Section 25
Warninglid to Cowfold
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 25 Out
Warninglid to Cowfold
Map: OS Explorer 134 Crawley & Horsham
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Half Moon pub in Warninglid
Comments: Farms, fields and forests with plenty of stiles. Maybe surprises in the grounds of Leonardslee. The Coach House pub in Cowfold has closed, and is now the Co-op, but there is another pub in the village.
With the ‘Half Moon’ public House behind, cross the road and walk away from the village centre, along Warninglid Lane.
Keep on, past the last house, and on along the road, looking for a black metal swing gate on your left, indicating a bridlepath rising up on a bank above the road. Follow this for some way
Cross the entrance drive to the Lyndhurst Estate (‘No footpath, No bridleway, No foreign made cars’) and keep on, uphill, to a corner, by several metal gates.
Follow the path to the left, away from the road. On entering woodland, ignore a path going up right, and keep on the main path, downhill to a bridge.
Cross and go on, uphill, on the bridlepath (ignore a footpath off right – not on OS map).
Keep on the bridlepath as it swings right; continue through the woods. Pass a footpath coming in on your right, and, at a clearing, keep on, over farm tracks.
Soon reach a metal kissing gate on your left. Turn left here, on a footpath into woods (this path will be followed for a mile, basically, just keep a fence of some kind on your left).
Keep along the path, uphill, for some way. Just before a metal fieldgate, marked ‘private’, turn right downhill.
Eventually, at the bottom of the hill, ignore a footpath off right, and keep forward, steeply uphill. Over the brow, the path drops down by an open space, on your left, to a chestnut paling fence.
Here, turn right, on a broader track, still with the fence on your left.
At the foot of a steep drop, pass a bridlepath on your right, and cross a stone footbridge. Keep forward, steeply uphill, then down, to pass between lakes in the grounds of Leonardslee (actually met a Wallaby sitting on the path; they keep them here !).
Continue, to follow a clear path as it bears left, and on, through woods, to a metal fieldgate by a house, to emerge onto a road.
Turn left down a gravel track. At the bottom of the slope, by a house, turn right, over a stile (rotten !), by a metal fieldgate, into a sheep pasture.
Bear slightly right, up and across the pasture, past three mature trees, aiming towards a distant house. Cross a stile into a further pasture, and continue uphill, just right of the house.
Leave the pasture by a stile, and turn left on a gravel track, to pass the house on your right.
Keep on this easy track for ½ mile, to finally emerge at the foot of a grassy hill at Bushy Platts.
Bear right, uphill, between two isolated houses, and soon reach a well-used gravel track. Turn right on this (ignore a less distinct track continuing uphill).
The gravel track passes a house, down on your right, and curves around to a cattle grid, before reaching a road.
Turn left, up the steeply rising road. Over the brow, continue for 20 metres, to reach a footpath going off right, through a gap in the hedge (well before a house ahead).
Follow a wire fence on your right, for a short way, to a corner of the field. Go straight ahead, into a thicket, and soon reach a stile into a garden area.
Keep ahead to a stile by a metal fieldgate. Cross, to pass buildings on your left, and enter a track along the top edge of a rough area of new trees.
Where this ends, is a Y-fork. Keep ahead on the left-hand path, along the edge of woodland.
In a while, the path breaks out of the wood, onto the field edge. Keep forward, down, and around, the bottom corner.
Go under power lines and, by a pylon, turn right, into a rough, wild area. Keep ahead, bearing slightly left, up to a junction of ways.
Turn immediately right, over a substantial footbridge, and enter a field, by a house on your right.
Two paths diverge here. Ignore the path on your right, going up by the house; instead, keep straight forward, up and across the centre of the field, to a stile in the fence, at the far side (do NOT bear left on leaving the footbridge, as the fingerpost might suggest).
Over the stile, keep forward to a field. Go up the edge of the field for 100 metres. Turn right at a gap in the hedge, and cross a footbridge, into an enclosed path, going uphill.
Follow the main path as it winds left, then right.
Where it leaves the main woodland, keep ahead, and soon pass new houses on your right.
At a corner of a garden fence, by an oak tree, turn sharp right, then bear left, into a recreation ground.
Keep along the righthand edge, all the way round to a pavilion and children’s play area, with car park beyond.
Go forward to the main road, beyond the car park.
THE HARE AND HOUNDS PUB IS JUST TO THE SOUTH DOWN THE A281. RETURN TO THIS SPOT AFTERWARDS.
Otherwise turn right along the road, passing a roundabout and post box. Just beyond is the site of the former Coach House pub, now the Co-op, in Cowfold and the end of the section.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 25 Return
Cowfold to Warninglid
Map: OS Explorer 134 Crawley & Horsham
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The road junction at the site of the Co-op former Coach House pub.
Comments: Farms, fields and forests with plenty of stiles. Quite tricky finding some of these paths and vegetation might be a problem at certain times of year. A final roadwalking stretch into Warninglid as no paths are at hand. Take care.
From this point, walk back, past the post box, to the car park, on the corner of the recreation ground.
Enter the recreation ground. Have the children’s play are and pavilion on your left. Walk away from the village centre, along the edge of the grass, with a metal fence and the busy main road on your right.
At the end of the recreation ground, leave by a gate, onto the main road. Cross with care, and turn left, to continue forward, along the pavement (ignore a footpath off right).
Having passed the last house on your right, turn right, through a brick gateway, to Eastlands House. Turn immediately left, over a stile, into parkland.
Two paths diverge here. Keep left, along the edge of the park, by a metal fence and road beyond, to a corner with a stile, by a metal fieldgate.
Cross, to the busy road, and carefully, cross the road, to a gravel drive opposite, leading to Avery’s Farm.
Some 100 metres up the drive, turn right, over a low stile, into a rough pasture.
Bear left, down to a footbridge in woods. Cross and continue up, to a gravel track (the OS map seems to indicate more tracks than are obvious on the ground, but there are numerous fingerposts to follow).
Turn right on the gravel track, and stay on it, to a gateway, by a house on your left. Go straight ahead, through the gateway, and on through an area of preserved commercial vehicles.
At the far side, bear diagonally left, across an area of young tree planting, to reach the edge of more mature trees.
Go ahead and downhill, on a clear track, to cross a plank bridge, and then on, up the main track again.
Eventually, emerge into a field. Ignore a turning left, and continue across the middle of the field, to a gap in the hedge, at the far side.
Through the gap, cross a narrow road, to an enclosed path, on the edge of woodland (mercifully recently strimmed).
Follow this for some way, keeping a fence on your left, past Wallhurst Manor on your right, to emerge over a stile, into a narrow pasture. Bear left, across to a very high stile in the far corner.
Over this, go up the field edge, with trees on your right.
Soon reach a wooden fence ahead, with two stiles. Cross the left-hand one, and go ahead, through woodland.
At the top, emerge into a sheep pasture, via a metal fieldgate. Go ahead along the edge, with streams and ponds down on your right, to reach a treeline.
Keep on, now uphill, with trees on your right, to meet a junction of paths at the top (there is a lake just beyond, but it is not immediately obvious).
Turn right here, towards buildings, then keep on along the path, as it bears right, to skirt buildings, now on your left.
Enter a sheepo pasture, and keep on, with a fence on your left (ignore gaps), until reaching a wooden pole with power lines.
Here, turn left, through the hedge, and continue, diagonally left, across the field to the far opposite corner, just right of a house.
Cross a stile, onto a road. Turn left, up the road, for some distance.
At the top of the hill, where the road bends sharp left and downhill, go straight ahead, through wooden gates, past a house on your left.
At a car park area, bear right a few paces, up towards a modern house. Immediately, find a stile on your left, into a garden. Cross a lawn to a wicket gate, and go down to a road.
Turn left on this road. Soon pass a house on your right at a road junction, and turn right, on an enclosed path, down through woods.
Keep down to a junction of paths, before a tall, wooden, garden fence. Here turn left, for some way, up a bridleway called Earwig Lane.
Eventually reach a road and turn right.
As there are no available footpaths, it’s necessary to follow this road, for over a mile, back to the ‘Half Moon’ at the crossroads in Warninglid and the start of the section.
