For the Fourth Day of Christmas: A Feast in Fernhurst

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Lowland and Hill Walks
Dec 28
2024

25 people attending

0 places left

5 people waitlisted

Your price
£12.50
Event booking closes on Dec 28 at 10:00:00
Event difficulty background shape EventDifficulty
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Distance is 14 km (9 miles); total ascent is 399m; relief is hilly (including one gradual ascent and sharp descent); surfaces are grass, dirt, gravel and tarmac.

The Fourth Day of Christmas was known in the medieval church calendar as the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It was a day of reflection, an interlude in the raucous celebrations that marked the other Twelve Days. For OutdoorLads in 2024, it'll be nothing so sombre, but a chance to expend accumulated calories ascending Sussex's highest hill, Blackdown, before having a pub lunch in Fernhurst. Blackdown needs no introduction: the great whale-backed bluff often features in our walk schedules, and Fernhurst is the most delightful village; its buff stone cottages surround a green. We'll take delight in each other's company, take in the views of the Low Weald, and take stock of 2024.

The sights:

Blackdown: A rugged greensand plateau, 280m high, cared for by the National Trust. It is named after the dark pine trees that cap its summit. Its human history is interesting: Middle-Stone Age (6000BC) people dwelt there; smugglers hid their contraband in caves there; London was alerted to the coming of the Spanish Armada by a beacon there; and in 1967, Iberian Airlines Flight 062 crashed there due to a faulty altimeter reading; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lived there at Aldworth House; and from 1796 to 1816 the navy had a shutter telegraph station there.

Low Weald: "The wooded and watery Low Weald...is a low-lying gently undulating landscape of clay vales and gentle ridges of limestone and sandstone. The landscape is small-scale, intimate and tranquil with a medieval pattern of small irregular pasture fields enclosed by a strong network of shaws [thickets] and tall, thick, species-rich hedgerows." (West Sussex Landscape: The Low Weald Character Area).

Fernhurst:  A stone and tile-hung village in West Sussex, near the border with Surrey. To the west of the A286 it is modern and suburban; to the east of it it is ancient and characterful, with cottages and a handsome early C18 house, The White House, around a small village green. We'll have lunch at the Grade II-listed Red Lion Inn.

The route (please check this at the OS website to see the elevations)

We'll head southeast through Haslemere through Shepherd's Hill and Haste Hill to pick up Chase Lane which will take us along Tennyson's Lane and Pen-Y-Bos track to Blackdown's plateau. After breaking at The Temple of the Winds, we'll descend to Fernden Lane, cross it and take a footpath across Reeth Copse to Fernhurst. After lunch at the pub, we'll follow Old Glebe north, then a footpath, then Copyhold Lane, then a footpath again back to Fernden Lane, which we'll walk north along. Before long we'll take a footpath to Belle Vue Lane then a byway to Scotland Lane. We'll then be in the suburbs of Haslemere, and a quick walk through them will return us to the station.

Dogs:

I love having dogs on my walks and this walk is very suitable for them although there will be considerable lane walking and some fields with livestock. A dog off the lead must be obedient.

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(The first two pictures were taken by the leader in November 2021. OutdoorLads is welcome to reuse them. The other pictures are: Diverging paths: Photo © Chris Thomas-Atkin (cc-by-sa/2.0); Tennyson’s Lane: Photo © Chris Thomas-Atkin (cc-by-sa/2.0); Footpath to Blackdown Photo © Chris Thomas-Atkin (cc-by-sa/2.0);  The Red Lion: Photo © N Chadwick (cc-by-sa/2.0); Bell House: Photo © N Chadwick (cc-by-sa/2.0); Fernhurst Green: Photo © Robin Webster (cc-by-sa/2.0); Valewood Park: Photo © Colin Smith (cc-by-sa/2.0). All photos are copyrighted but are above credited to their copyright holders and are licensed for further reuse  under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) .)