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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.

Sunday 25 February 2018

Sunday Walk: Etchingham to Wadhurst

Etchingham to Wadhurst  SWC Walk 208
Length: 16.9km (10.5 miles)
Difficulty 5/10 hilly but gentle
This classic Wealden walk, a mix of pasture and woodland, features fine panoramic views, oast houses, and the villages of Ticehurst and Wadhurst. Optional loops will take you past Bewl Water reservoir.
Trains:
Get the 09:55 Hastings train from Charing Cross (London Bridge 10:04) arriving 11:12. Return from Wadhurst at xx:00 and xx:29. Get a return to Etchingham.
Lunch:
The notes recommend the Bull Inn in Three Legged Cross (01580 200 586)
An earlier quirkier option is the Bell in Ticehurst (01580 200234) quirky garden, quirky décor.
There is another (untried) pub near the Bell - the Chequers.
Tea: 
You are unlikely to make Wadhurst’s teahouses before closing time (if indeed they open on Sunday) but there are two pubs, The Greyhound, encountered first, being perhaps the more amenable (serves tea in pots) and the White Hart a little later. Note that its still quite a trek from Wadhurst to the station so allow 40-50 mins minutes for the recommended route, 25-35 for the roadside route.
Directions: here
T=swc.208 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am going to get the earlier train so will start at 10:12 if anyone want so do the same and get an earlier lunch...

Rich

PeteB said...

Just another fab n=4 on this walk with me again as Ringo. (Can we stop this silly joke everytime there is just you and 3 other people on a walk! SWC Ed)

I'm glad there were a few nights of hard frost before doing this walk as this made the early fields passable but generally the ground was firm except for one short slippery slope and a couple of patches of black ice on the lanes. The weather was w=unbroken-sunshine. At times in sheltered spots it felt almost warm and then a few yards further on you would be hit by a blast of wind just to remind you that the "beast" was on its way.
We had a short pit stop in Ticehurst but the Bell Inn had a "wedding fair?" on and as we were not quite dressed for the occasion we did not stop there. We pressed on where one of our number went to the Bull for a meal whilst 3 of us continued on to Wadhurst hopeful there would be a cafe open for tea and cakes. We were making good time so decided to do the last loop around Bewl water reservoir where the water levels were perhaps a bit lower than one would expect. We reached Wadhurst around 3.15pm but no cafe was open so we had a quick refreshment stop at the church. By setting a steady pace (or really fast as I have to call it now!) we did the stretch to the station in a little over 30 mins and caught the fast 4pm train with 5 mins to spare. An invigorating and convivial day out. (Did anyone take an earlier train from London?)

David said...

A few comments need to be made about the directions between Sheepstreet Lane and Ticehurst. In para 22, there is a suggestion to go uphill towards two solitary trees and then, beyond, to cross "two strips of land planted with maize". We followed the directions, but once across the strips of land realized that it would have been better to do two sides of a triangle (i.e. turn left with the footpath arrow on entering the field and then, once past the strips of land, turn right uphill to rejoin the path heading towards the clump of trees referred to in para 25. In para 28, we negotiated the "wooden hurdle" with difficulty only to discover there appeared to be a way of bypassing it by going over the "well-made stile" to the left and then walking through a short patch of undergrowth to reach the other side of the hurdle. This needs to be investigated further. Finally, in para 30, I suggest removing the reference to the right of way crossing the field. The obvious route is up the righthand field edge, as mentioned later in the same paragraph.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this feedback.

I am actually planning to give this walk a check in the spring, so I will check out these points then. I am aware of the ROW route on the map in para 22, but when I was researching the walk and tried it, this was blocked by barbed wire, while footpath posts marked the route I describe. Maybe that has now changed.

The walk author