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Eartham Walk on 3rd June 2026

We don't often get rained on, but Jennifer and Kathryn's walk proved to be the big exception. We started out from the Eartham Wood car park and soon found ourselves on the Monarch's Way, previously known as Stane Street in Roman times. After half a mile a little rain descended, which gradually increased to stay with us for the rest of the walk. We walked through Eartham Wood until we came to a junction of 5 footpaths and luckily we only had to carry on in a straight line. This was the old Roman road which took us as far as Gumber Barn/Bothy. This is also a campsite owned by the National Trust and has a large covered picnic area which we made good use of.  Accomodation is available, see :-   Gumber Barn   It is especially useful for people travelling The South  Downs Way. 

We were very patient, but the rain failed to go away, so we carried on with our planned walk. When we reached Warren Barn we headed through the woods to reach Great Down and walked along the side of the field before taking a sharp right turn through fields and North Wood (with some remarkable wood carving) before finding Stane Street once again. We eventually reached our cars and at last could avoid the weather, which was still very wet.  A nice lunch was served up in The George in Eartham village, where certain juvenile members hilariously tried to answer questions that stumped AI.  The walk was 5.6 miles.

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Up Marden walk on 27th May 2026

With May temperature records broken on the previous two days, only the braver souls chose to go on Tim's walk to Up Marden church from The Victoria Inn In West Marden. Even though it was 6 degrees cooler than the previous 2 days, it still felt hot. We took the climb up to Locksash Farm at a steady pace and stopped in shady spots, sometimes to hear an excerpt from the Up Marden Church visitors book. This seemed to prove a sufficient distraction from the temperature so we continued to stop and listen all the way to Up Marden Church. The inside of the church was wonderfully cool and also had a supply of chilled water for anyone who needed it. The last excerpt from the visitors book was noted and after a few drinks and some more water we headed back down the hill. However it wasn't all downhill but our legs were still strong enough to tackle the return route. Refreshing drinks were much appreciated in The Victoria, served with our very nice lunches after our 4 mile walk.

More info about the church is HERE:- 

Up Marden Church history

and

The church even atheists like

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Chidham walk on 20th May 2026

John's walk from the Old House at Home started with all walkers placing their lunch orders before setting off. We took a circular walk around the outskirts of Chidham and wondered where all the broad beans would be going at harvest time - there looked to be enough plants to satisfy most the England! A quick walk across more fields brought us to the edge of the Nutbourne Channel, just north of Chidham Point. A walk along the shore soon diverted towards Nutbourne village where we had a look at an interesting ford but sadly no vehicles took up the challenge to cross it. From there we walked through woods and fields to reach Prinsted village and on to the shore at the end of the Prinsted Channel. The splendid view  was very well furnished with enough benches for us to all enjoy a comfortable coffee stop.  From there we walked East for about a mile along the shoreline, some of us hoping to spot a few interesting feathered birds, but the wind seemed to have made them seek shelter elsewhere. We turned inland before reaching Chidham Point to retrace our steps back the the pub for a very good lunch. The walk was a little under 5 miles

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Eartham walk on 13th May 2026

Isabel's walk started out from the car park between The Rough and Eartham Wood, about a mile north of Eartham Village. After about 1.5 miles, walking through woods and fields we turned north towards Warren Barn where we had a brief rest and a chance to admire the huge tiled roof of Warren Barn. Another 1/2 a mile further on we reached Gumber Farm. On the  way we had a short sharp shower which made us appreciate our wet weather gear but it was whilst sheltering for our drink stop, the clouds opened and we huddled in the very dry roofed barn. Gumber Barn is a simple campsite and bothy for the weary traveller owned by the National Trust, especially useful for anyone travelling the South Downs Way. More info here:-  Gumber Barn                                                                               Once the rain had stopped we went a little further north and found ourselves on a path called South Downs Way, or Monarch's Way, but more historically called Stane Street. Built by the Romans probably around 40 to 50AD, it is in an almost straight line between London and Chichester, only swerving by no more than 6 miles to avoid large hills. This path was the route we took for the rest of our walk, providing some amazingly distant views in almost all directions and some suprisingly colourful fields on either side. These turned out to be huge plantings of crimson clover with some  phacelia thrown in for good measure. If you are wondering why they are planted, they are grown to be ploughed back in to enrich the soil and are also sometimes used as cattle feed.  Our straight path led us to our parked cars and from there we found ourselves in the nearby George Inn to enjoy a very pleasant lunch.

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Hooksway walk of 6th May 2026

Eighteen of us gathered at The Royal Oak, Kingsway in the sunshine with a slight chill in the breeze.  After posing for a start photo in front of the hostelry, we set off down the grassy Philliswood Lane to a cross roads in the paths at Batten Hanger where we followed a new path and stopped at the designated Scheduled Monument Romano-British Temple or mausoleum ruin.  This led us through woods and Stubbs Copse onto a field and then briefly back into the woods for a climb up to another field and narrow woods to reach Brooms Farm drive.  Walking down to the country lane we turned left and stopped off for our coffee break on the pathway to Chilgrove.  We returned to the lane and headed north to Yewtree Cottage to pick up the footpath on the track to the remains of the Medieval village remains at Monkton that have recently been preserved.  This footpath took us up to the crossroad junction with the South Downs Way at Philliswood Down where we took the bridleway back The Royal Oak for an enjoyable lunch.

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