Bishopstone to Lewes

​Directions

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1. The walk starts at Bishopstone Station where the Friends of Bishopstone Station have installed a free-to-pick herb garden. Walk to end of platform past wildflower and natural habitat border and turn L onto Marine Parade. Follow to beach, then head R along shingle beach, an increasingly rare and sensitive environment, with sea beet and vipers bugloss. Ringed plover and redshank can be seen on the beach.

2. Explore remains of the Tide Mills tidal mill and lagoon. The Mills used tidal power to grind wheat and produce flour and at their height in the 1860’s employed 60 men, who lived in cottages around the site. Storms inflicted severe damage on the Mill and with the arrival of steam power it closed in 1883.

3. You may see one of the sister ships, Cote D’Albatre and Seven Sisters, which take four hours to ply the 125km from Newhaven to Dieppe.

4. Follow FP NNE and cross railway tracks to meet cycleway adjacent to Newhaven Road. Turn L and follow cycleway for 500m then turn L on FP across Ouse Estuary Nature Reserve, created to conserve wildlife and provide flood management when a new business park and road were built. It is home to a wide variety of birds, insects, plants and amphibians including the great crested newt.

5. Cross service road and follow FP keeping ditch to R ignoring first FP on L. Where you reach a housing estate on your L, walk through this  to reach Railway Road where you turn R.

6. Turn L where Railway Road meets the A259 and cross bridge, before crossing road and walking along North Way to Robinson Road. At end of Robinson road turn R to meet FP which runs alongside the marina and adjacent to the Riverside Country Park. Across the river you will see the controversial Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility, completed in 2011, which processes around 210,000 tonnes of household waste and generates enough power to supply 25,000 homes. Follow FP along embankment.

7. After 2km from bridge you will pass a flooded quarry, currently used for sailing and windsurfing, to reach Piddinghoe. Note the round 12th Century Norman tower of St John’s church, one of three round towers hereabouts.   It has been suggested that the reason for the round towers is that flint was plentiful and dressed or cut stone for the quoins needed for a square tower was expensive and scarce.  The tower, surmounted by a wooden shingled octagonal spire is topped by a wind vane in the shape of a large, gilded fish. This is the first of ten historic churches on your route.

8. After Piddinghoe you can either take the Sussex Ouse Valley Route west up the hill and back down to the road, or follow the road for 500m (there is not footpath), although this may be busy. The local community is applying for funds to design interventions to improve safety on this road and it is hoped this will include a footpath north of Piddinghoe.

9. Rejoining the river, after a further 2 km you meet the South Downs Way, which crosses the Ouse on an unusual swing bridge built in the 1880’s. Turn L, crossing Southease Brook pastures and follow road to the beautiful village of Southease. St Peter’s church has another round tower, although the church predates the tower and can be dated to 966AD. There’s a tap on the wall in front of the church, one of a number provided for walkers of the South Downs Way.

10. Follow road to R of church uphill and turn R along a permissive FP to Rodmell. In summer this stretch is full of butterflies. Follow FP into Rodmell (do not turn R at the entrance to the village) and stop for a drink or something to eat at the 15th Century Abergavenny Arms. Another St Peter’s church at Rodmell is early Norman, although the font is believed to be Saxon, predating the building.

11. Follow The Street to Monks House, now owned by the National Trust and open to the public (limited hours, Summer only, pre-booking essential), the home of the author Virginia Woolf for twenty-one years. Here she received members of the Bloomsbury Group and the small wooden lodge at the bottom of the garden was where she wrote many of her novels. Her final novel, Between the Acts, published posthumously in July 1941, is steeped in references to Rodmell and the traditions and values of its villagers. Woolf documented her life at the house in photographs. Preserved in the Monk's House Albums, these include portraits and group pictures of many who visited the house. The house has a charming garden.

12. Continue along The Street, past the NT car park and join bridleway. Continue NW, passing the Lewes Brooks SSSI on your L to rejoin the Ouse. It was near here that Virginia Woolf took her life by filling her pockets with stones and slipping into the river. Her body was found on 18 April 1941.

13. Pass under A27 and shortly after that a railway bridge, then continue through wet grazing meadows. Attractive houses line the far bank of the Ouse and shortly you will come to the Railway Lands Nature Reserve. The reserve was once a railway marshalling yard but the area is now crammed with wildflowers which buzz with life. There are four distinct water habitats including wet woodland, reed beds, ponds and floodplain grassland. On the right, rising high above Lewes you will see Mount Caburn, the hill fort of the Iron Age Belgae people.

14. Leaving the Nature Reserve, follow Railway Lane to Cliffe High Street in the centre of Lewes.

 

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