Stick Your Neck Out

Registration Point

There were no plans for another mascot trail this year but an unlikely opportunity cropped up when we found a new trail in the local town of Horsham.  This was a more homespun affair than the Gromits and the Rhinos beforehand but I thought it would be a good excuse for a town walk with the girls, especially as there were prizes on offer for this one!

Lloyds Bank

The task was to find the 51 giraffes that had been placed around the town by the Rotary Club and we were given a sheet and map where we could find them.  Any chance of this being a long-winded affair were soon scotched when I discovered that the first half dozen were all grouped together by the registration point, with another half a dozen dotted around the Swan Walk shopping centre where we started.  I was rather glad to leave the confines of the shopping centre though and the next phase of our walk took us around the rather older Carfax.  The unusually named square is the original heart of the town where the four main roads met.  It is now a rather vibrant square and we were lucky enough to visit on market day.  Our noses were filled with the fantastic aromas of curries, pasties and other baked goods being sold on the market.

Carfax Shops

We found that most of the giraffes dotted around the Carfax were in shop windows, although in many cases we had to go inside to collect the names of them.  The girls had a great time doing this as they got a lot of attention as they busily collected the names and wrote them on their entry forms.  Perhaps their favourite ones were the ones inside the British Legion shop (where they collected their poppies too – nice move!) and one inside a haberdashery shop which had been done up in lots of offcuts of material.

Bandstand

At the top end of the Carfax is the rather strange St Mark’s Church tower, almost completely overshadowed by the insurance buildings that surround it.  Apparently the church never prospered and despite a rebuild it finally succumbed to progress when the Royal Sun Alliance built their headquarters here.  Before moving on from the Carfax we also enjoyed looking at the bandstand, which was erected here in 1892 and has been refurbished in recent years.

St Mark's

The last giraffe on our tour of the Carfax was stationed in the Natwest Bank and literally made of money!  My children were rather nonplussed by the sight of £1 notes – how long has it been since we had those?  Our onward journey took us into the rather secretive looking Piries Place, yet another area of shops accessed via a small passageway.  I guess old Horsham would have had a lot of these, but the modern town seem to have lost of these features in the path to modernisation.  In fact the whole town is a rather strange mixture of old and new, not always sitting comfortably alongside each other either.  In this particular square of modern shops though was a rather whimsical piece of public art that seemed to be very popular with the children as it depicts a well known Horsham figure who used to ride around by donkey and trap.

Dressed for Dinner

Within the square was also my favourite giraffe of the whole day, the very pink and dolled up Zsa Zsa Giraffe.  She made quite the addition to the clothing boutique that she was stationed in!  Once we had collected all the names from Piries place we then headed out past a very interesting looking store called Pretty Things.  Sadly, although it looked lovely it was completely devoid of customers and I wonder how long it might survive for?  We turned to head down East Street and by now the girls were in their stride anxious to run ahead and find the next one.  For my younger daughter the short distances between each giraffe and the large number of them were perfect for her little legs.

Piries Place

We passed by the historic Town Hall, now a branch of the up and coming chain Bills and originally built in 1721 but much altered since then.  It last served as a public building in the 1970s when the Council was reorganised.  It serves as a rather atmospheric and seemingly popular place to eat nowadays and it is good to see the old place with such a bright future.

Pretty Things

Our route then took us down The Causeway and a pleasingly old and rather affluent looking part of town.  The bright blue skies were giving way to some rather threatening clouds and we rather hurried through the next part so that we could take refuge in the library.  The shower thankfully passed in the time we were in the library and we came out to find that it actually hadn’t amounted to very much – definitely a case of the clouds have a bark worse than their bite!

Town Hall

In the Forum area we stopped to inspect the sundial that was erected here in 2002.  It is a clever piece of artwork for it incorporates many scenes from Horsham’s history including the Wey and Arun Canal, the poet Shelley, brickmaking and Southdown sheep.  It looked particularly good in the newly emerged sunshine and attracted a lot of attention from passers by.  We dived into the local branch of Beales to find the next three giraffes and discovered that these were deliberately hidden away just to make sure that we visited every corner of the store!

Threatening Clouds at The Forum

Once we had negotiated Beales we passed by the large fountain on the junction of West Street and the former Worthing Road and known as the Shelley Fountain (although officially known as Rising Universe).  This rather controversial piece of public art has aroused strong feelings about its appearance (it has been dubbed the ugliest fountain in the world!) and has been beset by problems with its inner workings.  I rather like it personally – it is a rather bold piece and reminds me of a globe with a tear down the middle.

Speccy

We picked up the last two giraffes in the shopping street, the rather delightful Siyabonga in the sweet shop (dressed up like a liquorice allsort) and Speccy in Specsavers, a rather short sighted specimen!  All that was left for us after picking these up were the last two up in the Capitol Theatre some distance away.  I was rather surprised that the girls were still up for finding these as they were a fair walk but they were adamant that they wanted to complete all 51.  The two in the theatre were worth finding though – one was done up like Pudey from Children in Need fame and the other Peter Pan.  They were worthy specimens to finish with.  This was a fun trail that worked on two levels – for the girls it was all about the giraffes while for me it was all about the history of a town that I visit often for work but rarely look around.

Slindon Round

Slindon Pond

Now that autumn has well and truly kicked in we are trying to make the most of whatever good weather we have.  Last Sunday was a good case in point when the day was unexpectedly sunny for a short window of time. The girls seem to have a greater appetite for walking now and so we are trying to encourage that too by taking them out on walks that feature something a bit different in terms of things to look at.  We are very lucky in Sussex to have so many of these places on our doorstep.

Entrance to Slindon Church

I remembered that the village of Slindon had a wonderful pumpkin art display during October and I was keen that we incorporated both that and the rather spooky Nore Folly into our walk.  What was rather unexpected along the way was that the rain clouds came over rather sooner than we thought

St Mary's Slindon

We parked at the bottom end of the village and wandered up through the thatched roof cottages, stopping briefly at the church for a look inside. Slindon church has a few notable memorials inside including one to Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the signing of Magna Carta. 

Anthony St Leger

What caught our eye most of all though was the rather unusual grave of Anthony St Leger (d 1539), a warrior dressed in armour from the Wars of the Roses, said to be the only wooden effigy in any church in Sussex.  It certainly provoked a good deal of fascination from my oldest daughter, currently studying The Tudors at school.  It felt like a stroke of genius taking her to see it, but in truth it was no more than a lucky find since I had no idea of its existence!

Railway Carriage Annexe

Almost opposite the church was a slice of history from a different vintage in the shape of an old railway carriage now being used as a home.  Apparently this relic of Victorian railwayana was put here as long ago as 1906.

Pumpkin Art

Further up the village the pumpkin display didn’t disappoint – in fact it was the largest sales area of pumpkins I have seen in this country.  The artwork depicted a Cinderella carriage made out of pumpkins, which looked rather splendid.  We resisted the temptation of tucking some pumpkins under our arms, knowing that we had some distance to travel.

Take Your Pick

On the way out of the village we passed Slindon College.  This large building, resplendent with intricate Tudor style chimneys, was once one of the Archbishop of Canterbury's residences.  I was rather amused to find out one of the stories about the house.  In 1330 Thomas de Natindon, who was a legal representative of the Pope, was sent to Slindon to serve a writ on the archbishop. His party were not well received by the archbishop's servants who stripped and bound them, then threw cold water over them, apparently with the archbishop's consent. Natindon escaped and was pursued over the hills to Petworth where he was caught and held in prison for three days.

Tudor Chineys

We pushed on out of the village up towards Nore Folly.  As we did so it became clear that our nice sunny day was about to be invaded by some sharp rain showers as the sky ahead was getting increasingly dark.  We hurried the girls along, not wanting to get caught out in the open.  We got to the top of the hill at Nore Folly just as the first raindrops began to fall.  We crouched down under a big yew tree behind the folly and despite the heavy rain sweeping across the countryside we managed to stay dry, which was something of a miracle!

Approaching Rain

When the rain had passed after a few minutes we clambered out from underneath the tree and took a better look at Nore Folly.  This is a true folly, for although at first glance it resembles the ruin of a castle gate, it is soon obvious that it has no use at all and could never have done so.  I am not even sure when it was built, although it is estimated to have been put there between 1749 and 1786 by the Newburgh family, who owned the estate at that time.  

Rain Showers

What is not in doubt though is the view across towards Selsey Bill and the coastal plain of this part of West Sussex, which is amazing.  Somehow the rain clouds and unsettled conditions made it even more dramatic and landmarks such as Chichester Cathedral, the Spinnaker Tower at Portsmouth, Butlins at Bognor and the Isle of Wight could all clearly be seen from the viewpoint.  We lingered for a short while before disappearing into the woods behind the folly. The children pushed on ahead to look for fungi on the forest floor.  Being beech woodland they got to find some very different species than on our walk around Midhurst a couple of weeks earlier.  Sadly for me though the camera battery died here and the spare I thought I had was also dead so this is where picture taking ended for the afternoon.  However, it was almost as if the weather knew this was the case for within a few minutes the cloud came over and for the rest of the afternoon it was rather grey and drab.  Any pictures I would have got would have been fairly poor anyway so I didn’t feel too disappointed.

Nore Folley

Our route took us on a loop through the woods and across the fields of the dip slope of the Downs to the north of the village.  At times the going was pretty difficult through the mud and storm damage of the St Jude storm that had swept through here a few days earlier.  Generally though it was a delight to wander through the beech woodlands and through hedgerows sporting the old man’s beard of wild clematis. 

View Back to Slindon College

Eventually we came to the track that would lead us back down into the village of Slindon.  This looked like an important trackway of years gone by and the view back to Bignor Hill looked most inviting, even on what was now an overcast afternoon.  I made a mental note that it could be a future expedition.

Nore Folly View East

Our route back into Slindon took us along a ridge that gave us a great view of the whole of the route completed, including a distant view to Nore Folly and the Tudor chimneys of Slindon College.  It made for a lovely visual summary of our route, especially to show our children what they had achieved in a relatively short time.  It wasn’t long after that we found the car once again and got our very muddy boots off!  We headed home for a well deserved Sunday dinner after our lungfuls of fresh air.

Kennet and Avon Canal Walk Section 6 Bedwyn to Pewsey

Activity at Bedwyn Wharf

A whole season has gone by since our last outing on the Kennet and Avon Canal and we had been itching to get back for some time.  What had been bothering us though was the practicalities of getting from one end to the other.  Curiously, although Bedwyn and the next station Pewsey are both near to the canal and are only 9 miles apart there is no direct train between them.  Beyond Pewsey the railway line and canal diverge and there is no train service at all!  We had tinkered with the idea of using bikes or weathering the lengthy journey via Newbury when a rather unlikely solution came in the shape of a seldom seen friend in Staffordshire who wanted to join us for our walk.  That meant that we could park a car at each end of the walk and have a ready made transport plan!

Bedwyn Church

We rendezvoused in Pewsey and headed over to Bedwyn together.  It was a pretty unpromising day, with a lot of cloud around and damp conditions everywhere. Summer seemed a very long time ago!  At Great Bedwyn there seemed to be a lot of activity, far more than we remember on the lazy summer Sunday we were here last.  We did well to find a parking spot in the car park at Bedwyn wharf in among all the activity and were very pleased to be getting underway.

Beech Grove Bridge

Although the weather was decidedly autumnal the surroundings did not really suggest that winter was on its way with much of the foliage still on the trees and in most cases still very green.  The activity at Bedwyn soon died away as we headed westwards and all we heard for a while was the rumble of one of the suburban trains as it turned to head back towards London.  Little did we know but that was the last train we heard all day, suggesting that the line was closed for engineering works.

Sapphire

The bridges and locks came at a fairly regular pace along this section of the canal, although it has to be said that not all of them looked in very good repair.  Beech Grove Bridge in particular looked in very poor shape and the tank traps stationed on top suggested that it hadn’t been used by any vehicular transport since at least World War II. In fact I rather doubt that it would be strong enough now to cope with anything more than a single walker, such was its state of dilapidation.

Crofton Pumping Station

At the next lock we saw the first boat of the day heading westwards.  As is her way my 6 year old daughter waved and struck up a conversation with the boat owners, much to their amusement.  She was particularly taken with their small dogs on board, who seemed to be itching for a swim, much to the chagrin of their owners.

Former Railway Crossing

A little further ahead and we came upon Crofton pumping station.  This is allegedly the oldest working steam engine in the world and would have made for an excellent place for us to take a look around except that alas we missed its summer opening by three weeks L.  The access to the pumping station if we had been able to visit was not so obvious; it was actually via a bridge we had already passed rather than from directly opposite.  The purpose of the pumping station was to help provide some of the water for the canal, for we were now nearing the summit level and water is scarce here.  Opposite is Wilton Water, a small lake also used to help balance water levels.  On this rather quiet and damp Saturday it was rather difficult to believe that such an industrial undertaking was necessary to keep this tranquil canal going.

Bruce Tunnel

Just past the pumping station and we passed the remains of a couple of old railway bridges.  A glance at the map suggested a rather complex former railway feature, most of which is now defunct.  This was the crossing of the old line from Southampton to Swindon via Andover and Marlborough, one that was deeply unpopular with its rival company the Great Western Railway, which otherwise ran most of the lines in these parts.  A form of railway mania in this unlikely setting of Savernake Forest took over, meaning that there were duplicate lines running into the small town of Marlborough a few miles to the north of this point.  Duplication was loathed by British Railways when they took over, and all the lines north and south eventually succumbed to closure, leaving only the east-west route intact.  All the remaining earthworks are now slowly receding into nature, yet another long lost scheme that will be forgotten over time.

Bonnet Fungi

This also marked the summit level of the canal and a little further on we reached the obstacle of Bruce Tunnel, surprisingly the first that we had encountered on our journey from Reading and the only sizeable one on the whole canal.  The tunnel was named in honour of Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Aylesbury.  He allowed progress of the canal across his land, but only if the tunnel were built rather than a deep cutting.  For us walkers though we would have to part with the canal for a bit as the tunnel is not equipped with a towpath.  The original boatmen had to relay on pulling themselves through the tunnel using chains that were fitted to the walls.

Burbage Wharf

High above the tunnel are a scattering of houses, one of which really caught my eye on account of its patterned brick work.  The railway took advantage of the presence of the tunnel, cutting across to take the south bank rather than the north.  Above the tunnel was the last of the railway junctions that formed the Savernake network, this time a branch line that joined the main GWR line to a branch running to Marlborough and is now defunct along with all the others.

Afternoon Fishing

By now tummies were rumbling and we searched desperately for somewhere to sit.  Despite meeting back with the canal once again no seating existed, even by the nearby Burbage wharf.  The wharf itself was an interesting find for it has the last remaining wooden crane alongside.  This old thing was first built in 1831 although the one that is there now is a reproduction. 

Approaching Wootton Rivers

Feeling thwarted by the lack of seating we did the only reasonable thing shortly after – we resorted to our coats on the rather wet canal bank.  The gobbling down of food though did improve the mood considerably and we were soon on the march westwards once again.  It wasn’t just our moods that improved – after a mile or so more walking the weather cheered up too, revealing some sunshine and completely changing the mood of the day.  Strangely the change in weather seemed to have an effect on the number of people we saw too.  Soon there were a number of canoeists passing us as well as boaters.  Across the other side of the canal we wandered past a murder of crows (isn’t that a great collective noun?) harassing a bird of prey and encouraging it to leave.  Closer to home and we passed a stealthy heron checking out the water for a tasty snack.  Yet despite all the activity on the water we seemed to be the only walkers on the route.

Royal Oak at Wootton Rivers

At Wootton Rivers we decided that a refreshment stop would go down well with everyone and so we wandered into the village.  We were at once surprised by how picturesque it was.  Our reason for the diversion was one of convenience rather than sightseeing but we were glad that we had picked this particular village for it was lovely.  The main street was full of impossibly pretty houses, many of them with thatched roofs.  The Royal Oak made for a very enjoyable stop and I particularly enjoyed my 6X, something I hadn’t had in a very long time.

Mooring at Pewsey

When we resumed back on the canal, our sunshine didn’t last too much longer.  As we reached the Wiltshire Downs the clouds came rolling in once again and very soon we were dealing with a very heavy rain shower and cowering under the trees.  Fortunately it didn’t last too long and after a couple of miles of unremarkable but rather pleasant towpath walking we soon came to the line of boats that suggested that we were approaching an overnight mooring spot.  So it proved, with some more sunshine heading our way too.  At Pewsey Wharf we faced the disappointment of both pubs being closed.  The more convenient one on our side of the canal was closed for a wedding, with a rather special horse and cart lined up to transport the bride and groom.  The pub on the north side doesn’t open in the afternoon at all.

Getting Married at Pewsey Wharf

This marked the end of our walk and thanks to Christine this was a particularly difficult stretch logistically that we no longer had to worry about.  It was lovely to catch up with her and we vowed to do the next sections together as well.  Now that we have arrived at Pewsey, onward transport looks even more difficult without this option.  The only problem now is to find a weekend both parties can manage!

Midhurst Round

Cocking Causeway

An unexpected midweek treat came along courtesy of the teacher’s strike recently – a whole day off to go walking with my oldest daughter!  She had a hankering to look at a Tudor Ruin as she has been learning about this slice of English history and so I constructed a short loop walk that would also enable me to go fungi hunting too.  My Tudor ruin of choice?  Cowdray House near Midhurst seemed an excellent choice and I thought that a reprise of some of my route on my last outing would enable me to find plenty of fungi.

Dunford Lane

We started our walk at the edge of Midhurst and wandered along the main road towards Chichester for about ¼ mile or so through a narrow channel between leaves and chestnut casings.  Most of the chestnuts seemed to have fallen off the trees now, meaning that our path would be covered in small spiky casings.  My daughter loved it – she wanted to gather as many chestnuts as she could until I told her that most were so small they would barely feed a squirrel!  Before leaving the main road we also caught a glimpse of the old rail tunnel that ran under the road.  The line has been closed now for longer than it was open but it was good to see that not all of it has disappeared in Midhurst.  We would be seeing more of it later…

Dunford House

It was a relief to cross the road and head into the woods especially as the road was not conducive to conversation.  Our path was initially like a sunken track – I suspect that it was the original route of the road and my suspicions were confirmed by the passing of a rather salubrious looking pub called The Royal Oak.  The whole place looked pretty new and a quick check on Google maps told me that the place was derelict when the street cameras went through in 2009.  Good for the owner!  I hope that he fares well and manages to make the place run well for taking such a huge leap of faith.

Collared Parachute

A short while later and we ended up on the lane that I had walked along last month, this time heading in the opposite direction.  It was a little scarier this time as I had to think about road safety for two.  Luckily we had no traffic on the way but did see plenty of very large fungi that obviously thrived in the moist shady conditions of this sunken lane.  We passed Dunford House, now a training centre but a place with a fascinating history.  It had once been the home of Richard Cobden, a Victorian Statesman and liberal proponent of Free Trade.  Indeed his ideas led to the setting up of the Great Exhibition in 1851.  It would be a fascinating place to visit and look around if the opportunity ever arose.

Burgundydrop Bonnet

Not far past here and we entered the woods of Heyshott Common.  Our first priority was to find a dry spot where we could have lunch, not an easy task after all the rain we had been having.  We eventually found a useful tree stump, one of the few not to have been colonised by fungi.  Once satisfied by lunch I had a human daughter again and we set about looking for as many different types of fungi as we could.  Sadly my knowledge of species isn’t that great and so although I can be reasonably sure that we found at least a dozen different types the only ones I could be sure of identifying were fly agaric, birch bolete, angels bonnets and common earthballs.  It was fun to look though and for my daughter it was an interesting insight into life on the forest floor in autumn.

Negotiating the Puddles

We wound our way around the woods enjoying the solitude and passing only one other person, a horse rider who galloped off on an adjacent path.  We soon reached the old railway once again, passing over an unusually well appointed bridge.  The trackbed below looked quite an enticing walk, although officially this section is not a right of way.  We pressed on enjoying the relatively dry conditions of the sandy soil under our feet.  That soon changed though as puddles started appearing and then fearsome mud.  We could have almost traced the line between sand and clay in the geology underneath us!

Losing the Sunshine

As we looped around the small viallge of West Lavington a rather sickly sweet smell greeted us.  In fact after a short while both of us started to really hate the smell, which was emanating from the remaining flowers of the Himalayan Balsam. I’m not sure if they put out this sweet smell at the end of their growing season to attract the few insects that are left, but it was almost overpowering in some places. Surely any bee would able to smell that from a mile away!

Kennels Dairy

Our sunshine also disappeared as we passed Kennels Dairy, one of the farm buildings for the Cowdray Estate (as denoted by the amber coloured window frames).  Overhead were some rather threatening looking rain clouds, although in reality these had a bark worse than their bite and they didn’t materialise into anything in the way of rain.  What was more concerning was that we were nearing Cowdray House and the clouds threatened to overshadow the house for pictures.

Proffering Its Gifts

We rounded the earthworks for Midhurst Castle first.  This was a Norman castle that has long since disappeared, save for a few stones denoting some of its foundations.  The earthworks still look castle like but only because I knew what I was looking at (the map shows its existence!).  My daughter didn’t give it a second glance – she was focused on trying to find chestnuts that were a worthwhile enough size to take home.

Cowdray House

Sadly Cowdray House was closed for the season – we missed it by about six weeks.  However, even looking from the distance of the perimeter wall was quite atmospheric, especially with the billowing clouds that were passing overhead.  There was a particularly large one though that was blocking the sun and it was most annoying. I had to wait some time before I got a decent shot away.  The house burned down in 1793 and has lain in ruins ever since.  The family that owned it declined to move back in, convinced that there was a curse on the building and moved to a replacement house nearby on the estate.  A Heritage Lottery Grant was used to stabilise the ruins recently and it now hosts tour groups during the summer season.

Orb Spider

The building is clearly beloved of photographers for we saw a couple further away with all their equipment set up waiting for just the right shot.  As we passed them on the causeway back to Midhurst my eyes were drawn to a large and rather unusual looking spider that was crawling along a wood fence.  I quickly got a snap, not drawing my daughter’s attention to it – she hates the blighters!

Midhurst Pond

We plodded up through the streets of Midhurst, a very affluent town that is something of a tourist honeypot.  It is now the self styled capital of the South Downs, being the HQ of the National Park, but in truth it is more of a Wealden town in character.  There are plenty of tea shops and small businesses geared up to serve the tourist trade.  However, out of season it remains an agreeable place although there did seem to be an unusually large number of children wandering about looking a bit lost, courtesy of the teacher’s strike.  I was rather glad of the educational opportunity it afforded me – it was lovely to spend the day with my nature and history loving eldest child.  Let’s hope the enthusiasm lasts J