Lower Barpham Circular

By Eddie Start

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A sign on an ash tree helpfully explains this is 'The View' and it takes in rolling, ancient landscape, which includes Harrow Hill and Lower Barpham Farm

If you have ever been driving east on the A27 near Angmering and wondered what the road sign to The Dover is all about, this walk will solve the mystery.

Take the signposted left turn off the east-bound carriageway of the A27, about two miles east of Crossbush and go half a mile up the road to a woodland car park, noting it is closed overnight, so it is best to begin this six-mile walk in good time.

By now, you will have discovered The Dover is a well-kept farm and horse-breeding complex. This walk is in woodland of the Angmering Estate but there are extensive downland vistas, a fine balcony path and views across to one of the first industrial sites in Britain.

Walking through woodland can be disorientating but the footpaths on this walk are well signposted, although a compass might help with directions.

1. Leave the car park at the top left, go out on to the road and follow the signed bridle path diagonally left (north west), with paddocks on the right.

In about 250 yards, at a junction with a cottage ahead, go right, eventually following the path between trees. In 400 yards from the last turning, you come to a path junction and gates on the left. Pass through these and take the wide forest path ahead (north-west).

In three quarters of a mile, having passed through Lower Wepham Wood and Gibbet Piece, you will come to a metalled forest road, the Monarch's Way. Cross the road, diagonally left, take the signposted bridle path for a few steps, then follow the bridle path right (north east), down through trees. This eventually leads to open country, with the sweep of New Down ahead and Home Farm on the hill to the left.

2. Take the path, right, through the first gate and climb the hill, with the horse training gallops in the valley bottom to the left.

You will see, about 400 yards ahead on the rising track, a footpath sign silhouetted on the skyline, walk towards this. At the sign, climb right, up the bank, cross the stile and enter the woodland of Tenantry Copse. Walk through the tree cover, coming to a bridle path and after about 150 yards, turn left and continue ahead on the path.

Enjoy the solitude of this path, with the residents going about their daily grazing, foraging and food gathering. I've seen rabbits, deer and foxes on the path ahead and the fluttering, winged population completes the natural company which travels this way.

3. Continue along this path for just over half a mile.

At a clearing with crossing tracks, there is a sign. Follow the path through a gate 100 yards ahead and continue across an open field.

There are extensive views as you cross this rising field, with a tree-lined hedge to the right and, in the near distance, a hill top trigonometry point.

Where the hedge ends there is a footpath sign indicating a right turn. Take this, following the hedge and after about 300 yards, you come to converging paths at the bridle and farm gates. (You can walk across the field to the trig point and take in the views north to the crest of the Downs, east and west to more rolling hills and south to the coast.)

4. Pass through the gate and as the path slopes down, cross the track ahead and trend left - do not take the right-signed footpath - and walk down towards the hedgerow, still going left and after a few steps, go right, around the end of the hedge.

Pass through a gate with a bridle path sign. You are now walking south-east along a high balcony bridle path, with extensive views to the north-east.

You soon pass a large, distorted ash tree on the path edge and then come to another tree on the right, which has a weathered sign nailed to it, advising this is 'The View'. Whoever put this sign here knew what they were doing for this is a good place to stop and survey the scene.

To the north-east, across the valley, is Harrow Hill, one of the UK's most significant ancient industrial sites. More than 160 flint mines, dating from three to 4,000BC, have been identified on the hill. Mined flints would have been knapped and shaped into axe blades, knives and arrowheads and then exported to other parts of the country.

In the valley below are the farm buildings of Lower Barpham. These valleys have been tended for thousands of years. The Downs around us have settlements, boundary ditches and dykes, confirming a history stretching back into the mists of time.

Continue along the path ahead, with Old Man's Beard in the hedges, through a gate, then crossing a field where the path trends right and enters trees on the well-defined bridle path.

After about a quarter of a mile, you come to a path junction with the Monarch's Way in Michelgrove Park.

5. Turn left for 100 yards, then take the public bridleway, right (south-west), for a further 100 yards, then take the left signed path - not ahead.

Follow this path under tree cover and with the meadow of Angmering Park to the right. After 400 yards, there is a path junction. Walk ahead, across the junction, taking the signed bridle path to the right in 100 yards and enter the dark Stonyland Copse.

At a further path junction, after 800 yards, continue on for about 100 yards and follow the path right (west).

Follow the path ahead and, after 500 yards, go across a junction and in another quarter of a mile you are back at the car park.