Why?
Good question. Last week, I'd said I was going to do hills and so I'm perplexed at my last minute path selection. Very happy though to have received some new boots in time and maybe this swayed my decision to persist with the Wealden clay. It was quite last minute planning and a number of unlucky diversions and poor decisions did their level best to lower my mood. I think, on the whole, I overcame. I can't, in all honesty, recommend this route but there were areas that were outstanding against a backdrop of muddy paths, unpleasant farms and falling over. The seasons change though and with a little path variation, this might be a different kind of walk. This is, after all, the beauty a trudging an area again.
Ifield can be reached in as little as 40 minutes with a change of trains at Gatwick or to Three Bridges and a bus. It's best to work this out in advance if you are to avoid making timely mistakes as I did. Return is from Dorking Deepdene station with a change at Gatwick or Horley, as it turned out.
Disclaimer: I originally planned a route from Ifield and then mis-identified the station on the map and merrily dropped myself off at Crawley. I also jumped on the wrong bus at Three Bridges and had added around an hour to my journey. It took a while to settle my anguish as I walked through urban Crawley to get myself on my way. I won't describe my tedious journey to this point and so I begin my story at Ifield station....
Just imagine yourself leaving Ifield Station on a delightful Spring morning. Go north on Ifield Drive and bear left into Tangmere Road. A route foreshadowing via a left into Rusper Road will allow you to reach the road to Ifield Mill, a location on the Crawley Greenway. The restored watermill is thought to be the only working one in West Sussex still powered by its original water source (the millpond) and was in operation from 1660. Continue on the bridleway. Seagulls were lining up on the edge of the water.
The bulk of the water is on the other side of the railtrack. Cross the railway bridge via Waterfield Gardens, leaving on the right and the continuation of the bridleway to follow the Bewbush Brook. This is St. Francis Walk. At the junction, turn right. Here I found men at work on the railway bridge and meant I had to back track, over the railway to another pond. Turning left here, takes you on a path through the housing estate and out to alongside a playing field. Just to check out the extent of the frustrating diversion, I crossed the back of the goal and rejoined my intended footpath, only to cross back to the current footpath at the other end.
There is now a single marked footpath all the way to Lambs Green. You pass Upper Bewbush, a 19th century farm with older roots. The watermill at Ifield and the blast furnace at Bewbush were involved in the production of iron from which the manor became rich. You are well-directed across the fields and you must keep your dog on a lead.
At the road, turn left. The Lamb has been shut since 2023 and it looks like conversion to flats is well underway. Take the footpath on the right. You will cross the Mole and then Faygate Lane. The path would have taken you through to Millfields Farm but this is no more as a housing development is being built. There was no warning of this and I follow the fencing right to join the footpath onto East Street and in to Rusper. Turn left and onto the High Street by going north. Pass the church and take the Sussex Border Path that crosses the playing field. I guess this should have been marked shut because after you walk west through Horsegills Wood, descend to the gill and up to pass Porter's Farm, you are confronted with a metal barrier at the roadside. I crossed the fence and jumped the ditch, as many must have done, only to read about a landslip that I never noticed on my way here. Two alternatives exist. One is to simply turn right at this notice and then climb the gate at the other corner of the field or take to the drive of the preceding farm to exit onto Friday Road.
Muddy-handed and a bit miffed, I went north to Lipscomb's Corner and right on Capel Road. Walk to Rome Wood and then enter it on the left via the bridleway. You will cross Mosshouse Gill which, in turn, feeds into Gage's Gill. We are deep in Capel and as you head to Lyne Farm, you can consider the landowners, including The Broadwoods of the said house and farm. They were successful London pianoforte makers. Back to the present, you don't get much view of the house and I couldn't move quickly enough away from the stinking manury farm. My mood wasn't lifted by the uncomplicated northern traipse the bridleway on Temple Lane, Temple Wood and Temple Elfande. These places are associated with the Knights Templar owners of the manor. Cue Dan Brown-based imaginings. Turn right at the farm and continue. The paths were inceredibly chewed up by machinery and the rain set in.
At the corner of the field, the path goes right and then continues north over Misbrooks via the footpath to Greens Farm. I didn't really take it in but it is reputedly the second oldest Hall House in Surrey, dating back to 1309. Follow the signs on the ground which differ to the map and maybe look up. The barn there is a wedding venue. Continue northward for convenience and emerge onto Kingsland. If there is a dry alternative to the footpath alongside the road and into Newdigate, then take it. Newdigate's name might derive from 'on Ewoods Gate'. Ewood is associated with yew trees and the N remaining formed from 'on' or 'in'. It might just mean 'new wood'. Turn right at the junction and then left at the church. The Six Bells opposite shut in 2025. I sheltered in the closed church porch for a bit. Church Lane passes Horsielands Farm and to continue this whimsy, turn left into Hoggspudding Lane.
I needed something now to lift my spirits. Turn right into Mulberry Place and turn left at the sculpture. The Newdigate Brickworks was the answer. The disused clay pits closed in WWII and now host two lakes and a series of smaller ponds managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust. Follow the path between the lakes and north to rejoin the footpath. Just before this, things got very wet.
After some stern warnings not to leave the path, you reach Parkgate Road and I felt it was lunch time. You can't go too far wrong at The Surrey Oaks. The benefit of being one person and ordering a soup is that you can be served quite quickly in a place that was buzzing with lunchtime visitors. There was a crackling fire and I'd love to have stayed longer. I feel the barman might have taken pity on my dishevelled self.
Leave the pub and continue east to turn left on Broad lane. Go left soon after on Mill Lane and the bridleway. Take the next footpath on the left. I had intended taking an entirely different route through the woods further west and so I will never know whether my choice was any the worse. A walker I 'helloed' asked if I was alright in a greeting kind of way but with hindsight, I can't help wondering whether he was questioning my choice of path because things gradually got muddier and wetter. As I turned right towards the bridleway, I hooked my foot under a bramble and landed on my knees. I saved my face from the mire.
Turn left on the Lodge Lane bridleway and towards the railway. You cannot cross the line via the level-crossing so be sure to turn left on the bridleway before this and curve round to pass under the track and continue north. Go swiftly left, back on to Lodge Lane and towards the junction.
The final chapter, if you will: Cross the junction and continue on Mill Road. You can join the edge of Fourwents Pond. This is on the National Trust's Holmwood Common. Peruse the map and choose you path but don't miss out on the viewpoint. After this, move to the eastern flank of the northern spur of the common and leave in a northeasterly direction on Inholms Lane. Beyond the sports field, there is an indistinct path on the right that follows the hedge. Follow this and ignore the locked gates on your right to bear left. You will emerge, rather surprisingly on the side of what was once another claypit at Inholms Nature Reserve. I can imagine this on a sunny dry day, running down into the site to explore it. Determined not to extend the mud any more I slipped clockwise around the edge and rejoined the road only to find that If I had descended, I could directly exit on the underpass into Holmbury Drive. Instead, I slipped down the slope, accessible from the road, to do this.
At Holmesdale Road, turn right and then left on Lake View. Where's the lake? Behind, these houses. Continue to Bents Brook and turn right on the footpath. Take the little footbridge over it and north on Kirsty Close. Up in this direction to Chandler Way. Final straight: Cross the Deepdane Avenue with patience and go upwards in a northerly direction into The Glory Road. Admire the fancy houses as you join Glenwood and join the Greensand Way in continuation. The path on the left will take you up to the tumulus. Leave this for another day and continue up and northwest. The path now follows the edge of a field and the allotments before joining St Paul's Road East. The heavens opened and I turned left onto Chart Lane. I blinked the rain from my eyes and made my way over the hill, on the road called Cotmandene. Straight into Moore's Road, over the High Street and into London Road. The warming interior lights of Dorking were aglow. Crossing the dual carriageway, the station was upon me. My train was cancelled and then the one I was on got cancelled. I played the race my way home game.
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