas tree plantation. Exit this through another metal gate onto a track leading to a road (Catsfield Stream).

3 - Carefully cross to a farm drive opposite, past a farmhouse, and through a gate on the right into a field. Turn left, passing to the left of a black barn and follow the field edge to go through a gate on the left. Bear slightly left to go over a hidden stile opposite. Follow by the edge of a wood to another stile into a field.

Continue uphill with a wood and ponds on the right to the top and over a stile. Follow along the field edge, over another stile and continue to the top right-hand corner of the field.

Turn right by a board, then metal, fence down steps to a minor road. Turn left and at the next junction bear left, continuing for 750 yards to the main road by The Blacksmith’s Inn.

Go over the zebra crossing to a tarmac footpath from where there are views of the South Downs.

At the end a gate leads into the churchyard and then through to Church Lane.

Distance/Time: Three and three-quarter miles/one and three-quarter hours
By Car: Park in Church Lane, Ninfield. (Not near the school on schooldays and not near the church gates on Sundays, please).
By Public Transport: Buses: 98 Eastbourne to Hastings via Hailsham and Bexhill; 95 Bexhill to Battle (not Sundays). Timetable information from Traveline: 0871 200 2233; www.traveline.info
What’s underfoot: Expect field and woodland paths to be muddy and slippery in winter
Thirsty Work: The Blacksmith’s Inn and King’s Arms in Ninfield
So you don’t get lost: OS Explorer 124 or Landranger 199

Click here for a full-sized map of the Ninfield circular