Horsted Keynes to Stumble Wood Common

by Ben Perkins

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Medieval hammer pond

On this circuit we explore a well-wooded landscape to the north of Horsted Keynes. The highlight of the walk is a visit to one of my favourite places, Stumblewood Common.

It was once part of Ashdown Forest and the original forest 'pale' or boundary can be traced through it. Some care is required to find your way across this patch of ancient woodland where the paths are overgrown between points 4 and 5.

From the car park (1), return to the main road and turn right, passing the Green Man pub on your left. Just past the Crown Inn, to the right, fork left along the drive to the village hall.

A path continues, passing immediately to the right of the village hall and some allotments. Beyond a kissing gate, a trodden path continues along the right edge of a meadow then veers slightly left across two more fields, puncuated by similar gates. Join an enclosed path and bear right to follow it out to a lane via a short length of concrete access track (2).

Turn left and, about 150 yards beyond Warren Farm House on your left, go left through a double bridle-gate and follow a sandy track which passes between two fields then bears right down into a wooded valley.

Ignoring side and crossing paths, follow the main track along the valley.

To your left, though largely hidden by scrub and trees, is a string of old hammer ponds, a relic of the medieval iron-smelting industry.

The track finally takes you out through an area of new tree planting to a lane (3). Don't join the lane.

Instead, as you reach it, turn right over a stile and climb on a grassy strip between two areas of young trees then with more mature woodland on your right. The path passes between two rows of fine beech specimens to reach a gate. Continue along an enclosed path then forward along a drive between buildings out to join a lane. Turn left, soon dropping down between wooded banks.

At a road junction (4), turn sharply back to the right, signposted as a narrow road to Chelwood Gate. After about 350 yards, turn left over a stile to the left of a gateway to a cottage, walk to the left of the house (Flower Garden Cottage), down steps and along a path within a narrow belt of trees.

The path continues downhill across Stumblewood Common, a mixture of patchy woodland and bracken. The official path forks left marked by occasional wayposts but, at the time of writing, was badly overgrown and difficult to follow. Your best bet is to follow a faint but distinguishable path which winds straight down the hill.

Shortly, at a T-junction with a more obvious path, bear left, gradually descending to join a lane on a hairpin bend next to a water splash, a delightful spot (5). Turn right across the ford or the footbridge alongside it and follow the lane up out of the valley, ignoring a signed path to the left.

After a quarter of a mile or so, about 20 yards short of the signed drive to Twyford Farm on the left, double sharply back to the left along an unsigned but well-trodden path which burrows through scrub, muddy underfoot in some places and deeply eroded by water in others, but always practicable.

The path eventually joins a rough track which continues out to a lane (6). Turn right and, after 250 yards, at a road junction, go right again. After another 300 yards, turn left over a stile built into a fixed gate and head squarely out across a large, open field with good views. Carry on in the same direction along the right edge of three more fields to join a lane.

From this point (7), you get another fine view over the gate opposite, across a valley to the spire of Highbrook church on the skyline.

To complete the walk, turn left along the lane and, at a junction, turn left again, signposted to Birchgrove and Chelwood Gate. After another 250 yards, turn right along the drive to Broadhurst Manor, signposted as a bridleway and also part of the Sussex Border Path, a long-distance route for walkers, this section of which links East Grinstead with the coast near Brighton.

When opposite the manor, in view to your left behind wroughtiron gates, go ahead through another gate and follow the signed Border Path right and, shortly, left. Now follow a shady track southwards, soon with another series of old hammer ponds on your right.

After the best part of a mile, the track becomes a drive which brings you out to the end of a cul-de-sac next to the entrance to Horsted Keynes Church which boasts a Norman tower and a fine shingled spire.

In the churchyard, surrounded by a beech hedge, is the grave of Harold Macmillan, the former Prime Minister, and other members of his family who lived at Birchgrove House, nearby.

Follow the lane from the church back into Horsted Keynes. At a junction of three lanes, go ahead up to join the village street within yards of the start.