Inn-to-Inn Hiking in England

A Walk Along the South Downs Way

Winchester to Eastbourne, 100 Miles in 12 Leisurely Hiking Days

After our first week in England visiting with friends and family, we then had to decide where to hike. There was a terrible outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, (FMD), especially in the north. Many trails were still closed to foot traffic when we left our home near San Francisco, so we couldn't even plan a day ahead.

On Monday, Sept 10, we went into downtown Liverpool and the Tourist Information Center. We found that we will have to do our hike on the South Downs Way, as the Lake District and all of Cumbria, and thus the Coast to Coast Walk, are closed because of FMD. We got our train tickets to the south with no problem. Lunch was at a large, busy pub. Then we had an excellent tour, led by Ed's cousin, over to St. George Hall where Ed's grandfather, William Walker Jackson, did the marvelous, ornate plaster work. Quite intricate and lovely. The hall is a huge banquet and conference center. Next we went to the wonderful library where all Liverpool genealogy material is right in the same room with the maps, census records, and histories. One room has a domed glass ceiling; another room has open tiers--all accessible. A lovely place to work.

Back to my cousin's home to call for reservations in Winchester tomorrow at the start of our walk, and near Heathrow on September 30th for the finish. Buffet supper with fresh hot 'chips' John went out to get, hot potato quarters, bread, pork pies, cheese puffs, and ice cream with little cakes!!! A few berries, too, for dessert.

We had a great walk afterwards in the evening drizzle with cousin Joyce as tour guide to many of the local houses. She helped write a booklet on the history of the area. There is even a Celtic well site, and burial urns from Roman times were found during some excavation for a house repair. John Lennon's house is down one of the nearby lanes.

The evening was spent going over the South Downs Way description in our copy of the Lonely Planet Guide: "Walking in Britain". The major work was to read the description, and figure out how to cut each day's mileage about in half. Most of the long distance hikes are designed for 30 year olds who can easily hike 15 to 20 miles per day. We 70 year olds want to do half of that. I was able to find a town just about half way between each of the recommended stops. All I could do at this point, though, was to write the name in the page margin and hope we could get some idea about accomodations in Winchester at the stsrt of the hike. We would have a full day in Winchester to find guide books, and get more information about the hike from people in the area.

The choices I made, which worked out pretty well were as follows:

Train to Winchester

Sept 11, Tuesday

At the Liverpool rail station--huge busy place--by 9 a.m. It was easy to entrain to Birmingham and change there for Winchester. It's been lovely and clear the last two days. Overcast now. Riding the train, it is hard to see countryside a lot of the time, as the train travels down in railway cut, or the way is lined with thick hedgerows. When we could see, it was mostly green pastureland cut by lower hedgerows. The train arrived about 3:30 and we took a cab to the Florum House Hotel--nine rooms. We settled and walked right out to the village and the cathedral. There was a sign on a chair concerning the "attack on the World Trade Center!!" I thought it referred to the attack of several years ago. We continued our walk around to examine all that was there--Izzak Walton and Jane Austin are buried there. As we finished our exploration of the lovely cathedral, a cleric in his red gown offered "prayers for the many killed in the World Trade Center attack." Horrific. At this point all we knew was that someone had flown a highjacked plane into one of the towers. It was now getting late, so we stopped for excellent lamb chops at the Wyckham Arms, a pub and restaurant. The bar tender expressed his sympathy to us. Back at the Florum House Hotel, our host offered condolences. We watched TV of the plane and towers. World aghast!

Sept 12, Wednesday TV still showing little but the aftermath of the terrorist attack. Breakfast of poached eggs on toast with orange juice. We emailed the children from the hotel to check that nobody had been in New York yesterday. We took the same rather longish, but interesting, walk past the college grounds back into city center then, for a thorough examination of all sights. We took all day and it was most enjoyable.

Winchester was established by the Romans, but wound up as the capital of England during Saxon times. The Domesday Book was written here. The cathedral was started in 1079; Cromwell had it destroyed in 1651, but the Great Hall still stands and on the wall is the huge Round Table made famous by the legend of King Arthur and his knights. The table is 30 feet across and hangs on the wall of the huge room. It weighs a ton! Some say it is a 17th century fake. The weather today was overcast to slightly chilly and breezy. A few raindrops. We got the South Downs Way guidebook yesterday, but there was only a reference copy of the accommodations guide. In case we needed to call ahead for reservations, we copied down the phone numbers of many of the B&Bs and guest houses. Back at the hotel, we called Maybury's Pub for our tomorrow night's stay and rearranged clothes for our hike. Everything is in ziplock plastic bags to keep things dry, even if the pack gets wet inside. An OK Spaghetti supper in a pub.

We read our newly acquired guide book before bedtime, and made the discovery that the walk it described was from Eastbourne to Winchester. Whereas, the Lonely Planet walk goes the opposite direction, from Winchester to Eastbourne. We were to follow the Lonely Planet direction, which led to a very interesting daily exercise. We had to read the more detailed guide book backwards! Each day we turned the pages from left to right, followed the maps against the printed arrows and slowly worked our way to the front of the book and Eastbourne. It is quite a mental challenge to read a paragraph normally, then mentally reverse the order of the scenes and the landmarks.

In retrospect, we think the direction from Winchester to Eastbourne is actually the best. It is much more dramatic to finish at the English Channel and the white chalk cliffs approaching Eastbourne.

Day 1 - Maybury's Pub

Sept 13, Thursday

This was the first day of our hike on the South Downs Way Long Distance Path. This is a 99 mile path between Winchester, and Eastborne on the southern English Channel. "Downsland" is spacious, undulating, open countryside with a trail along its ridgetop. As long as 3,000 years ago crops and sheep used this land, with pilgrims, peddlers and shepherds traveling its ridges. It was settled by Neolithic people who used the flint, and dug out long barrows and tumuli as burial sites. Bronze and Iron Age peoples, as well as Roman settlers, used the rich farmlands at the bottom of the ridges. The rocks of which the ground is made are sedimentary deposits of clay mixed with intrusive flint. The turf growing on it is the result of thousands of years of sheep grazing.

Eight and a half miles in five hours. It was OK, but my quads are really, really tired from my 20 lb. pack. It was a fine hike really. There was mostly heavy overcast with two half-hour rainy periods. During one of those, we ate our crackers & cheese, peanuts and apples in the lee of a hedgerow where it was almost dry. A man at the very start of our walk--just half a block out of the B&B--stopped us to chat and, further on, still in Winchester, a friendly woman walking her Airedale, gave us her condolences and walked with us beside the River Itichen. About two hours into our trip, we met a young couple-he finishing the walk from Eastbourne in 12 days. Encouraging to us. We walked through rolling hills bordered by fallow fields or corn. Expansive views to all directions. In one section, our map said to walk through Holden Farm. We went past their sheds and barns and on into a treed dirt road-with two llamas in a pasture! Flint & chalk are our walking surface mostly.

The Milbury Free House and Restaurant was our goal for the night.

We came upon it after slogging up a wooded lane out of fields and meadows. It was at the top of the hill at an intersection of roads. Several houses are beyond it; a pasture is across the road and another tree-lined lane going off at an angle. Otherwise no habitations. It was built in the late 17th century. There is a Bronze Age cemetery nearby. Inside, right next to the bar in a side room, is a massive tread wheel-250 years old-that was used to draw water from the adjacent 300 foot well. The barmaid gave us some ice cubes to drop down. It takes a cube ten seconds to plink in the water at the bottom. A light is adjusted so one can see the water surface. Amazing. Our room is just above the pub, but we hear only the murmur.

Day 2,3 - Exton (Corhampton)

Day 4,5 - Amberley

Day 6 - Washington

Sept 18, Tuesday

Off at 8:45 and back up to the ridge where it was misting, blowing and raining all the time till we got into Washington. Finally we were rained on really hard. We slipped our Gortex pants and tops on and used our "brollies" all morning. We got slightly confused at one junction, where the "fingerpost" wasn't quite clear, by a big barn in a field up on the ridge, but asked a hay baler for directions, curved around a little and were back on track. We saw a couple more roe deer and lots of cows. We got into the village about 12:30 p.m.-covered about six miles to the B&B in a modest 1960's style home and another tiny bedroom. There is a German Shepherd and a ginger cat in residence. Not anything special, but the cordial couple watching the horrors still on TV. The husband wants to wipe them all out. Our hostess told us she had eighty guests in 2000, but only eight this year because everyone thinks FMD has closed paths all over the whole country. Helen has a cold so she napped most of afternoon.

Day 7,8 - Bramber (Upper Beeding)

Sept 19, Wednesday

Off again up to the ridge where we passed the Chanctonbury Ring of trees, a trench and mound, an Iron Age hill fort. We walked through pastures with lots of cows and sheep placidly huddled against the very strong wind and light rain. It was not as wet as yesterday, but hard work. As usual, we augmented our breakfast with tasty blackberries picked along the edges of the pasture fences and hedgerows. Our equipment, we find, is staying safely dry in ziplock bags inside our backpacks. We covered the eight miles in four hours to Upper Beeding, and adjacent Bramber, to the Castle Hotel. Very tired & coldy. We settled for big bowls of mushroom soup for supper.

Sept 20, Thursday

Quiet day in Bramber with a walk up to the ruins of Bramber Castle, about 1073,looming over village and the adjacent church. I slept in the afternoon to help cure my cold, while Ed explored. Here is another resident hotel cat. It waits, with tummy exposed for scratching, in strategic places. Dinner was delicious in an Asian Café just down the street. Not fatty. Crisp veggies. In the window box across street, there wave one English flag, and two little American ones. We had a nice chat with fellow walkers at breakfast. The weather was nice all day today--partly cloudy to sunny. We are in the Adur River Valley; close enough to the sea for the river to be tidal. We're just ten miles from Brighton.

Day 9 - Pyecombe

Sept 21, Friday

We did another eight miles today. Up, up, from Bramber village to rejoin the track on an easterly down different from the one we've been traveling on. More beautiful, rolling pastureland with us up on top of the wide ridge, and extensive views of the villages below on both sides. As we trudged up one farm road with cows and sheep on both sides, a friendly man driving a red car, with his border collies as passengers, stopped to say hello. He wound up offering to surround me with sheep! We met him in a field up further. He then proceeded to work his three dogs there to move the sheep around me. Thrilling.

Up further, there were lots more people on the path. We could see the Devil's Dyke Hotel from several miles off and stopped there for soup & bread for our lunch. This is a big expansive modern building, busy with non-walker types who arrived by bus, and paragliders sitting on the turf waiting for a breeze It is a lovely day. The Fulking Escarpment, which we are walking along, is a sharp cliff. More tumuli. We look down, down, and out onto steep, steep blunt canyons and vast vistas of woods below with villages and small fields with their hedgerows.

Fingerposts led us into Pycombe about 2:30 to another quaint, charming B&B. Part of it, our Dolphin Cottage, is 300 years old. The pleasant couple who own it are real estate agents in Brighton. A curly coated retriever lives here.

This Sussex country village is another one of these super quaint ones. Twisting lanes, thick thatched roofs, profusely colorful flowerbeds even now in mid-September, a pottery, and the ever-present pub. The whole tiny village looks like a movie set. We felt it appropriate to have cream tea at the old, old building next door, The Forge. There is a church here, built in 1170, with an unusual font made of lead. This font was whitewashed during the Civil War of 1645 to prevent the lead being used for bullets. Dinner at the Plough Inn down the hill near the highway and then bed. Tired.

Day 10,11 - Lewes

Sept 22, Saturday

From Pyecombe to Lewes was eight miles. We worked gradually back up to the ridges and country more open along the escarpment looking down on fields, hedgerows,and villages. There are even more people out because this is Saturday.

Hikers, bikers, runners, day walkers. Many with their dogs.

The flint rocks along most of the Way are very unusual to our eyes. Flint and chalk. Because of the way it is formed, flint is considered a sedimentary rock. It occurs mainly in nodules inside rocks such as chalk or limestone, and also as beds. It forms by the accumulation of crypto-crystalline sponge spicules made of silica (SiO2) most probably in colloidal form in marine environments. Flint can also form when percolating waters travel through material like limestone and deposit their silica content inside cavities in the rock.

We could see the channel a bit through the mist, but it was warm and clear-the first day we are sweaterless. There was a gradual descent into Lewes (pronounced Louis) on a shortcut recommended by a pair of "through walkers" going the other direction. We passed a galloping school where horses are trained and, just at the edge of town, a big brick-walled prison. We popped into a residential district and asked a man at a corner repair garage where our street was, as Lewes looks like a real little city. Turns out it was along the same street just out a bit further.

Our B&B, Innismore House, is a big, stately home with gracious furnishings, long hallways and in lovely condition. We rested for hour or so. Then took a long walk to the other end of High Street and wound up in the White Hart pub, where Thomas Paine belonged to a debating club, for a poor quality hamburger. I should not have tried it. Back to our large, comfortable, red-accented room at Innismore House to be greeted by their springer spaniel. Dignified charm here.

Sept 23, Sunday

I had a bad night with a cold and cough. We checked our e-mail here this morning and wrote a general one to all the family. There was a nice note from Jeff.

We walked back into town over the Greenwich meridian-the location of zero longitude. Our first goal was the remaining towers of Lewes Castle. The castle was planned around 1066, after the Battle of Hastings, on orders of William the Conqueror. In 1264, Henry III was defeated by Simon de Monfort at the Battle of Lewes with a Bodington ancestor, an Astley,(see Charles Astley, born 1786, for more information)taking part right in this area. The adjacent museum is excellent. Lewes is a charming town with much interesting architecture from Saxon to Norman to Georgian.

Then on to Anne of Cleves house. She was the fourth wife of Henry VIII. He gave her this beautiful timber-framed house that has been repaired and meticulously restored. It's now over 400 years old and loaded with atmosphere. A wonderful feel of the oak-furnished bedroom of that period. It was an outstanding morning. Asparagus soup and a nap/rest afternoon with a call to Tia since it is her birthday. It has turned chilly. We made a ten-minute walk in light drizzle to dine on guinea fowl.

Day 12 - Rodmell

Sept 24, Monday

Short day into Rodmell here in Sussex. The weather was warm and clear for our walk along the chalk ridges. Much of the lands through which we are walking are National Nature Reserves. England considers these reserves to be the best examples of their national heritage--encompassing wildlife and geology. They are worked in partnership with private landowners to conserve important wildlife sites. Many centuries of sheep grazing produced the short, springy turf that once covered most of the South Downs. Sheep are still used to maintain the surface and prevent it from going to shrubs such as prickly gorse.

Our impression of our next inn, The Barn, would give it a grade of about a C-. The family running this shabby place weren't especially friendly, and the place was pretty "fingerprinty." We had lunch from our Stilton and cracker supply and then walked through the village. The Bloomsbury Group with Virginia Woolf and others met here. Woolf and her husband lived in one of the few houses in this tiny village from 1919 on. She committed suicide nearby. We read all afternoon and had quiche at the only establishment here-a pub with many pictures and mementos of the famous residents.

Day 13,14 - Alfriston

Sept 25, Tuesday

Rodmell to Alfriston. We figure we did about ten miles today. This is because, for about an hour, we walked at the English rambler's pace. First, as we chatted with a friendly man striding along with his Labrador, then a couple out for a stroll-more rapid than we usually go. We had a nice chat with them as they told us more about the countryside.

The views were magnificent in all directions after the morning mist lifted. Green undulating hills rolling off behind us. To our left, the valleys with farm patches outlined by hedgerows, and forest clumps, and clustered houses with a church spire to indicate a village. To our right, a hill or two obscured the English Channel from view. We crossed the Ouse River, which we saw before, running through the middle of Lewes. A warm, clear day. Before finding our accommodation we splurged on a "summer pudding" with a soft, clotted cream,in a 1240 inn a few minutes away. We are now sitting in the garden of the Dacres B&B waiting for our hostess to come home. Alfriston is another unbelievably quaint town.

Patsy arrived shortly. Perfectly charming talkative woman. Our room is actually a separate apartment attached to the house. It has a kitchen, a bedroom alcove and a large sitting room. It is immaculate. There is a rambling garden with fruit trees, fuchsias, many flowerbeds and a collection of berry vines with Tom, the tortoise, living under them. A delight to see.

Sept 26, Wednesday

Patsy brought breakfast around to our apartment at 8 a.m. It was lucious creamy scrambled eggs with all the fixings. We spent the day strolling through the village-obviously a tourist spot for old ladies. Lots of bric-a-brac and fancy cookware shops. However it was charming, and Alfriston Clergy House is the town highlight. It is a fine example of an ordinary timber framed house surviving from the 14th century.

The weather was chilly and threatening so we came back here after another good soup lunch. We finally convinced Patsy that we didn't want to walk just three or four miles tomorrow, and got a reservation at a hotel on the cliffs eight or nine miles away.

Day 15 - Birling Gap

Sept. 27, Thursday

We covered about eight and a half miles today nibbling blackberries for our breakfast fruit again. On this section, our trail is a ten-foot wide, mowed line through the fields and upland turf, to mark the way. We started off through Alfriston town along the river bank, through hilly little Litlington, dark woods and more green fields. We got somewhat off the track at one point in the woods with too many signs pointing not quite exactly to one particular trail. Another walker put us on the right track to the nearby The Seven Sisters Interpretative Center. It is a nice USA type national park interpretative center.

The Seven Sisters form a spectacular chalk headland where the South Downs meet the sea. The trail goes for eight miles right along the edge of the chalk cliffs. The Seven Sisters start at a river's delta, and many student classes and buses of visitors crowded the way. Soon we went up and down, and up & down the seven steep ridges that are called the Seven Sisters. It was hard work. The adjacent cliffs we hike beside are sheer and white. The view is breathtaking. It was windy, warm, lovely, clear weather. We arrived at Birling Gap Hotel at 2 p.m. It is a rather seedy accommodation, like The Barn a couple of nights ago. Although the cliffs recede up to three feet a year, the hotel is perched right near the present edge. There are only three other buildings around. The rest of our view is of sheep and cows on the rolling hills we were on all morning. Our room is about 20 feet from the cliff.

There are a few boats out in the channel, some surfers and one kayaker. In the big pub area of the hotel, we had some good, big sausages for dinner.

Day 16,17 - Eastbourne

Sept 28, Friday

Our last hiking day. It was about six miles. For a while we were on a looping road about half a mile to the west of the cliffs themselves. We passed a lovely manor house set in a field. It had what looked like a carefully tended garden with a scrubby section where a man was bird watching, then house and stables. We passed the Belle Tout lighthouse which was moved back from the cliff's edge some years ago and is now a residence. Then came the famous red and white Eastbourne Light out in the water below the cliffs. It looks like a barber pole. Then the big resort city of Eastbourne hove into view, down and ahead of us. It was fun to stride past a tourist viewing spot, over the last grassy slopes, and down onto the seaside main promenade to pass the tea shop marking the end of the South Downs Way. Wide green lawns and parks, some big, red brick buildings housing a school, estates with a view of the sea, and many grand Hotels harking to the Victorian era were on the land side on our left. Lawns, benches and beach were on our right. It is a small, clean city in the warm clear September sunlight.

We found our Hotel Mowbrey opposite the Devonshire Park Theater-a fourth floor room with a view. We rested a while. Then went up to the shopping street (closed off to traffic) for a good Chinese dinner.

Sept 29, Saturday

We breakfasted in the little dining room on the bottom floor. All the seats were taken. The offering was, as usual, cooked tomato, baked beans, bacon, sausage, ham, two eggs, and toast! Finally, I am only taking minimal. There was a delightful talkative lady and a nice couple there who had come down to see a play.

It was misty, then rainy, but we walked the length of the promenade along the shore. The sand is pebbles/rocks-not conducive to sitting on. There are rows of little beach cabanas for changing. Looks so very Victorian! The hotels of that era line the strand. Many elderly people. Shopping mall street and a very crowded interior Mall with a hundred department stores. We checked out half a dozen thrift shops. Cream tea again in a beachfront hotel. Scones that split properly and lucious cream beaten light as egg white. Better than before. We were lazy after 2 p.m. Out again only for dinner on the strand at Oarton's. We split a set menu and dined on shrimp and avocado starter, lamb chops, just right veggies, and, for dessert, warm strawberries, blueberries and currants with vanilla ice cream and white chocolate sauce. A fine finale.

Day 18 - Train to Heathrow

September 30, Sunday

We moved on by train to a Best Western hotel near Heathrow and just hung out and read there in the drizzle until our flight to San Francisco the next day-October 1.

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