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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 2 September 2017

Saturday Walk – [New] Angmering Park and Highdown Gardens

New Walk – Arundel to Goring-by-Sea
Length: 14¾ km (9.2 miles), with longer options. Toughness: 3/10.

09:36 Southampton Central & Bognor Regis train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 09:42, East Croydon 09:53), arriving Arundel at 11:00. You need to be in the rear (Bognor Regis) portion when the train divides at Horsham. The possible return stations are on a different line but a return to Littlehampton is the same fare and covers both routes.

Direct return trains from Goring-by-Sea are at 04 & 26 minutes past the hour to 18:26 and then 18:56, plus other services which involve changing at Brighton. However, if you're thinking of staying into the evening note that there's a replacement bus service after 8pm.

The first 3 km of this walk will probably be familiar enough from other Arundel/Amberley walks, but the rest covers new territory. After a mixed landscape of woods, valleys and farmland (and a noisy main road by The Woodman Arms lunch pub, unfortunately) you emerge onto the only hill on the Sussex coastal plain, with far-reaching sea views. Rather unexpectedly there's also a nice attraction tucked away on this hillside, Highdown Gardens (free entry).

If you spend some time in the gardens (and nearby tearoom) you'll probably want to call it a day, but the walk document includes a couple of longer options. If you choose the alternative ending, trains leave Angmering 4 minutes before Goring. I'd particularly appreciate feedback from anyone trying the suggested seafront extensions to Worthing or Littlehampton, but do remember the replacement bus service.

You'll need to print the walk directions from this temporary New Walk page.
T=swc.295

6 comments:

Sean said...

The RMT have announced more rail strikes on Fri 1 Sep and Mon 4 Sep, no doubt hoping to mess up weekend services as well. I'll keep an eye on Southern's plans but if it looks like there will be disruption on Saturday I'll drop this new walk and substitute something else.

Sean said...

Southern say that they plan to operate a full service on most of their routes on the strike days, so there's no reason to suppose that the weekend service will be affected (any more than usual, that is). This is not a long walk and even if you end up starting a bit late there'll be no problem getting to the lunch and tea places in time.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sean,

Thank you for planning the walk, it looks lovely.

Am planning to buy my ticket tomorrow (avoiding the horrendous queues of last week). If you are going to change the walk please can you let me know by midday? Thank you.

See you on Saturday, Sarah

Fi said...

am going to do this walk will be coming from Worthing to Arundel my train gets in a bit before the London train so will wait outside the station.

Mike A said...

On this late Summer day with w=all_day_sun_and_a_light_breeze, n=15 or so set off to give this new walk it's debut. Initially along the River Arun before turning east to join the Monarch's way. Varied scenery with a grassland valley and the woodland of Angmering Park. Lunch at the Woodman Arms turned out to be a real treat with good food and friendly attentive staff. The afternoon section continued though more quintessential English countryside to the village of Patching with it's Church and thatched dwellings. Then south to Highdown Tower where there was brief section of road noise as the walk slipped under the A27 and briefly alongside it. The vista from Highdown Tower was superb with the English Channel and recently constructed Wind Farms ahead and the town of Worthing nestling on the coast to the left.
Highdown Gardens was a real treat with many lawned areas and a stunning array of trees, shrubs and flowers.
Tea at Highdown cafe was another treat with a good selection of yummy cakes, a wedding party passed by to their reception at the Hotel there as we supped tea.
Some of us headed off to catch the 5:04 fast train back to London after a thoroughly enjoyable walk on a glorious day

Dirk said...

Two continued on to Angmering past the atmospheric iron age fort on top of Highdowns Hill and further research stops in the two pubs along the way. I cannot agree more with Mike: A charming walk with superb lunch pub and tea shop and a gem of a garden. I look forward to revisiting Highdowns Gardens in spring/early summer.