1066 Country Walk

Here goes! I've taken out all the maps and the whereabouts of the 3 photos speak for themselves! I have 5 other long walk write-ups including Hadrian's Wall, if there is any blog future?

The 1066 Country Walk no 2, Tuesday 19th July to Friday 22nd July 2016

Since I had failed to walk the 2½ miles from Catsfield to Battle on walk no 1 in 2014, I had been hankering after repeating the entire walk from Pevensey to Rye in its entirety. The biggest stumbling block was that there was simply nowhere close to the route to stay before actually reaching Battle and 16½ miles was a bit of a stretch, particularly as I knew there were several hard climbs en route. And having previously pressed on to Rye on the following day, I was loathe to repeat the same torture. I also regretted not having had the chance for my still current, but only just, annual English Heritage membership to be gainfully employed in visiting Battle Abbey. So with this in mind and with the added power of my senior bus pass, I reasoned that maybe I should re-join the English Heritage and get my money’s worth this time! As I was planning to undertake this walk with Michael, I suggested that we both join at the same time, especially as there was a very attractive discount being offered and that we could have a rest day in Battle and explore Battle Abbey. I had already visited the Abbey some 20 years ago and was looking forward to seeing changes and improvements.

The dates were decided but the train ticket had cost £6 more because of the current Southern Rail disputes. Shame on them. We agreed to meet at the station at 08:10 for the 08:18 train (which, incidentally, was the same train that I caught 2 years previously). I arrived just before 08:10 but there was no sign of Michael, who is usually always there before me. I remained standing in the ticket office area and kept going outside to see if he was coming but I didn’t think once of looking on the platform. The train came in, my watch was showing 08:17 and I started to worry as I watched all the passengers boarding through the doors until suddenly I had a clear view of Michael standing on the train! A catastrophe was only just avoided and in future we shall be much clearer about where exactly we shall meet! Two years ago, I undertook this walk on the hottest day of the year and this day was the hottest day of this year, reaching temperatures of 33C. Oh no! Not again!

The train was understandably more crowded than usual and there were no suitable seats together so we had to stand until Lewes. The connecting train was more or less on time and just after 09:30 we found ourselves at Pevensey & Westham.

It was to be 7½ miles, as before, to the first chance of refreshment so we set off promptly along the usual route through Pevensey Castle grounds. This was one of only three English Heritage sites in East Sussex, but not today, we had to get to Boreham Street in three hours! Once across the eternally busy A259, we settled into a good pace and worked our way across the Pevensey Levels with Herstmonceux church spire ever our guiding beacon. We came to the exact same gate, still chained and padlocked as I encountered in 2014 and still there was no marker to show the way to the right! I should say at this point that the marker discs for the 1066 Country Walk are bright red, which can be seen from some way off. However it is a colour that easily fades in the sun and so most of them were hard to spot and even harder to read the direction! Some way along this non-discernible path we saw a bright red disc and continued our way to Herstmonceux church without further problems, and then on some delightful paths between the observatory buildings until we reached the disused car park. This was the place that had given so much grief when I walked this in 2014 with Derek, so rather than attempt to locate the path as before, I chose to plunge into the attractive Wartling Wood opposite and go exactly the same way as before, braving several hundred yards along the extremely noisy and busy A271 to the Bull’s Head in Boreham Street. We arrived there just after 12:30 and sank down gratefully in the cool interior to await our tasty sausage baguettes. The young barman seemed genuinely impressed by our determination to walk in such heat, but I had done it all before and as long as there was an ample supply of water and refreshingly cold lagers along the way, it is not pleasant but it can be done.

An hour just whizzed by and knowing all too well that there was only one other pub before the next 6½ miles to Catsfield, we set off at speed for the next 3 miles along familiar paths until we reached the Ash Tree Inn in Brownbread Street at 14:50. We were delighted to find that the opening hours had been extended beyond 15:00 hrs to a summertime 16:00 hrs. We had a chat with someone we had seen in the previous pub and I was so thirsty that I quaffed a second pint and had my water bottle re-filled. On such a hot day and with previous experience, it was imperative that we did not dehydrate!



Coming out of the pub we walked past the turn off to the right, which neither of us spotted and consequently added a couple of hundred yards, but the rest of the 3½ mile to the White Hart Inn at Catsfield was relatively trouble free apart from the long slog up at Steven’s Crouch . We arrived tired and again thirsty at around 18:00 and gratefully sank another pint in the shade of the garden. By now we had completed 14 of the 16½ miles and started the “final furlong” with a spring in our step. I had had no need to consult the map as the 1066 discs, whether bright red or not were easily seen. So it was that we came out of the woods into a lane and the all important 1066 disc was not on the sign post and because I hadn’t been following the map, there was no way of knowing where we actually were! Instinctively I suggested turning right but after a few hundred yards there was nothing to indicate we had chosen correctly. We then retraced our steps past the useless signpost and walked twice the distance until we reached a B road. Michael knocked on one door and then another only for us to be told that we had been going in the right direction in the first place! Groan! So, with slightly leaden legs we went back past the useless signpost to the point where we’d turned back and followed the road until we reached some woods. Again there was a lack of signage and Michael went back to a man gardening and ascertained that we were on the right path and that we were very close to Battle. Later in the woods we did come across another 1066 disc, but at the 2 points that mattered the most they were completely missing. As Michael was to dryly observe more than once that we always seem to get this kind of signage problems right at the end of a very long and tiring walk!