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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 11 June 2016

Saturday Third Walk – Petworth House & Park

Extra Walk 128 – Pulborough to Petworth
Length: 15¼ to 18¼ km (9.5 to 11.3 miles). Toughness: 5/10

09:06 Portsmouth Harbour & Bognor Regis train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 09:12, East Croydon 09:23), arriving Pulborough at 10:17. You need to be in the rear portion, for Bognor Regis. Buy a return to Pulborough.

There's no station in Petworth. Unless you choose to complete a much longer circular walk (see below), you'll need to catch the Stagecoach 1 bus (towards Worthing, not Midhurst) for the 15-minute journey back to Pulborough station. It leaves from Market Square at 45 minutes past the hour to 16:45, then at 17:55 and 18:57 (last bus).

Return trains from Pulborough to Victoria are at 23 & 55 minutes past the hour until 18:23, then 19:05 and hourly from 19:35.

This year is the 300th anniversary of the birth of Lancelot “Capability” Brown so it seems appropriate to have a walk ending at one of his finest creations, Petworth Park. If you're a member of the National Trust (or pay the entry fee) you can visit Petworth House (which currently has an exhibition about him) but there's no charge to enter the beautifully landscaped deer park.

Petworth is a three-hour walk from Pulborough station, so bring some provisions if you think you might need a mid-morning snack before reaching the lunch pub in the town. If you visit the house and/or park you'll probably feel like calling it a day and catching the bus, but directions are included for a full circular walk back to Pulborough if you have the energy. In fact the return route is never far from the bus route and with a bit of planning you could take the bus to (say) Fittleworth or Stopham Bridge and walk the rest of the way, or vice versa.

You'll need to print the walk directions (with details of Petworth's lunch and tea places) from the Extra Walk 128 page. If you don't plan to do the long circular walk, clicking the 'Main Walk' option will significantly reduce the amount printed.
T=swc.128

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

N=23 walkers on this walk which was very good with woods and fields and no rain. The weather was w=overcast-occasional-sun
Little to report,most seemed to lunch at The Star which is apparently far better than previously - that doesn't say much for how it used to be then. They had a special of local fish but the sea is miles away ?
Some walked back whilst others got the bus back to Pullborough, some toured Petworth park, some looked around Petworth House, some went for a meal in the local town Tillington and that is enough somes
C Worthy

MG said...

Also 1 walked to Fittleworth and at least 2 were walking all the way back to Pulborough.

Anonymous said...

i thought that the star pub wes excellent. Rather surprised by the down beat remark about it. I got the bus to Fittleworth and walked back from there. A beautiful end to the walk

Karen said...

Can confirm that at least two completed the circular back to Pulborough, with a diversion for refreshments to the The Horse Guards Inn at Tillington (not far beyond the walls of Petworth Park). Also took refreshments at The White Hart at Stopham Bridge. I know Petworth House and Park were the main attractions of the walk, but the highlight for me was the bridge at Stopham. Amazing! Worth the extra kilometers. Made it back to Pulborough in time for the 19:35.

Anonymous said...

Four made it to Tillington for dinner at the Horseguards Inn. What time did we get back to London? I don't know but the tube was still running, (does that help?) although it felt way past my bedtime. We missed the 20.36 from Pulborough station, (why?) because our taxi driver decided he'd rather watch the footie than come and collect us from the pub to take us to the station, and the 20.36 was the last direct London train that Southern kindly provided from Pulborough that evening. However we got a free ride from Pulborough station to Gatwick station from the "no show" taxi company, after we camped out in their office, and piled on to the Gatwick Express for the final leg to London. Phew.