Gallery

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Amberley Walk on 5th November 2025

John had planned a 4 mile walk and warned us that the recent rain may make a couple of sections of the walk a bit muddy.  Gathering in the car park of The Bridge Inn, a small number wore wellington boots and the majority were in walking boots.  Setting off in the dry, balmy but overcast weather we crossed the old bridge at Houghton, pausing briefly to watch the fast incoming tide of the River Arun, and through the gate into a field to walk the path on the west bank.  When we reached the first stile, it was wet underfoot with the river lapping at the banks.  On reaching the second stile, the bottom step was underwater necessitating large steps to stay dry.  The path had boardwalks that kept us dry, although they were a bit slippery.  We reached a point where the boardwalk was broken and floated away but the water level was too high to continue.  We decided retreat was the better part of valour, but then discovered that the tide was still rising and our retreat path was substantially now under water.  It did not take long to realise that those of us in walking boots had no option but to wade and get wet feet.  Regrouping once we had gained higher ground, some returned to the Inn to clean up and dry out while a revised higher and shorter walk was planned and walked to all meet up again at the Bridge Inn, where we celebrated an eventful walk with an excellent lunch.

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Redford and AGM walk on 29th October 2025

We left Redford Village hall for our 4 mile walk, in significant rain, in our selected assortment of rain gear.  Jay led us up Linch Road to the footpath climbing up into Woolbeding Common, past Hookland, taking the right path up to Telegraph Hill and West Copse.  Dropping down Whites Lane Gully to Upper North Park Farm, crossing fields into Hartley Green Copse where we decided not to stop for a coffee break in the rain.  We continued up to Taylors Copse before heading south through Heathfield and Butler’s Roughs to Older Hill.  At this point we retraced our steps to Redford Hall where we changed into dry gear to have our faith lunch, AGM and annual raffle.

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Chiddingfold walk on 22nd October 2025

It was a busy week so we were down to 9 walkers who met at The Swan Inn, Chiddingfold for their 4 mile walk in the dry.  Starting south on the main road, we turned east onto the narrow footpath behind the houses which gave us a peek into back gardens before coming out onto a field.  The persistent rainfall of the previous days, left the grass wet and the realisation by many of us that our boots were not as waterproof as we thought.  A kissing gate took us into a copse with a carpet of acorns to crunch underfoot until reaching a stile and another field that lead us into Highbeech Plantation down to an old millpond associated with ancient glass works that benefited from the local geology; the ground being exceptionally sandy while local woodlands provided plenty of firewood for the furnaces.  We crossed more fields, a small hut with a veranda caught our attention before crossing Pickhurst Road onto High Street Green where we took the footpath towards Follies Farm down into the woods of Peartree Piece where an expectant fallen tree trunk provided comfortable seating for our coffee break.  Staying in the woods we crossed Pickhurst Road again into Eight Acre Copse and then Prestwick Copse crossing a bridge into fields for our return via Pockford Road and the green where the Guy Fawkes bonfire construction was well under way.  We finished off the walk with a lovely lunch at The Swan Inn.

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Petworth Park walk on 15th October 2025

Walk around Petworth Park on 15^th October 2025.

 

Pauline and Linda took us on our four mile tour of Petworth deer park with plenty of deer and great views of the park and Petworth House.

The Manor of Petworth has been held by the current owners who are descendants of the Percy family, since 1150. The Estates were inherited by the present Lord Egremont, a writer, in 1972. He and his family still live in Petworth House which is open to the public 5 days a week during the summer.  Petworth Park is full of the mounds of yellow meadow ants, often mistaken for molehills. The mounds may be up to 150 years old, a metre deep and act as a nursery for aphids collected by the ants and used as a food source. They are very fond of the larvae of the Chalkhill Blue butterfly as they secrete an especially tasty substance, so the ants take good care of them during the winter.

When we finished we headed up to The Stonemasons pub for an excellent lunch.

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West Dean walk on 8th October 2025

Having ordered our food in the Selsey Arms we set off on Mark and Jo's walk to find the Centurion Way and a few other places in between. We were warned of the long hill early on in the walk but we all survived the climb up through Whitedown Plantation before emerging onto the road near Lodge Hill Farm. There is a large chalkball in the hedgerow at this point and it turns out this is one of 15 placed between West Dean Gardens and Cocking Hill by the artist Andy Goldsworthy in 2002, to act as waymarkers. They were only expected to last a couple of years but have proved very resilient. An easy walk along a quiet road brought us to a north-westerly track next to Colworth Down where we found what at first glance seemed an ideal picnic spot. It was a pity the warning sign seemed only to apply to folk heading in the other direction! Turning south we passed a lot of building work going on at Colworth Farm before taking a steep hill down to the route of the old Midhurst to Chichester Railway. This now forms part of the Centurion Way. Heading south west we found the site of the original Singleton Station which has been very well restored. Taking the railway route towards Chichester was a good move as we soon found ourselves in the car park back at the Selsey Arms for a very enjoyable lunch.

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