Old Heathfield circular

By Ben Perkins

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In Sussex we are lucky to have a total of more then 4,000 miles of public footpaths and bridleways, though they are unevenly distributed, some areas being more generously served than others.

Our walk this week picks a route across an undulating patchwork of small fields and woods between Old Heathfield and Vines Cross where there is a particularly dense network of paths.

Much of the route is well signed and maintained, though you will need to take care not to be led astray along any of the alternative paths.

1.Start the walk through the main gate to Old Heathfield churchyard. Skirt to the left of the church, leave by the back entrance and bear left along a lane leaving the Star Inn on your left.

After 70 yards, go right over a stile and half-left across grass. Go over a drive and through a kissing gate, then turn left along the top edge of a field to a stile beside a gate from which a wide, enclosed path continues.

Where this path opens out, turn right for ten yards to go through a gate and follow a lefthand fence across high ground. In the field corner, go over a stile and drop downhill with a high hedge on your right.

2.In the bottom field corner, go over a stile before bearing left and shortly right to follow a clear track which takes you over a culvert in a dip and then begins to climb.

After a few yards, where the defined track peters out, bear slightly right, climbing across grass and walking parallel to woodland, away to your right, soon aiming for a prominent tree on the skyline.

Just past this tree, side-step to the left through a gate and resume your previous direction, now with the wood immediately on your right. Once over a stile beside a gate, an enclosed track and then the access drive from a cottage take you downhill to join a lane where you should turn left.

3.After about 250 yards, just after the lane crosses a minor stream, go right over a stile and half-left across rough pasture, passing beneath power lines.

In the far left field corner, ignoring a path ahead through scrub, turn right, passing back beneath the power lines, staying within the same field and following its left edge. Shortly, go over a stile and continue along the left edge of another area of rough pasture, then through scrub and over a footbridge across a rusty iron-coloured stream.

Bear left to a stile beside a gate and continue with a neatly trimmed hedge on your right.

After about 250 yards, turn right through a gate in this hedge and veer slightly left down across pasture to join and go ahead along the concrete drive from a farm which takes you out to a road.

4.Turn left and walk into Vines Cross past the Brewer’s Arms pub and ignoring a turning to the left. After another 60 yards, turn right along a tarmac drive, marked as public footpath with a low stone plinth.

Follow this access drive which soon loses its metalled surface, down into a valley and up again.

On reaching a new brick-built bungalow, the path officially goes ahead, passing immediately to the right of this building. At the time of writing, because of deep mud on the path, an advisory diversion was signed, and is described here.

It goes right through a gate opposite the house, left along a field edge, through a second gate, forward for 30 yards, and then left through a third gate.

After a few more yards go right through a fourth gate, rejoining the official route which has come directly from the farm, past some abandoned farm machinery.

Once through this fourth gate, veer slightly left across a field to a kissing gate and stile in the next hedge. Continue with a fence on your left, then on across two fields with a stiled fence between them.

In the second field drop down to join and follow the left edge of a wood. Go over a stile into the wood and follow a rather vague path downhill to cross, in succession, a plank bridge and footbridge.

Climb to leave the wood through a gate and bear left along the left edge of a field to a stile and in the same direction across a second field to join a lane. Turn left to reach Maynards Green.

5.Cross the B2203 and follow the lane opposite. After 100 yards, fork right up a ramped tarmac track on to the track bed of the old railway, now the Cuckoo Trail.

Turn right to follow the Trail northward, watching out for speeding cyclists. After about two thirds of a mile, look out for a signed path to the right, up steps to a gate and on out to rejoin the B2203.

6.Your next path starts from the other side of the road, a few yards to the right, immediately to the left of the car park of the Runt-in- Tun pub. Enclosed at first, it then continues along a right field edge to a gap.

Veer slightly left across the next field of smooth grass, used for turf cultivation. In the field corner, squeeze through another gap and go forward, soon kinking slightly right across another turfed field.

In the far right corner, go through a swing gate and over a stile to the left of the drive ahead. Follow the right field edge, walking parallel to the drive on your right. In the field corner go over a stile and follow an enclosed path which descends to a footbridge and climbs to a stile.

Carry on along the right edge of two fields, about half way along the second field bearing right to a stile and another enclosed path leading out to a road.

Go ahead along the road with the sandstone wall surrounding Heathfield Park on your left.

After about 400 yards, at a road junction, turn left for a similar distance back to Old Heathfield and the start.