Section 13
Westfield to Telham
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 13 Out
Westfield to Telham
Map: OS Explorer 124 Hastings and Bexhill
Distance/Time: 4 miles/ 2 hours
Start: The walk starts from the New Inn in Westfield, there is no parking here, but on-street parking is possible off Moor Lane opposite.
Comments: This is a walk mostly in woodland, for a change, with some delightful paths in fine weather. There are several very muddy sections in wet weather. The long section through the woods of Beaufort Park by the golf course may be very overgrown in Summer. Currently the path throughout is quite well waymarked. There is a serious warning that this walk involves crossing the A21. This is a narrow, congested, busy and very fast road. On Summer weekends the traffic is virtually non-stop. DO NOT TAKE CHANCES. WAIT HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO CROSS.
With the New Inn behind turn right along the main road towards Hastings. Stay on this road a little way, passing the medieval parish church on your right. Immediately turn right down the side road, passing the church on your right again.
Keep on downhill for some way. Look for a footpath off left through a gap in the hedge by an old wooden fieldgate. It’s between wooden telegraph poles and just before a road junction.
Go forward along a broad grassy footpath between a hedge and a fence. It may be rather muddy. At the end of the path go through a metal fieldgate into a wood. Keep forward on a broad rutted track.
Ignore cross tracks and keep uphill for some way basically in a straight line. Eventually reach a distinct Y-fork at a corner of tall conifers. Bear slightly right to continue in the same direction passing conifers on your left to go downhill and eventually reach a footbridge.
Cross into a path enclosed between fence and hedge and go forward, gently uphill, for some way to a stile by a gate onto a road. Turn left on the road and follow it around to a junction with the busy A21.
CROSS WITH CARE to a narrow footpath opposite into woods. Soon cross a broad track then a footbridge. Keep forward through the forest on this narrow path. Currently the waymarking is quite good. Reach a sharp turn right over a stream, then on left in the same direction as before.
Meet a broad horse track. Cross this to go on uphill on the narrow path. The way now goes through a dense stand of rhododendrons. The path is evident because nothing else will grow but it’s a demanding section.
Eventually emerge onto a gravel track by an outbuilding. Go right a few paces then immediately left on a drive going up towards an old house. On reaching the house, on your left, turn right to go down a broad track opposite through woods.
Eventually reach an unmade vehicle track. Turn right a few paces over a plank bridge, then immediately left on a narrow and possibly overgrown path into woods. Pass a large, unfriendly ‘Public Notice’ regarding all the things you are not allowed to do on the adjacent golf course.
The woodland path soon reaches a cross path. Turn right for 10 metres, then left by an enormous fallen tree. Keep uphill in the woods for nearly a mile, although the golf course is just up on the right and then on both sides. Ignore all cross paths and just keep on uphill. In Summer there may be brambles and bracken to contend with.
Near the top the path ends up in a very narrow strip of trees. Finally, by the last green on your left, reach a gravel vehicle track. Bear right onto this and continue uphill to finally leave the golf course behind.
Eventually exit by a gate onto a busy road with splendid sea views in the distance. Turn right along the pavement to the outskirts of Telham village and soon reach The Black Horse pub and the end of the section.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 13 Return
Telham to Westfield
Map: OS Explorer 124 Hastings and Bexhill
Distance/Time: 4 miles/ 2 hours
Start: The walk starts from the Black Horse in Telham, there is some parking opposite the pub and it has a car park if you intend to take refreshment there.
Comments: This is a walk of considerable variety and some challenges. The A21 must be crossed again and there is a short stretch of walking along it which needs patience and care. There may be problems on the paths between the A21 and Hoad’s Farm; the 1066 Walk provides an alternative. There is a golf course to cross and a couple of stiles and maybe a locked fieldgate to climb, so be prepared.
With the Black Horse pub on your right go on along the main road towards the village (the pavement crosses to the other side for a short stretch). Notice a red brick church ahead. Before reaching it look for a rough tarmac drive off right, through a white fieldgate to Hemingfold (ignore a drive next to it to Hemingfold Grange).
The tarmac drive is a Bridleway. Follow it for a good distance. Eventually pass between houses. The drive deteriorates and reaches a fieldgate with a pond on your right. Here bear left on a clear but muddy track down through trees.
At the very end turn left through a metal fieldgate into a large sloping pasture. Turn immediately right to follow the field edge and the treeline on your right. Stay along the field edge all the way down to the bottom corner; do not be tempted into the wood on the right.
At the foot of the hill reach two metal fieldgates. Go through the one on the left, and on through trees to the edge of a golf course.
Look across the green ahead for a gravel path winding uphill between grassy mounds. Go straight ahead across the grass to join this path and walk uphill soon with a hedge on your left.
Ignore a gap off left to the 17th Tee and continue uphill to a gate at the top. Leave the golf course through this gate, into an enclosed grassy track.
At the end, by farm buildings, turn right on a grassy track, past a pond on your right. Keep ahead between houses, then forward on an asphalt drive (ignore a footpath off left over a stile). Eventually leave the drive turns sharp right. Go on, straight ahead, by gates, to the main A21 road.
(At this point if you do not wish to risk the walk up the A21 it is possible to turn left here, cross the road at a refuge and follow a 1066 walk back towards Westfield. There are no written instructions but there will be 1066 waymarking. Use the sketch map to re-join these printed instructions at the entrance to Hoad’s Farm)
Otherwise turn right up the rough verge of the A21 for 150 metres. Where the road begins to swing right, carefully (the traffic moves at speed) cross to the other side and continue up the other verge.
Just before the first house on the left, turn left down to a homemade swing gate and onto a path enclosed between hedge and fence. Soon reach and cross a stile and continue up to reach a second stile into a field. Bear diagonally right down and across the field to the far bottom corner.
Here, cross a stile into a horse paddock and go across to a metal fieldgate out onto a lane (this gate is currently locked shut so must be climbed). There are no waymarks at this point. Turn right along the lane.
At a T-junction turn left downhill on a road. At a right bend, leave the road and go straight up to a stile. Continue on a fenced path between horse paddocks. Cross three stiles at the top and exit onto Spray’s Lane.
Turn right down this road for ¼ mile (ignore footpath opposite). Go straight across a crossroads and uphill in the same direction on Moat Lane.
The road rises, dips, then rises again. Just before the first house on your left, turn left down the entrance drive to Hoad’s Farm. Follow this drive un til the farm buildings are in sight. Where the drive begins to swing right, go straight ahead, between a fence on your left and a line of trees on your right. Go down to a collection of gates and through the usual mud into a large field now a horse paddock (no waymarks).
In the field, bear diagonally left right up the field and on, as it narrows to the very top corner. Exit through a wooden kissing gate by an old metal fieldgate out onto a gravel track. Keep ahead on this to a road.
Turn right on the road. At a junction soon reached, bear left and keep on up this road (quite busy and no pavement so take care) to emerge at the New Inn in Westfield and the start of the section.
