Section 31
Northchapel to Lickford Bridge
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 31 Out
Northchapel to Lickford Bridge
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Half Moon inn in Northchapel
Comments: Bracken – check for ticks. Farms, fields and woods with plenty of stiles. Another tough section with constant changes of direction and wet and boggy sections, one bridleway on an enclosed path was particularly bad. The Three Horseshoes in Lickford does not currently open Monday or Tuesday. The inn in Lurgashall on the return is open every day.
With the Half Moon pub on your left, walk up the main road a short distance looking for a footpath on a track going off left between a house and a garage.
Soon join an enclosed path alongside a brick wall. At the end, ignore a side path, and go straight over a footbridge and under power lines, into a field. Follow the hedge and trees on your left.
Just after these finish, at the end of the field, go slightly left, through a gap, and on across a second field (there is a house over on the left in trees).
Drop down a dip, and cross a stream, to meet a cross track. Turn right, up this bridlepath, for ¼ mile.
On reaching a farm, the track divides. Bear left, keeping close to buildings. Just after passing a barn on your left, swing right, up to a rusty fieldgate, then into a field full of old farm machines.
Keep up the field, by the treeline on your right and a stream.
Near the top of the field, where woods jut out, cross a stile into woods and go forward.
Cross a further stile in the middle and continue on up (wonderful snowdrops (January)). Cross over a stream and keep forward by it, to a road.
Turn left on this road and walk uphill. At the top, keep forward, until the road begins to drop again. By a double entrance gate and a pine tree, find a metal swing gate. Go through, into a field, and cross to the far side.
Turn right along the field edge, with a hedge on your left, down to a metal swing gate, into a wood. Keep on for ½ mile on a very wet track.
Eventually, reach an old wooden swing gate, into a clearing of bracken, with a small brick and tin hut ahead.
Go forward, keeping close to trees on your right. Soon, bear right, over a footbridge, into woods again. Follow the bridlepath for ½ mile, often very wet.
At the end, emerge by a farm, at Hillgrove. Go straight ahead on a roadway. Just before a road junction, opposite a little clock tower, turn right over a stile, by a wooden fieldgate, into a field. Go straight over, to a stile into woods, at the far side.
Conti nue for some way, again often wet. Eventually, cross a footbridge. Ignore a turning left, and go up to a stile, then pass a large pond, over on your right.
Keep forward on a raised path, cross a wooden hurdle, and descend into a field. Continue on, over a stile by a rusty fieldgate and a tree stump.
Go on up, by a hedge on your left, to a stile at the far end.
Enter another field. Keep on in the same direction, to a stile leading down to a footbridge. Over this, climb a bank, to a gap into a small field ahead.
Keep along the edge, to a gap into the next field (ignore a cross path). Go onwards, below a plain house up on your right, to a stile into woods.
Bear steeply right, down to a footbridge, then on, up to a stile into a field. Keep on, with trees on your left.
Where the trees stop, keep straight on, across the field, to a stile by a holly bush (ignore a stile down in the bottom left corner).
Go forward, with a hedge on your left (ignore path off right), and reach a stile. Cross and go forward, to another stile into woods (by a road – it can be heard if not seen !).
Turn left, down a path, through woods, to emerge onto a drive. Turn right along this to a road.
Turn left on the road a few paces, then turn right, into woods. Continue up, to meet a gravel track, by a house.
Go straight across, and on, down through woods, again.
Cross a stream and then a footbridge. Keep on for some way, through attractive woods, on an obvious path, with a conifer plantation on your right.
At a wooden barrier, with buildings behind, turn sharp left, and follow along a wooden fence, to emerge by the side of a wood, with a field on your left.
At a junction if paths, go straight ahead, on a narrow path between bushes, for some way.
Where the field ends, bear right, over a footbridge, into a wood, and soon climb steeply up.
Before the top of the rise, turn left, off the main track, to a stile into a field.
Go diagonally right, across this large field to the far right corner. Here there is a gap by a rusty fieldgate. Turn right, through a wooden swing gate, onto a bridlepath, between trees and bushes.
This becomes ONE OF THE WORST PATHS ON THE WALK. Horses have destroyed the surface and with holly bushes one side and a steep bank on the other, wellington boots and walking poles are required.
Emerge onto a road. Turn left. Soon, follow the road around to the left (ignore a path off right), and up, past buildings.
Look for a path going off right, by a wooden fieldgate. Cross into a sloping field, and bear slightly left, downhill, to a concealed stile in the hedge below.
Cross this and turn left, to follow the hedge on your left, for some way.
On passing through a metal fieldgate into a field with woods beyond, keep on, along the hedgeline, right around to the far left corner.
Here, turn left, through an old wooden fieldgate. Go forward, to cross a stream.
Keep on, up a muddy track (ignore a footpath off right). Stay on the track, to a road. Turn right for ¼ mile to a junction by the Lickfold Inn, now seemingly the Three Horseshoes, and the end of the section.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 31 Return
Lickford Bridge to Northchapel
Map: OS Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
Distance/Time: 5.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Three Horseshoes, formerly the Lickford Inn
Comments: Bracken – check for ticks. Farms, fields and woods with plenty of stiles. Again constant twists and turns so plenty of instructions but some interesting features as you go. The pub in Lurgashall is currently open every day.
From the Three Horseshoes, walk back down to the road junction but keep forward on the main road towards a bridge and raised walkway ahead.
However, before reaching these, turn sharp right, up a bank, into an enclosed path. Soon reach a stile and cross into a field.
Follow the hedge on your left, all the way to the far corner, and cross a stile. Drop down, to go over a stream, then meander left, and up, to two metal fieldgates.
Go through the newer one on the left. Here is a crossing of paths. Take the path on the left, going off across the centre of the field.
At the far side, go through a gap, into the field beyond, and continue, diagonally across, to a stile before a ruinous barn.
Here turn right, up a grassy track, and walk over to Mill Farm. At the far side, cross a stile onto a lane.
Turn left and immediately go through a metal fieldgate, to join a farm road.
A fascinating area. Pass cottages, then a huge lake, a dam, mill race, and the remains of ancient ironworks.
Keep on the farm roadway, down to a road junction. Just before the junction, go left, up steps, to a stile, and cross into a field.
Go up the field edge, with a hedge on your right, through to, and on up, a second field. Reach a corn er by a rusty fieldgate.
Turn left here, to again follow the hedge on your right. Go over a rise into a further field.
Halfway down, turn right, over a footbridge and stile, into the adjoining field. Go up, with a hedge on your right.
Eventually, drop down to a stile and steps, onto a road. Turn left for ¼ mile, into Lurgashall village. Pass the Village Hall and keep on to a road junction, at the village green.
Turn right, down past the village shop. Now turn left up a road which crosses the green to the Noah’s Ark public house.
Just right of the pub is the church entrance gate. Go into the churchyard and keep on, past the ancient church, on your left, on a narrow, paved path.
This leaves the churchyard and crosses a footbridge. Go steeply up, to a road. Turn left on the road for 200 metres.
Opposite a farm entrance, go right, over a stile in the hedge. Now turn sharp left, to go diagonally across the centre of the field, to the far corner, with the top of a pylon just showing behind.
Right in the corner, cross a stile and footbridge, onto a road. Ignore the stile opposite. Turn left, up the road, to a crossroads. Cross to the road opposite, and find a stile on your right, into a sloping field.
Go diagonally left, uphill, to the far top corner by a tall tree. Pass through a metal fieldgate, then on downhill, to the narrow foot of the field.
Cross a plank bridge, and go forward to a stile, into a steeply rising field.
Go uphill, aiming just left of bushes at the top, towards a lone tree beyond.
At the top, keep ahead, along the side of the field, to a stile into a short grassy way.
Ignore the first stile on your left. Turn a corner, to find a second stile where two paths diverge. Take the lefthand one, going slightly right, across a large pasture, aiming at the end of a row of trees ahead.
On reaching the trees, cross a stile, to go down through woods, to soon reach a stile into a field.
From this point, look straight down the field, to see another stile in the hedge at the bottom. Follow the field edge around, to your right, and down, to reach this lower stile.
On reaching this lower stile, cross it, then immediately, a second one, into another field.
Immediately, turn left, along the field edge, with the hedge on your left, to a corner.
Here, turn right, to still follow the field edge and trees, on your left. Keep along for some way to the far, bottom corner.
Here, cross a stile, and then corkscrew round, to cross a footbridge. Now, wind up, through a maze of streams (stay in the wood, do not exit into a field), to a second footbridge.
Keep forward along an enclosed path, to emerge onto a road.
Turn right on this toad. Soon reach a junction with a road coming in from the left. Turn back, up here, looking for a path off to the right.
Walk up this path, to emerge onto a main road in Northchapel. Turn left, uphill, to soon reach the Half Moon pub and the start of the section.
