Guestling Green to St Helen's

by Ben Perkins

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You may need a stick to beat down brambles and cope with growing crops and missing stiles

The first half of this varied walk to the east of Hastings presents no problems as it uses part of the wellestablished and signed 1066 Hastings link. The return route is more challenging.

Depending on the season, you may have to contend with growing crops as well as broken or missing stiles and encroaching summer growth.

With your sense of adventure intact and armed with a pair of secateurs and a stick to beat down encroaching brambles, you should get through without too much trouble.

1.Walk back towards the car park entrance until, just short of the road, you can turn right through a swing gate, signposted to North’s Seat.

A well-trodden path then heads out across a field.

Go through a swing gate, forward for 30 yards, then right through a gap in wooden railings and ahead along a fenced path which drops gently downhill. Cross a road and the stile opposite and continue with woodland on your right.

When opposite the second stile into the wood on your right, turn squarely left across a field.

On the other side of the field, turn right, dropping downhill with a hedge on your left.

Towards the bottom of the hill, go through a gap in the left-hand hedge and cross a field, passing about 20 yards to the left of a wooden power pole, to enter woodland.

Follow a path down through the wood and over two footbridges.

After leaving the wood,go ahead across rough pasture to a gate, cross a drive and the stile opposite and follow a trodden path across a field to a second stile.

Head squarely out across the next field, contouring along the slope. Once over another stile, veer half-left up the grassy slope.

Where the ground levels out, the next stile comes into sight.

Maintain direction across undulating ground, dropping down to join a road.

2.Turn right and shortly go left along Chapel Lane.

After a few yards, go right along a signed path within the right edge of woodland.

Join a road through a swing gate, turn left and immediately go left again over a stile.

Drop down along a left field edge with a wood on your left.

In the field corner, go over a culvert, through a gate and up across a field without changing direction to find a stile close to the far left field corner.

Go ahead for 20 yards to a wooden gate and on across a paddock to find a stile in the far corner where you rejoin Chapel Lane and turn right.

3.At a road junction with the A259, cross the main road and follow the access drive opposite.

Follow the track past farm buildings and where it ends at a stile beside a gate go ahead along a right field edge.

Shortly sidestep to the right over a plank bridge and stile before resuming your previous direction along the left edge of two successive fields.

At the far end of the second field, go over a stile beside a gate and veer left across the middle of a field to the next stile, in sight.

Head squarely across the field beyond to enter woodland over a stile.

A path winds through the wood to a stream crossing. Leave the wood and continue between fences to join a lane.

4.Bear right beneath a railway bridge.

After another 40 yards, fork left along the access track to a cottage and, almost immediately, fork left again along a narrow path which squeezes between gardens, descending to a culverted stream and climbing through an area of woodland and scrub to a stile.

Now some care is needed to find the right direction.

Head slightly right across an arable field to go through a gap to the left of a prominent tree in the next hedgerow.

Through this gap, head slightly left across the middle of the next field, finally dropping down to join a lane through a gate in the far right field corner.

If obstructed by a crop, turn left round three sides of the field, to join the lane at the same point.

Turn right, soon passing Old Coghurst Farm, on your left. After a quarter of a mile turn left at a crossroads.

5.After another twothirds of a mile, just after passing under power lines, turn left over a stile and head out across a field, passing a few yards to the left of a clump of trees surrounding a pit.

Drop down to seek out a stile, broken and overgrown and hidden by scrub in the bottom left field corner.

Go forward along the left edge of two paddocks, scaling a post and rail fence and then a new stile. Go forward through trees and uphill with a fence on your right.

At the top, go over a second new stile to the right of a concrete garage and forward along a drive, passing to the right of a bungalow to join a road and turn left.

6. After about 250 yards, look out for a gap in the fence on the left marked with a stone plinth.

A short woodland path leads to a T-junction where you should turn left.

After 30 yards go right dropping down along a narrow path where encroaching brambles may need to be cut or beaten aside.

Cross a railway bridge in the valley, climb through a wood and carry on between fences to a road.

Go left for a few yards, then right over a stile and uphill through an area of gorse and scrub, keeping right twice where the path divides.

Join an estate road and turn right.

After 60 yards, go left up steps and along another narrow path through to the A259. Your next path starts up more steps opposite.

At a T-junction of paths, turn left and shortly right uphill along a rutted lane which brings you to North’s Seat where there is a good viewpoint over Hastings to the right of the path.

A few yards beyond the highest point, go left through a swing gate, signed to Fairlight Road Picnic Site. Shortly rejoin your outgoing route.