West Marden and the fields of West Sussex

Walk date - July 18th 2015
Walk time - 3 hours
Distance - 6.86 miles
Accent - 668 feet



Only a week after my major ankle injury and with a sturdy neoprene strap we ventured out again, brave I know but it's the way of the hardened casual rambler, the walk goes on whether we choose to stroll along or not, having said that I was considerably off my normal pace averaging 26 minutes a mile rather than my normal 20.

Our base was the Victoria Inn at West Marden only a few miles north from the previous weeks walk and still in West Sussex, the pub had a good sized car park we started off just before 11.30

Out of the pub car park and turning left along the road until we came to the B2146 diagonally opposite just off Locksash Lane on the right was a finger post into a field

You can see from the maps that we headed in pretty much a straight line through three fields, well marked and with a good path cut through the crops it was the best part of a mile before we came out again onto Locksash Lane which we turned right onto and followed all they way round until we hit the B2146 again. Now for those regular readers you will recall Locksash Lane and the B2146 from my last blog entry, yes this part of the walk is the same, we crossed the main road headed through the front garden again and then up the steep 'two walking pole' hill, once the top was reached we rested, rewarded ourselves with water but alas didn't get to see a baby deer this time.

We followed the same path as before for a short way and joined the farm track, however instead of heading straight on to Stansted Park we turn right just after Broadreed Farm and headed across more fields, this time following the line of some woodland to our left called Wythy Piece and Batty's Park

The path turned to the right away from the woodland and across another field heading towards the road leading back into the village, if you wanted to shorten this walk, turning right along this road now would have bought you back to the pub in about half a mile or so, we carried straight on though along a farm track and left along another farm track, again taking the right here would also have shortened the walk, my ankle was holding out so we headed on further.

A short way along the farm track we picked up a foot path running along the north edge of a couple of small fields with some woodland to our right, this then led out onto another farm track, we followed the track right past the farmhouse and around a small paddock behind up the hill and into quite an industrial farm called South Holt Farm. All the paths we follow although not major walkways are either public footpaths, bridleways or roads, all marked clearly on the Ordnance Survey maps, we have found these lesser used paths are still well maintained and signposted but very little used, we seldom pass another person whilst out walking along these tracks.

Turning right through South Holt Farm and onto the farm track which would now be our route back to West Marden, walking along the southern edge of Markwells Wood then across a field path dropping down to Horsely Farm and onto another farm track turning off after a short way left towards West Mardon Hall, the path drops as it follows the perimeter of the hall gardens before dropping us down onto the main road left through the village and back the our car.



The Victoria Inn was a good quality pub with a large garden, we ordered two ploughmans from the extensive lunch time menu with the option to add a £1 'handful' of chip, which needless to say I did, I was just hoping that they had good sized hands! each ploughmans was £9 plus the one extra £1 handful of chips so a little more than other pubs we had visited but the quality was absolutely fine, adding in a couple of beers took our bill to over £25 but not by much. It is worth noting that the Victoria Inn offers a 'walking group' menu for pre booked groups of 15 or more.

Trip Advisor - The Victoria Inn

This walk wasn't overly strenuous by design with mainly gentle hills to handle, with the exception of one steep climb which we were already familiar with, there were several 'pull out' points along the route so this could easily be shortened and made into a none cross country walk if you only wanted to stay on hard ground, however the main feature of this walk were the amazing fields, large and open with good paths through ripening crops, this truly was England's green and pleasant land!