Ashdown forest

By Ben Perkins

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Idyllic pond

This week we start and finish at the neat and attractive village of Fletching, to the west of Uckfield.

The church has a fine, partly-Norman tower with a lofty shingled spire. Inside is the mausoleum of the Sheffield family who once lived in nearby Sheffield Park and which incorporates the tomb of Edward Gibbon, the historian, famous for Decline And Fall, who was a friend of the Sheffield family.

Our walk heads eastwards and northwards from the village across quietly undulating countryside. Mostly on the low slopes of the valley of the River Ouse, it follows a series of field paths and quiet lanes almost to the edge of Ashdown Forest.

1. From Fletching village car park, turn left along the High Street. After less than 100 yards, go left through the churchyard with the church on your right. At the far end of the churchyard, go through an iron kissing gate in the left corner and bear halfleft across a field to a stile in the field corner.

Maintain direction across the next field to a stile and then bear right along a hedged track. Where the track ends, go over a stile beside a gate.

Now veer half-right across a field to find a stile and a stream crossing in a wooded dip. Bear half right across the field beyond to a stile in sight, head squarely across a second field and slightly right across a third on a stiled and signed path.

Go over a footbridge and ahead, skirting to the left of a large shed to exit via a concrete drive on to a lane.

2. Turn right past a fine, old, timber-fronted house with a roof of Horsham stone called Dale Hamme and immediately turn left over a stile beside a gate. Head out across a field to a stile in the far right corner and keep to the right edge of the next field to another stile.

Go forward, shortly bearing left towards stables where a narrow path leads out to a road. Turn right.

3. At A road junction, go straight ahead and, after another 200 yards, go left through a gate. Shortly, where the fence on your left turns away to the left, go straight ahead across a large field. Once over a low rise, aim for a corner of woodland jutting into the field from the left.

Use stiles to pass through the end of this finger of woodland and then go ahead across another large field.

On the other side of the field, cross two stiles in quick succession and go forward along a hedged track which leads into the tarmac drive from Marshall's Manor, another fine old mansion with a roof of Horsham stone.

After about a quarter of a mile, go straight over a crossing drive and continue along a track to reach the A22.

4. Cross the main road and follow Old Forge Lane opposite. After about 400 yards, just past the point where a footpath goes off to the right through a gate with the No 2 on it, which is not for us, turn left along an unsigned woodland path.

Shortly, ignore a path off to the left, which only provides access for fishermen. Skirt to the right of the pond, go over a stile and keep to the right edge of two fields, climbing gently at first. In the second field corner, follow the field edge round to the left until you go right over a stile and through a wood to join a lane.

5. Turn left and, at a road junction signposted to Nutley, go ahead.

At a second road junction, turn left along Huggetts Lane. At the A22, cross the road and go over the stile almost opposite.

Now head half-left across pasture, joining and following a right field edge. From the corner of the wood, go ahead, skirting to the right of a redbrick house to join Picketts Lane and bear right along it. At a road junction, after about a quarter-of-a-mile, turn right along Down Street.

6. After about 200 yards, just past a pond on your left, go left over a stile and head out across a field.

At the far end of the field, go over a stile beside a gate and on in the same direction to a stile at the corner of woodland. Continue with the wood on your left.

Where the field edge turns right, go ahead through a gap, forward across pasture to a stile beside a gate where you can join and go ahead along the drive from Mill House.

At a Y-junction, fork left, soon passing the elegant, redbrick Clapwater Farm House. Continue to join a road. Turn left and, after a few yards. go right along a lane. At the next road junction, bear right.

7. After another 250 yards, go left along a signed path which starts through a gate and crosses a field to a second gate.

Through the gate, bear left, keeping along the left field edge. In the corner, go ahead through a gate and across a field to a second gate.

Continue along a farm track which takes you for about a quarter-of-a-mile out to a road. Turn right for the short distance back into Fletching.