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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.

Wednesday 29 June 2016

Mid-week day walk - Petersfield to Cocking

t=swc.155

Petersfield to Cocking

The South Downs

Book 3* Walk 155

* Online only

Length: 20 Km or 12.5 miles
Toughness: 4 out of 10

Getting there: Catch the 10:00 am from London Waterloo train to Portsmouth Harbour and alight at Petersfield.
Calling stations are :
  • Woking  dep 10:25
  • Guildford    dep 10:34
Clapham Junctioneers should catch the 9:52am to Portsmouth Harbour and alight at Woking (10:11 am) and wait for the 10:25 described above. At the time of writing both trains use platform 5

Meeting point: Petersfield Station at 11:00 am

Tickets and travel: Get the Southwest Trains £16 special offer ticket.  (Those of a more senior age may do better with a Freedom Pass and Senior Rail Card)
Note that the special offer ticket needs to bought before midnight on the day of travel. 
On a further note, the confirmation email contains a prominently displayed booking reference. Disregard this and use the collection reference which you may find about half way through the email in order to pick up your tickets. 
(On the last SW rail trip, a savvy walker took a smart phone picture of the acknowledgement screen on the SW rail web site which shows the collection reference in large font prominently displayed.)
Finally there are pre-paid only ticket collection points at Waterloo which may be a better bet to pick your tickets up on.

Note there is no station at the end of the walk and the best option is probably to share a taxi back to Haslemere. Walkers on the last visit paid £20 for a four seater, however the driver indicated a seven seater was available for the same cost.
The Taxi company used was Paddy Cars t: 01730 263263 | 01730 262279

There is also the option to return using buses ...
Take the #60 north to Midhurst, then change to the #70 to Haslemere. This costs a reasonable £4.60 ("transfer ticket") and works quite well.
Check the last bus time!
Online bus timetables have always been  a bit of a mystery for me but I suggest http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/ as a useful starting point.

Serious walkers may wish to board overnight in the Five Bells and continue to Amberly on the following day doing Walk thirty three in reverse. If you're planning on doing this, I suggest you seek advice on the best train tickets to buy. Amberly Station is served by Southern, so there might be the odd cancellation .

Brief Description:
This is a ridge walk along the South Downs Way (SDW). A good, easy to follow path, with only gentle ups and downs, and fine 360 degree views for most of the way. 

From Petersfield Station, the walk goes through the town square, then heads south from to Buriton (4 km) along the Hangars Way following a small stream. There is an option for very early pub lunch in Buriton (but you'd have a long afternoon section afterwards.)

Then it's up on to the ridge for the main part of the walk (15 km) which follows the SDW along the crest of the South Downs ridge, with only gentle ups and downs, past Tower Hill (has a folly), Beacon Hill (242 metres, ancient hill fort, free admission), Treyford Hill and Linch Ball (hill, trig point just north of the SDW path).

At Harting Down, just before Beacon Hill, you can head 1km north down off the ridge to the White Heart in South Harting if you want a pub lunch there. (Picnickers may prefer to stay on the Downs).
A little further on, you can head 1km south to Uppark, a NT Historic Country House with a tea room (you need to pay admission to enter). These are the only refreshment possibilities on this part of the walk.
The SDW meets the A286 road just south of Cocking which has a bus stop. Optionally, leave the SDW 1.5k earlier on Cocking Down, and head north east along a path towards Cocking village (1km north along the A286 road) which has the Blue Bell Inn. This opens at 6pm and gives you a chance to take refreshments while waiting for your bus or taxi. 
You may find full details here


Suggested Lunch and Tea stops

The White Hart, South Harting, GU31 5QB, 01730 825124, 1km off the route, below the ridge.
Uppark NT cafe - admission required (don't forget your NT card if you're a member) - Open to 5:00pm
The Five Bells High Street, Buriton GU31 5RX (01730 263584) Food served every day 12 - 2.30pm. A very early stop 4 km from the start of the walk.

The Blue Bell Inn Cocking open from 6:00pm

Explorer Maps 133 and 120

Return train times from Haslemere:

There are frequent trains from Haslemere to Waterloo at approximately 15 minute intervals

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you want to shorten the walk, there are regular buses from the lunchtime pub in South Harting back to Petersfield station.

Walker said...

The bus from Cocking seems to work well enough.

17.40 from Cocking to Midhurst, arrive 17.54, changing to the 18.00 to Haslemere arriving 18.27

Or 18.40 from Cocking arriving Midhurst 18.54, changing to the 19.05 to Haslemere, arriving 19.29.

This is the last bus from Midhurst, though there is a 19.37, 20.07 adn 21.07 from Cocking to Midhurst