Hailsham and Polegate

By Ben Perkins

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Parts of the walk may be quite a navigational challenge and a compass may be useful

Much of the first part of this substantial walk from Hailsham crosses the Pevensey Levels, once covered by the sea but now reclaimed to provide animal pasture. It is an open and completely flat landscape, criss-crossed by a complex network of drainage channels, desolate and windswept but with a unique character.

Finding a route across the featureless Down Level between points 3 and 4 is quite a navigational challenge and a compass might be helpful to prevent you going adrift. It is one of the few places in Sussex where a GPS device might also prove useful.

The second half of the walk is more straightforward and includes an easy final three miles along the Cuckoo Trail, a long-distance route for walkers and cyclists on the track bed of a disused railway which originally opened in 1849, linking Polegate and Eridge. The last passenger train ran on September 9, 1968.

1. From the far end of the car park, join Station Road and turn right past the Railway Tavern. After about 250 yards, turn left along a path which skirts to the left of Hailsham Common Pond. On the far side of the pond, feed into an estate road, soon passing to the right of a small grassy area surrounded by roads.

Shortly turn left along The Stringwalk and take the first turning on the right, Bowley Road. Where this ends at a T-junction with Swan Road, turn right and immediately go left on a narrow path which squeezes between houses and gardens and continues through a neglected area. Keep close to the backs of houses and gardens on your left, ignoring other paths, to reach a stile out into a field.

Follow a well-trodden path across the field to a stile, along the right edge of a second field and straight across a third field to join a road.

2. Turn left and immediately right along a lane, signed as a “No Through Road”. Where this ends, just past an aptly-named house, “Marsh View”, go ahead along a rough track.

3. After about 500 yards turn right through a gate where a yellow arrow indicates the start of a footpath. Go forward along the right edge of a minor drainage ditch for 80 yards to another gateway.

From this point care is needed, as there are few features to guide you. Continue in the same general direction (just east of south) to find a footbridge. Beyond this bridge the direct line of the path was, at the time of writing, blocked by a large expanse of water which looked fairly permanent. If not yet drained, skirt round to the right of the flooded area to find the next footbridge.

Once over this bridge, maintain your previous direction across open pasture. Cross a culvert and head south, converging on a drainage ditch to your left. Cross an Environmental Agency culvert with metal railings on either side and immediately go right over a timber footbridge.

Veer slightly left to the next footbridge, in sight, and cross the field beyond, once again going slightly left and aiming for a house with a slate roof. Go through a hedge gap and follow a left field edge towards a shed. Just short of the shed go left through a gate and immediately right through a second gate to join a lane. Turn left.

4. Just short of a flint-walled cottage, turn right over a footbridge and head half-right across a field. Go through a wide gap in a hedge and, veering slightly left, head squarely out across the next field to another wide gap. Maintain direction across the field beyond to a stile a few yards to the right of the far field corner. Continue through a small paddock to a gate and stile leading out to a lane. Turn right.

5. At a road junction, go ahead, signposted to Hankham. Just past the gateway to Manna Barn on the left, turn right through a gate and along an access track. Where the track bends right, go ahead beside a lefthand hedge. Cross a stile at the bottom of a dip and then head half-right, aiming just to the right of barns on the skyline.

Go over a concrete farm bridge and cross a field corner to a gateway. The path from here up to the farm is extremely vague. Go ahead on a faint track, shortly bearing right across a small area of chalk in-fill. Cross a low wooden barrier and make your way up to the farm through a cluttered area. Pass to the right of a large triple cattle shed and then turn left behind the shed.

Where the track divides, keep left, in effect straight ahead, passing to the left of more cattle sheds. Follow a drive which soon bends left passing to the right of the massive Priesthawes farmhouse. Continue along the drive out to the B2104 road.

6. Cross the road and follow the track opposite. Where the track ends, go right for a few yards then left along a left field edge with a strip of woodland on your left. Where the wood ends, go ahead across a field to a gate.

Cross the middle of the next field, diverging at about 20 degrees from the fence on your right, to find a stile giving access to a fenced path running parallel and to the right of the Polegate bypass, a new road marked only on the latest edition of the Explorer Map. Follow this path until you can go left across a bridge over the main road.

7. Immediately on the other side of the bypass, go right over a stile and along another enclosed path with the main road now on your right. After half a mile or so the path joins the Cuckoo Trail on the old railway line. Turn right and follow the Trail for three miles back to Hailsham.