Overcast skies, but no rain forecast, and after yesterday's day out I planned
a short walk for today, taking in Marley and Stanley commons trying to avoid
the serpent tail and Lipchis way but filling in a section for the Sussex
border trail where it deviates from the others. I knew the car park at Marley
common did not have a barrier and there was an alternative just down the road
as well, so no problems with the van.
We parked in amongst the dog walker vehicles and headed off into the woods of
the common through the gate then turning right on a track not marked on the map,
but heading in the correct direction. This headed across the common and
eventually back to the road we had arrive upon.
After nudging the road where the boundary of a nursing home (St Magnus) limits
cross travel then down a very steep path to Kingsley Green
Passing a strange Old bench looking over the rough ground, then across a back
road and down the private road to Marley Heights - an exclusive housing area.
At the end of Marley Heigths we moved into Kingsley Copse contouring across the
slope before dropping onto the end of Vann lane.
Down Vann lane ( we had been her several times before), until we could turn off
up a farm drive way
Passing just below the farm house and into a field - luckily the bovine
occupants were not interested in us and we crossed over two more.
Passing Greenhill house and its securely fenced off gardens to the edge of
Oakreeds Wood.
Into the woods, initially a bit scrubby but then resolving into forestry of
pines. We continued across the wood to come out on a back road.
Leaving the back road down an overgrown path, that gradually improved until we
met a larger track which crossed a stream on a huge crossing.
The woods on the other side led in a curving route to Newlands Cottage, where we
had to negotiate the gates around the house and several loud dogs to get onto a
track curving around - We had been here before but going the other direction.
A steep climb up a track with a zigzag in it brought us past a logging operation
to Stanley Farm. Then down its driveway and into Stanley Common where we crossed
over a crossroads - we would be back here from another direction shortly.
The track in the woods was gravelled over and fairly direct to the other side of
the common, and we picked up the conglomeration of Lipchis, Serpents and border
trails before they separated once again.. We stayed on the Lipchis trail until
very nearly the end of the woods, before freelancing across to the Serpents
way.
On the Serpents way, but returning the other direction. We followed it out onto
the common, before dropping down to a track along the edge when the Serpents way
turned .
This was a dirt track (or rather sandy track!) that led to a forestry works camp
and a shooting area, before reverting to a simple path as it climbed up the edge
of the common
We met and turned onto the Lipchis way which took us back to the crossroads we
had been at earlier. Our loop around the common completed we took the exit we
had not yet been on and continued down a road.
The road gave way to a track then a path up to the end of the common in this
direction, then we turned into Ash Copse, and the ubiquitously named poison
copse.
The woods ended at a field, and we followed the edge up to the hamlet of
Linchmere and its lonely bus stop
Just past the bus stop we turned down a lane - this was now the Sussex Border
path - which eventually mutated into a path alongside a field leading up to
woods.
The path climbed slightly and curved around in the woods until coming out beside
a horse farm, where the path grew again to a track
The track changed into a road as it passed Marley House, then we re-entered
Marley common on a footpath
The path led almost directly back to the car park where we had started and the waiting van.
