Westfield north circular

By Ben Perkins

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Approaching the village of Westfield through some colourful meadows

From the village of Westfield, this walk drops down into the peaceful valley of the Forge Stream, a tributary of the River Brede. A delightful path heads north through low-lying meadows before climbing to higher ground to the north of the village.

I had hoped to extend the walk over into the neighbouring valley of the Doleham Stream but the path back from Great Maxfield to Westfield was so poorly signed and badly obstructed as to be unusable except by the very adventurous.

Our described walk is therefore, at under four miles, a shorter version of the planned walk using two sections of the very well maintained 1066 Country Walk, a long-distance walker’s route linking Pevensey and Rye.

If you would like a longer walk, today’s route can be linked, without duplication, with an eight-mile walk from Sedlescombe (The Argus, November 17, 2001), the link being at the point where the 1066 Country Walk goes off to the left between points 2 and 3 on today’s walk.

1. From its junction with the A28, start the walk along Cottage Lane. After 70 yards, turn left along an access drive which is signed on a low waypost as part of the 1066 Country Walk.

The drive soon narrows to a tarmac path which takes you over a stream and up to join a lane where you turn left. Just short of the point where the lane splits into two, turn left along a descending, fenced path.

2. Cross a stream and bear right along a well-trodden grassy path. Ignoring paths to left and right, go over a stile beside a gate and continue along the floor of a valley, still with the waymarked 1066 Country Walk and never far from a modest stream, largely hidden in the undergrowth on your right.

Where the 1066 Country Walk goes off to the left on its way to Battle, you should go ahead, still with the stream on your right. Cross a footbridge over a sidestream and maintain direction through a low-lying meadow.

3. After another 200 yards or so, turn right over two stiles in quick succession and follow a left field edge and then a rutted track gently uphill. This feeds into a gravel access drive from some properties which takes you out to a lane where you turn left.

4. After about 300 yards, fork right along another access track, signed as a footpath. Where the track ends, a path continues, skirting to the left of a house and overgrown garden, half hidden by trees.

A few yards short of a second house and garden, fork right for a few yards to find a hidden stile leading out of the wood into a field.

Drop down along a left field edge. Once over a stile into a second field, bear half-right across the field, dropping down to cross a substantial footbridge over an insubstantial stream.

Climb through woodland to another stile, follow a right field edge up to a gate in the field corner, then carry on beside a left-hand fence. In the next field corner, go through a gate and turn right to follow a tarmac drive out to the A28.

5. Cross the main road and turn right along the opposite verge where, luckily, there is a good, surfaced roadside path.

After 100 yards, go left along Doleham Lane. After about a quarter of a mile, turn right along the drive to Pattleton’s Farm.

After about 350 yards, where the drive bends round to the left, go forward for five yards only along the start of a track before turning right over a stile, half hidden in the hedge. You are now back on the 1066 Country Walk, which you will be following back to Westfield.

Head out across a cultivated field where a path should be trodden out through any growing crop. Go over a stile in the next hedge and continue without change of direction across the next field, where once again there should be a trodden path.

On the other side of this field, go through a gate and climb gently along a wide grassy headland path. A few yards short of the field corner, go right through a bridle gate.

A gated and stiled path now continues across two small paddocks and on along a path defined by young planted trees on each side.

Cross a drive, go over the stile opposite and immediately fork right on a narrow path which skirts to the right of Westfield cricket ground.

Join and go ahead along a roughly metalled track which takes you out to the A28. Cross the road and follow the twitten almost opposite, which leads out to Cottage Lane, within yards of the start of the walk.