Hartfield Circular
by Ben Perkins
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Pooh Bridge, immortalised by AA Milne
This might make a good family walk. It is fairly short and the going is generally easy, along established paths, except across one field which may be ploughed up, depending on the time of year.
It starts out crossing the River Medway and then climbs gently and easily up on to the low hills to the north of the river valley. It then turns back across the valley to explore the foothills of Ashdown Forest.
As a bonus, towards the end of the walk, it crosses Pooh Bridge, immortalised by AA Milne. Be sure to take your own Pooh sticks as the area around the bridge has been scoured of all loose twigs.
Start the walk northwards along Hartfield High Street. Just past the Anchor Inn on your right (1) , turn left through a gate on a path signed to the Forest Way and as part of the High Weald Landscape Trail. It squeezes on the left of some tennis courts to a stile and continues along the edges of three fields.
Cross the old railway, now the Forest Way, and go forward for a few yards to cross a footbridge over the river Medway and on across two fields, punctuated by stiles. Keep to the right of a third field, cross a fourth field to a stile and follow a path through a copse.
Leave the wood over a stile in a deer fence and head diagonally across the next field. Cross a stile beside a gate and maintain direction across the next field to another stile.
You have gained quite a bit of height since crossing the Medway and are rewarded by good views over to your left across the valley to the heights of Ashdown Forest.
Cross a drive, go through the gap opposite and bear half-left across the middle of a field where a path should be trodden out through any growing crop. The path skirts to the right of an attractive pool, surrounded by oak trees and popular with fishermen, to reach a stile and continues along a right field edge.
Now take care. After another 100 yards or so, at a waypost (2) where there is a stile on your right (not for us) and the Landscape Trail continues ahead, you should turn left and head out across a field. Ploughing and planting may have obliterated the path but you should be heading very slightly right, passing closely to the left of a peninsula of woodland protruding into the field from the right. Join and bear right along a track.
Start/Parking: From the village of Hartfield, where parking can be a problem, though there is usually room along the west side of the High Street.
Distance/Time: Five-and-a-half miles, taking two-and-a-half hours.
Terrain: Easy walking, mostly along well used and signed field paths, with one gentle climb.
Public Transport: Hourly weekly bus service from East Grinstead or Tunbridge Wells.
Map: OS Explorer 135 - Ashdown Forest.
Refreshments: Two pubs in Hartfield.
Follow this track through a hedge and on for 50 yards before bearing left along a wide, grassy headland, dropping down along the right edge of two fields with a wide strip of woodland on your right.
From the second field corner, go ahead for 50 yards along the right edge of a regimented grove of trees then turn right through a gate where there is a No Cycling notice.
After a few yards, go left along the drive from a house called Lower Parrock, following it as it re-crosses, in turn, the Medway and the old railway. Where this rough gravel drive divides, keep left, following it for another quarter of a mile out to a lane (3).
Turn left for 20 yards, then right over a stile and forward within a thin, wooded strip. Cross a stile beside a gate and veer half-left across a field to go through a gate in the far left field corner.
Head squarely across the next field to another gate and continue in the same direction across the field beyond to find a stile to the right of a house from which an enclosed path continues out to the B2110 road. Cross this and turn left along the opposite pavement. After about 150 yards (4), turn right along the drive to Fincham Farm.
As you approach the farmhouse, fork left along a stile diversion which skirts to the left of the house, garden and tennis court to reach a gate and then continues downhill along the right edge of a young tree plantation to reach a stile.
A well-worn path continues down across rough pasture, crossing a plank bridge and subsequent footbridge to follow an enclosed path and a short access drive out to a lane where you should turn left.
After about 350 yards (5), turn left along a signed bridleway track and follow it for half a mile down and over Pooh Sticks Bridge, then up again. Join a drive, go forward for a few yards to a junction with another drive and fork left. After 100 yards or so, fork right over a stile beside a gate, signposted as a footpath to Hartfield.
A path, clearly trodden by countless Pooh pilgrims, heads out across two fields. Join a drive, go through a swing gate opposite and continue along a left field edge.
Go over a stile, left to a second stile and gently downhill, still on a clear path through two fields. In the second field, the tall, shingled spire of Hartfield Church comes into view ahead, set against the low hills rising up on the other side of the Medway valley.
Join the B2110 road and turn right. It carries fast traffic but there is a good pavement on the right. Follow it for about a quarter of a mile back into Hartfield.
