Midhurst Footpath Companions
Walking in Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey.

Midhurst walk on 3rd July 2024

Pauline and Linda assembled us in the North Street car park before we took the Causeway down to Cowdray House. Cowdray House was visited at different times by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Edward VI who were better received than Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, who was imprisoned for 9 months. The House was destroyed by fire in 1793.   From the House we turned and took the path towards Easebourne, managing to avoid large lorries delivering polo ponies for the Gold Cup Qualifiers matches. We then took a turn up Easebourne Lane and had a look at some excellent allotments, carefully nurtured by MFC Walkers, one of which was the plot looked after for decades by the now retired June. Carrying on up the hill we eventually reached our drinks stop in Whitters Copse. Refreshed and replenished we took a different route back down the hill, reached the road opposite Budgenor Lodge. Once a poor house, Budgenor could house 180 imnmates. Bread and cheese for breakfast and supper, luckily lunch could be mutton and pork, trimmings, oxheads and bacon, and coarse beef. However we didn't stop there for lunch but carried on to the route back past the polo ponies, our final stop for a very pleasant lunch being in the Lions Den Cafe in North Street. The walk was around 5.3 miles.

Passing the Round House, once the water supply to Cowdray House

The first sign of something going on!

Nice netting

Some smart allotments!

Passing Easebourne Priory, once home to 10 nuns and a prioress

Happy walkers now replenished

Now, where shall we go from here?

Beautiful wild flowers above Easebourne Primary School

Now approaching Budgenor

Budgenor Lodge, just visible over the flowers

So that's what Polo is all about!

Fields full of wild flowers

Careful, that looks as though a pony could get tripped!

Lunch at last!

and happily a couple of guests have joined us

about 5.3 miles

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