Midhurst Long walk 28th April 2023

Long Walk on 28th April. Midhurst, Lodsworth, Tillington, and Selham

There were only three of us to brave the 15.22 mile long walk. It started at Cowdray Café car park, we crossed the main road, headed up The Race and onto the golf course where a pair of golfers rang a bell for us to cross the fairway. At the 7th Green, we dropped into a bluebell valley, skirted Steward’s Pond, tried to avoid the mud at the edge of Heathend Copse and onto Lodsworth. Too early for the pub, we walked past the refurbished Vicarage and St Peter’s Well, marvelled at the height of the river under Eel Bridge and made our way to River. The Sussex Diamond Way took us to Pitshill and onto the Upperton vineyards where we stopped in the drizzle for our coffee break. The descent to Tillington took us past horses rolling around in a field, through the churchyard lych gate and down to cross to the south of the A272 eventually getting onto Hungers Lane, which was appropriate for how we felt, but the sun started to shine at this point. We loitered on the footbridge over the River Rother, full to the banks. By this time we truly focused on our lunch and were pleased to make it to the disused railway that used to serve Pulborough from Midhurst. At this point we encountered a herd of cows vociferous in their desire for lunch at which point the farmer let them out to the field and they followed us down the road heading for the pub. The cows got diverted for their lunch before we got to the Three Moles at Selham for our well earned refreshments and lunch. After lunch we had a look at St James 11th Century church before we turned south up Smokyhouse Lane past the site of the WWII Royal Navy Air Station, now polo fields and over the disused railway again. We walked the Serpentine Trail past Graffham Court, up and over Ambersham Common where we got back onto the disused railway and onto West Lavington and back to Midhurst following the River Rother.