Lewes to Spain, East Sussex

Trains to Lewes from Seaford, Newhaven, Eastbourne, Hastings, London and Brighton. Buses to Lewes from Brighton and Uckfield and surrounding villages.  The best place to get off of the bus is at Lewes Law Courts in the High Street.  Walk east from the stop to the traffic lights.  Then turn right down Station Street.  The station is about 400 metres down the street and can be clearly seen once you pass the Lansdowne pub.

123 bus Monday to Saturday between Lewes and Newhaven, calling at Northease.

Frequent buses from Saltdean along the coast to Brighton, Newhaven, Seaford and Eastbourne.

For bus and train times see http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk.

A varied walk exploring the flatlands of the Ouse Valley, the hamlet of Iford, the east face of the downs,  a vineyard and its issues, hidden downland valleys, finishing with a glass of riocha and some tapas at the nearest costa to Lewes. The writer Laurie Lee walked out from his house in England in the 1930s, walked to the ferry and then walked across Spain, earning his living by busking with his violin.  You may wish to take a violin and hat to emulate him. He wrote about his is experiences in a book entitled As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

[1] From the main exit from Lewes station, turn left and walk to the mini roundabout.  Bear right here.  Walk straight ahead for about 400 res to reach Southover Church. Turn left immediately after the church and walk through the tunnel under the railway. Pass the Southdown sports club.  Immediately after this turn right and follow the road round to the left through a tunnel.  Turn right to a gate on the left into  the playing field.  Enter the playing field, go ahead with the fence on the left, then go through the gate about 30 metres away.  Turn right after the gate and walk along a path on top of a bund by the drainage canal, passing the sports ground on the right.

[2] At the end of the sports ground follow the path to the right, but do not join the road.  Instead, just before the road, follow the path going sharply left across the next field (prone to flooding after heavy rain), which leads to a gate in the opposite hedge.  Go through the gate and then cross the next field in the same direction to reach a fenced path. (This can get a bit muddy after periods of heavy rain).  Pass the garden centre on the right and then the small sewage works on the left to emerge in a lane.  Turn right here and after about 10 metres turn left following a footpath sign.

Climb the steps to emerge in a large field. Sometimes this field is ploughed over and planted with crops. Walk due south, aiming for a gate in the hedge about 40 metres from the road.

[3] Continue straight ahead, crossing two more stiles before reaching the lane to Iford village.  Ignore the path ahead and turn left along the road for a visit to the village.

The village has a Norman church which has survived its Victorian mutilation quite well.  There are also some attractive houses. There is still some flavour of how villages like this must have been 100 years ago.  

Follow the lane round to the right between farm buildings. At the end of the village the road turns sharp right. Cross a stile and take the path to the left. Initially the path runs along the boundary of the field, but when this turns left, the path continues straight ahead. Cross the field.  In the next field go ahead and aim for the far right hand corner.  Turn right for a couple of metres on a track to meet the road, where there are bus stops. The walk can be joined here, reducing the distance by around 4 km / 2 miles.

[4] Turn right and after 10 metres the route goes up a concrete farm road on the opposite side of the road, slightly to the right. Follow this road as it climbs up the downs, with great views back to Lewes and beyond. Then route leaves the Ouse Valley for some secret places in the downs. 

There are some small galvanised gates on the side of the track.  These are to give  access to the freedom to roam land to which access was won after long campaigns by the Ramblers.  The land, on which one is entitled to roam freely provided that they  cause no damage, is shown on Ordnance Survey explorer maps in yellow fringed with brown.  You may also see the access symbol, a brown person on a circular sign.

At the top of the hill, cross the South Downs Way.  The route carries on straight ahead, with slight ascents and descents.  Come to a fork; the track on the left has a symbol of a brown man who has been crossed out.  The route however, forks right down the hill.

(A) This is a lost and secluded part of the downs. Below you is the Breaky Bottom vineyard.  But such an idyll is not without its problems.  In recent years huge amounts of water and slurry have descended on the vineyard because the farmer of the land around it had planted winter crops so the water and earth ran down the hill rather than soaking in. It is not just townies who suffer from difficult neighbours.  But perhaps we may not feel too sympathetic.  The crossed out brown person is there because this is access land, but the vineyard owners have managed to convince the authorities that access should be denied because of the existence of a chalk pit on the site which people might fall into.  These pits are common on access land and, of course, nearby Seaford Head is still open.  When it was suggested that the pit could be fenced the reply was that fencing would be unsightly.  Note the large amount of new fencing elsewhere on this site. You can explore the access land to the right of the vineyard a little further on, and there are some lovely places there.

[5] Descend into the valley and then rise up again, Keeping straight ahead to a stile and gate.  The legal right of way goes right here and then left after about 100 metres, but the clear path on the ground goes straight ahead. 

Various coastal towns and the sea are visible from the top of the hill.

By the gate, turn left on to a wide grassy track, go straight ahead, ignoring various routes to the left and right.

[6] At the Telscombe council sign, go straight ahead, heading south, initially alongside a long line of trees. Cross a track that comes in from the left and continues diagonally to the right.  Follow the fence  which comes in from the left and then turns a corner to head down to the sea.  Aim for the corner and then follow the fence down to the main south coast road.  The ultimate destination is on the right.

[7] Cross the main road (carefully) and follow the footpath straight ahead. Turn right along the pavement and then sharp left at the end of the water company site, to meet the cliffs. Here turn right to follow the line of the cliffs. Notice two posts close together in the fence the water company has erected, near the cliff edge.  This is where the right of way enters their land. There was once a gate, but  it has been fenced off.

[8] Walk along the cliffs till you come to a small road to the sea. Descend to the White Cliffs Café and the sea.  This is the end of the walk.

Ploughing up paths is a big problem in the low Weald.  A farmer is allowed to plough up a path across a field but must reinstate it quickly.  Very often these days the ploughing and planting of crops is done by contractors, who do not know where the path is.  Sometimes a farmer is tempted not to bother reinstating a path.  If no one complains and nothing happens then they think there is no problem and they decide not to reinstate the path the next year.  In 2012 the rights of way team and the Ramblers co-operated to take action on around 80 examples of this sort of problem.  Most of the paths were cleared.  But nothing will happen if these problems are not reported to the Council.

At [7], you ought to be able to follow the footpath straight ahead and then turn right along the cliff path. But here is perhaps the only point between Brighton and Peacehaven where you cannot follow the cliff path.  If you look at a map you will see that there is a right of way across the water company’s site.  Many years ago they illegally blocked it off.  As you walk past the main entrance notice the prominent sign which denies that there is any right of way across the land. They refuse to take this down. Most people thought that the path had been diverted legally and that there was nothing that they could do.  But members of the South Downs Society and the Ramblers found out that there had been no legal diversion. Quite a lot of re-modelling is going on and the water company appear to have made no plans to reinstate the footpath.

(B) Saltdean is typical of the many Spanish urbanisations that have cropped up on the costas in recent years, although it predates them. Typically, it contains  numbers of brits who have retired to the place they used to take their holidays. It has also been a package holiday paradise. Billy Butlin, who practically invented the package, ran the huge and imposing Ocean Hotel here, taking it over after the second world war as one of his few hotels.  It was built in the art deco style to look like an ocean liner.  The front façade has been preserved, in its conversion to flats, although the rear. is almost unrecognisable.

A group of young Spanish people have escaped youth unemployment and have taken over the beach café here, no doubt drawn to Saltdean’s Spanish character.  The Saltdean web site shows that the Spanish character of the place started early. The urbanisation started in the 20s and by 1933 the Spanish Lady tea room had been opened. This was later to become Saltdean’s first pub.

A feature of life in modern villas in Spain is the swimming pool.  Here, instead of mean private pools, we have the art deco Saltdean Lido, one of the grandest lido’s anywhere. At various times it has been threatened with closure or has actually been left derelict, but a campaign by locals seems to now have ensured its survival.

Notice also the variety of green, Spanish-tiled Hollywood moderne houses. The design of these houses comes from Spain via Mexico, which in turn influenced the building of new homes in Hollywood and other parts of California.  In the 20’s and thirties, when Saltdean was being build, people saw these houses in movies and wanted one.  You can see the result. Hollywood modern houses usually have green tiles, as here, or blue ones. Typically the walls are painted white to keep out the blistering heat from the sun.

Refreshments - cafes, pubs and shops in Saltdean

On the first part of the walk there are a number of stiles.  There are also one or two points at which the route can get a bit muddy after prolonged rain on this part.  All this can be avoided by taking the bus to Northease.