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Directions

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1. Start by the unusual village pump in Newick. The key attractions near the village are the National Trust property and gardens at Sheffield Park, and the Bluebell Railway. Both can be reached by a short ride on bus 261 (weekends only).

2. Cross A272. Head N on FP which runs down L side of Sussex Village Store. Turn R after 200m and follow Alexander Mead for a short distance. Keep L to walk ENE gently downhill on paved track. Follow down to some conifers and entrance to wastewater treatment works.

3. Follow FP to L, leaving radio mast to your R. You will see the spire of Fletching church – head towards it. The map indicates that the FP runs straight across a field to the valley bottom but you may be required to divert R around the edge of the field. Head towards base of the nearest pylon, leaving it to R. Cross two small bridges.

4. Go through a gate and keep hedge on L, crossing several fields until you come to a house. The FP goes through the garden. You will then reach a road.

5. Turn R, crossing the Ouse and follow road uphill to Fletching. The road appears to be a holloway, the first of several on our walk. Most holloways started off as drove roads, and some date back to the Iron Age. As the roads deepened they became natural waterways, rain draining into and down them. Storms sluiced away the loose rock debris.

6. You will arrive at a junction opposite the 12th Century church of St Andrew and St Mary the Virgin, Fletching where Simon de Montford prayed before Battle of Lewes. At the time of writing a sign entitled “The Living Churchyard” described how the meadow area behind the sign was being managed for wildlife and recorded the presence of the common blue and small copper butterflies. There is a tap behind the church if you need to fill up a water bottle.

7. Turn L and walk through village, past the Griffin Inn, once a coaching house used by smugglers on their way to Ashdown Forest from the South Coast, and a great place for refreshments.

8. After 500m you will see a FP on L opposite Atherall’s farm. Follow this for around 700m to meet a road opposite Spring Farm. At the time of writing the farmer had diverted this path to the E of the marked route.

9. At road turn L and walk past Spring Farm Alpacas (who can arrange Alpaca walking) and continue along road for 300m before turning R and taking a FP N through a shaw. Notice the small fields on either side which the landowner has evidently decided to retain rather than grubbing up the shaw and creating a larger field.

10. Keep following this FP for around 700m, crossing a paved track and then a grassy ride before descending through dense woodland to a rough road with a hard standing in front of you. Cross over the track, turn L and look R for FP sign (not easy to see). Follow FP, keeping the hedge to your R for 200m to enter woodland.

11. Turn R and descend to Mill Pond, part of Sheffield Mill, where you meet the Sussex Diamond Way (SDW).

12. Keeping Mill Pond to your L follow SDW into Sheffield Forest. In times past this woodland would have been full of activity – clay digging, charcoal burning and iron smelting.

13. Ascend hill through conifers, then descend to a stream. Keep this stream to L, ignoring turnings to your L, before meeting a track. Turn L and follow this to road and Woolpack Farm.

14. Cross road and continue on SDW, walking up another shaw before descending R to a stream. See sign post with three options. Keep going in the direction you have come from. Cross stream on a small bridge. Cross another track and keep going uphill in the same direction.

15.  After around 800m reach road. Turn R and follow the road uphill to Nutley.

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