Section 24 Return
The old Royal Oak pub (Friday Street near Rusper) to Faygate
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 134 Crawley & Horsham |
|---|---|
| Distance | 4 miles/ 2 hours |
| Start | From Friday Street and the site of the closed Royal Oak pub. |
| Comment | This is an easy walk back to Faygate with some road walking on country roads. Before reaching Faygate the Frog & Nightgown on Wimland Road is passed, which may, according to the time, add consolation for the loss of the Royal Oak. |
Walk Instructions
From the old Royal Oak building, go back down the road by the car park and turn left on the path through the garden used on the outward route. Go down and up the far side to enter an enclosed path and go on to a gate into a wood. Cross to a gate at the far side and emerge into a field. Go forward a short distance to meet power lines.
Here turn right up a grassy path following a line of trees going up the centre of the field. Over the brow continue down to woods at the far side. Enter the woods and go steeply down to a stile footbridge, then steeply up the far side. Cross over a stile into a field and a crossing of paths. Go forward bearing slightly left to a wooden fence and go on up with the fence on the left.
At the top, join a gravel track by Nunnery Farm and go forward on this, around to a gate and on to meet an asphalt drive. Turn right on this, through buildings, and on for some way. Pass through Curtis’s Farm buildings and on out to meet a road. Here turn left for ½ mile to a T-junction. Turn left a few paces then go right through a gap in the hedge to a vast field. Go straight ahead on the highest ground towards a tall tree in the distance. On reaching the tree bear slightly left down to a corner of a building just showing.
In a corner just to the right of the building go through a wooden swing gate and forward on a rough drive past a house on the left. At gates bear right down to a stile into paddock and continue down to a stile at the bottom and steps to a road. Turn right on the road for ¾ mile.
Eventually pass a road turning off left. Go forward a short distance further to a sharp bend to the left. Here, by cottages on the right, go through a gap into woods. Follow the path as it drops down parallel to the edge of the wood on the left. At the bottom of the wood, enter a field.
Bear right around and down the edge to a stile and footbridge at the bottom corner. Cross into a field and continue straight down to stile/footbridge/stile combination in the bottom hedge. Over this turn sharp right along the top edge of the field, then left down the side with a fence on the right.
At the bottom corner, by a house, cross a stile and go through trees to a stile into a horse pasture. Go straight downhill to a stile in front of the bottom hedge. Go on through a gap in the hedge over a bridge to a stile into a small field. Bear right across to a final stile onto a concrete drive. Bear left on this drive between houses to a road.
Turn left up the road passing the Frog and Nightgown pub on the left. In 200 metres, where the road slopes down just before a farm, turn right over a footbridge and stile and follow the fence on the right around to a second stile.
Cross this and follow the top edge of a long field with a fence on the right. At the very end, cross a stile and bear left through trees to a large field. Continue straight across, not parallel but bearing slightly right away from the hedge on the left towards distant roofs.
At the far side go through a gap in the hedge into a rough pasture. Turn right to the field edge then forward along the side with a railway on the right towards business units. At the far corner, in front of a building, the path swings left then right through units to a road (instead of swinging left, there is a well-used gap in the fence down the side of the building to an access road past Faygate Station and out to a road, this appears a better walk).
Turn right on the main road. Cross the railway bridge to return to the Holmbush Inn and the start of the section.
