Nostalgia, Bluecoats and a Castle - Day walk Saturday 3rd February 2024
Nine of us met up at the disused West Grinstead station, all prepped and ready for unpleasant weather after all the rain, but in fact were pleasantly surprised that we remained mainly dry throughout! The walking was fairly flat and easy along the old railway track bed which has a pretty good surface, and we sped along to Copsale where we re-grouped and agreed to slow down a bit!
From here we passed along wooded and slightly busier paths towards Southwater and under the A24, stopping briefly just north of the village centre on a green overlooking a pond with bulrushes for our coffee break. Heading north on the Link we soon turned off to negotiate a couple of muddy and wet fields that led us in a circuitous route to the playing fields of Christs Hospital which we crossed before rejoining the Downs Link and going south this time for our lunch stop at the Bax Castle pub. The landlord had indicated that we could use his benches for our picnic so long as a few of us bought drinks, and in fact several of us ordered the rather delicious home made soup!
We then retraced our steps on the track back down through Southwater village, chatting away and enjoying the views in the opposite direction, finishing at around 3pm, with a total of 10.5 miles walked.
Walk Leader
Anthony Waton
Honouring the brave of WW2 – bomber crash sites - 11 miles
Parking at Droke Forest Car Park between East Dean and Upwaltham, the route for the 12 of us on the club’s first day walk of the year took us up through Selhurst Park along to the Benges, across the A285 and after a walk through the woods headed roughly NNW towards Upwaltham church passing the first memorial, a large cairn made of flints and a commemorative plaque. Coffee break at the church with homemade cake to fuel us for the ascent of North Down to Crown Tegleaze passing the second memorial onto SDW.
Along to Graffham Down before descending SW with lunch near Postles Barn (barely above freezing and overcast) before descending to East Dean and some very wet ground crossings (the only really wet part of the walk) in the valley before ascending East Dean Hill before joining the Monarchs Way to head east with a view to Halnaker Windmill before turning north to head back into Selhurst Park Hill and back to Droke with a downhill finish!
Michael Merritt
Organiser
North Downs – Kent – November 2023
Who thought Kent was going to be flat and super easy? Fridays' afternoon walk from Detling was up and down steep steps several times over with expansive views down the valley and across the Weald, completing in the dark though a vineyard. We finished the day with an excellent meal in the old Chequers Inn beside the log fire.
Snowdonia – October 2023
Twelve of us returned to the former chapel at Tyn-y-Garth, for another classic old-school club trip in October. We had plenty of rain (it is Wales after all!) but with the help of my friends we re-planned on the spot and managed three fab days walking – a more sheltered valley walk on the first and wettest day, a gambol up the Glyders on day two and a glorious outing onto Moel Siabod on day three.