BSumC 2021 - Mystery of Black Patch Hill, via Clapham Common

This event is intended for attendees at BIG Summer Camp 2021.

This walk starts at the Big Summer Camp site and heads East towards Eccleston Manor a brick-and-flint medieval building first constructed in 1324.  Nearby from our route we should see the Eccleston Mill a windmill without sails, it may originally have been a water mill.

We will continue East until we come to an ancient fort, then we will turn North until we have cross the A27.

North of the main road is Clapham Common, a Clapham Common, not the Clapham Common.  This Clapham Common is the most haunted place in Sussex being "the centre of UFO sightings, satanic practices, deaths and lost pets." people who have camped there report the absence of birdsong and small animals.

Moving swiftly on we'll visit the village of Clapham and pass it's flint built church.

Continuing North we'll find the terrain increasingly hilly as we head towards the South Downs. To our right we'll see Blackpatch Hill, we'll pass Stone Age flint mines and Bronze Age earthworks. If we dare we may visit the tumulus on the top of Blackpatch Hill. A tumulus is a raised burial mound from the Bronze Age.

We'll continue North for a while past a few more tumuli before forking back South towards an ancient settlement.

Continuing South we'll pass another settlement and more flint pits and tumuli until we enter the woods at Michelgrove Park.  Michelgrove was one of the largest and most famous houses in the County and was the home of the Shelley family from the late C15 to 1800. It was probably built about 1540 by Sir William Shelley,  in 1828 it was demolished and the staircase moved to Burton Park, Petworth. 

For those that like it rough we'll be continuing through the woods to Patching Rough. Then past the Surgeons Field.

We'll follow Seldon Lane back to the A27, there is a pub marked on the map near here, I'm not sure which one it is, OS mark pubs somewhat randomly.

We'll then cross the A27 at Cottage Rough then head back to the campsite.

All photos by R Peel

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