Another way to Lewis

There are lots of ways to walk from Brighton to Lewis.   You can take a short route and get there in time for lunch or take on something longer and reward yourself with a dinner.  Either way it's a perfect destination and the public transport links back to Brighton are brilliant.

This walk is a short 12km get there in time for lunch trip.  When we did it the weather was poor, it had been blowing a gale for months and we wanted to stay on top of the Downs for as long as possible to avoid the mud.  Getting to the start was particularly easy with the No 12 route from Churchill Square in the middle of Brighton providing a really quick exit.

Telscombe Tye

Getting off the bus on top of the hill just past Saltdean the part of the walk takes you over Telscombe Tye (1).  This a finger of the Downs pokes through the coastal sprawl and makes it to the sea. It's a registered common and owes its survival to a bequest from Ambrose Gorman. Ambrose was a racehorse owner whose success (he won the Grand National in 1902) meant he could resist the pressure from the Peacehaven developers, the Nevilles, who were desperate to extend their creation to Saltdean.

Looking back in Telscombe

The walk then drops down into the village of Telscombe (2) itself.  Telscombe, which has a youth hostel, is beautifully situated in the bottom of a little valley at the end of a road.

Dry Valley

Tidy me up

Cold Comfort Farm

After climbing out of the village along a road, the route leaves it and descends across a dry valley (3) (not so dry when we walked across it) and down a farm trail through what is often a muddy farm (4 and 5).  "Cold Comfort Farm", Stella Gibbon's brilliant comic novel was set in this part of Sussex and I'd like to think that this farm was the inspiration.  It's incredibly scruffy and the accumulation of derelict farm machinery would make the Grundy's from the Archers blush.

Cows on the Meridan

Leaving the farm track the route turns west along the South Downs Way and climbs out of the little valley.  Overwintering cattle, unaware that they are standing on the meridian, spoil my stay high on the downs escape the mud theory (6).

On the Downs

A chalky descent

On top of the downs proper the views are wonderful (7), even on a windy gray day in February. There are three ways down to Kingston, all of which look excellent, but we took the middle one (8). My route doesn't go into the village centre itself where there is a nice looking pub, the Juggs.

Ashcombe Windmill

Crossing the village road the route passes the recently reconstructed Ashcombe Windmill (9).   The original was built in 1828 but instead of milling wheat for flour the new mill will be pumping 16,500 watts into the national grid.

Anne of Cleves House

After crossing over the A27 via a footbridge we head into Lewis.  We finished our walk at Anne of Cleves House, (10).  It serves excellent coffee and Tudor style biscuits.

The link for the GPS trail can be found here.