GPX File Here
On Monday the 2nd January 2023 I set off for my first walk of the year with Mike to Devils Dyke in West Sussex (BN1 8YJ)
We drove up and parked in the car park at Devils Dyke. It is free for National Trust Members otherwise it is a fiver I believe.
We got out of the car and the cold wind hit us, lucky for me I bought gloves and found my hat in the car. Mike unfortunately didn't have the foresight and bought none. Still we knew it'll soon warm up once we start walking and get off the ridge.
The Devil's Dyke V-shaped dry valley is the result of solifluction and river erosion. More than fourteen thousand years ago, the area experienced an intensely cold climate (but not glacial conditions). Snowfields capped the South Downs. Permafrost conditions meant that the chalk was permanently frozen. In summer, the snowfields melted and saturated the top layer of soil, because the water could not permeate the frozen chalk underneath. Waterlogged material situated above the permafrost slid down the gradient, removing material by friction, exposing deeper layers of frozen chalk. When the Ice Age ended, the snowfields covering the South Downs melted, and rivers formed across Sussex. The Devil's Dyke valley was completed by one such river.
The hills surrounding the valley rise to 217 metres and offer views of the South Downs, The Weald, and – on a clear day – the Isle of Wight. It is the site of ramparts, all that remain of an Iron Age hillfort, and a pub. It is a popular local beauty spot for the Brighton and Hove area, being an easy journey of just a few miles.
Before and after the Iron Age, Devil's Dyke was used as a defensive site. This was probably because of its commanding view of the surrounding terrain, and also its steep edges surrounded by large expanses of flat land.
In the Iron Age, Devil's Dyke was an important site. All the vegetation was scraped off the white chalk, leaving Devil's Dyke as an impressive monument to both attract and intimidate the populace.
In late Victorian times Devil's Dyke became a tourist attraction, complete with a fairground, two bandstands, an observatory and a camera obscura, all served by a branchline from Hove. During its heyday, Devil's Dyke was a huge attraction for the Victorians, with 30,000 people visiting on Whit Monday in 1893.From 1887 to 1938 a single-track railway branch line operated from near Aldrington in Hove to The Dyke railway station, the current Dyke Farm location, to transport sightseers to the foot of the hill.
From 1894 to 1909 a cable car operated across the valley, covering a distance of 350 m, suspended 70 m above the valley floor.
From 1897 to 1909 the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge funicular Steep Grade Railway rose 100 m from near Poynings to the northern edge of the hillfort.
Traces remain of all three ventures, including the remains of concrete pylon supports for the cable car system.
Local folklore explains the dyke as the work of the Devil. The most popular form of the story begins with the conversion of the Kingdom of Sussex to Christianity. Sussex was the last of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to embrace the new faith, and its conversion infuriated the Devil as he thereby lost his last stronghold in England. He therefore resolved to exterminate its inhabitants by digging a trench through the South Downs so that the sea would flood through and drown the people of the Sussex Weald. The hermit Cuthman of Steyning found out about the Devil's intentions and came up with a plan to stop him. He proposed a wager - if the Devil could complete the trench in a single night he could have Cuthman's soul, but if he failed then he would have to abandon the project and leave the people of Sussex alone for good. The Devil accepted the wager and began work that night, working his way southward from Poynings toward the sea. The mounds of earth thrown up by his digging formed the nearby hills of Chanctonbury Ring, Cissbury Ring, Mount Caburn and Firle Beacon, and the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. At first Cuthman bided his time, but shortly after midnight he displayed a lit candle in his window while also startling a cock so that it would start crowing in alarm. The light and the sound of the cock crowing convinced the Devil that dawn was about to break, and thus that he had lost his wager with Cuthman. He therefore ran away in disgrace, leaving behind the unfinished trench henceforth known as Devil's Dyke.
At the bottom of the Dyke are two humps, known as 'the Devil's Graves', under which the Devil and his wife are supposedly buried. Legend has it that if a person runs backwards seven times around these humps whilst holding their breath, the Devil will appear.
If I'd known about this I'd given it a go!
We set off from the car park towards the end of Devils Dyke, we reached a stye that Mike warned was slippery. We had no idea how slippery the walk would become further on. We walked back over and took another path but needn't had bothered as both paths meet at the same place.
The views here in the South Downs never fail to amaze me!
We walked through a wooded area and carefully down some muddy slippery steps to the bottom of the Dyke.
The sun is starting to rise and warm up a bit now, we stopped to remove coats, hats and gloves.
The path meets the Saddlescombe Road and we cross over into NT Saddlescombe Farm.
Saddlescombe Farm is a historic Downland Farm, one of the last remaining farms in the Downs with its original buildings. The farm dates to at least the time of the Domesday Book, and was later the property of the Knights Templar for over a century.
The Saddlescombe estate is owned by the National Trust. The estate takes in 450 acres and is operated by tenant farmers who maintain a traditional cattle, sheep, and arable crop farm. The Trust holds open days throughout the year when visitors can explore the farm and its collection of historic buildings, some of which date to the 16th century.
It is very possible that Saddlescombe was farmed in the prehistoric period. Archaeologists have uncovered Mesolithic arrowheads, Bronze Age artefacts including loom weights, and Roman pottery sherds.
The first written records of Saddlescombe come from the Domesday Book of 1086, when the estate was recorded as Selscombe. The Domesday Book entry mentions that there were 13 acres of meadow, land for 10 ploughs, woodland capable of supporting five hogs, and a human population of 135.
In 1225 the Knights Templar purchased Saddlescombe. The military/religious order developed the farm, operated corn and sheep farms, built a windmill, and established a chapel. Interestingly, they maintained only one horse but had 12 oxen for ploughing. They also had a herd of 600 sheep.
A remarkable letter exists from 1267, written by Archbishop Azo to the Master of the Templars in England, requesting that they accept Joan Chaldese as a member of the Saddlescombe Preceptory. Apparently Joan was an aged woman, the widow of Sir Richard Chaldese. She had taken an oath of chastity and wanted to end her days as a member of the Templars. No reply to the letter has been found but it would be remarkable indeed if the Templars accepted a woman into the Order.
The Templars were suppressed in the early 14th century and the estate was given to another order of knights; the Knights of St John of Jerusalem (the Hospitallers). When the Hospitallers, in turn, were suppressed by Henry VIII Saddlescombe passed to Sir Anthony Brown of Cowdray. The Brown family owned Saddlescombe for the next 30 years, though they never lived here but rented it out to a succession of tenant farmers.
 |
| Water Dowser. |
We visit the 18th-century Information Barn holds exhibits on the history of Saddlescombe, and places to visit in the surrounding area, including walks that take in the famous Devil's Dyke viewpoint a few miles away. Inside the barn is a collection of old farm machinery.
We pass the café here sadly closed, probably due to being midweek in Winter. Shame a cuppa would have been nice!
We walk on up the hill pass some quaint and quirky cottages.
We divert off the path to our right through a water logged mussy stile to walk down to see the Donkey Wheel.
The Donkey Wheel draws water from a well known to have been deepened - though not dug - by the Knights Templar in the 13th century.
One fascinating fact is that the donkeys could be trained to walk one way for 12 minutes, step off the wheel, turn around, step back on again, and start walking in the opposite direction. This 'automated' approach meant that the donkeys could raise and lower a large bucket into the well, fill it with water, and pull it to the surface all without human intervention.
We trace our steps back to the path and continue up to Timber Hill.
Surrounding the farm is Newtimber Hill, an area of ancient downland and grassland which is home to wildflowers and insects. On the northern slope of the hill is woodland thought to have existed here for over 10,000 years. The woods are at their best in spring, when bluebells carpet the forest floor.
We squelch or way across muddy fields and a path made muddy by passing horses, once we got through a flooded gate we made our way uphill again to the top of Newtimber Hill and get views back to Devil's Dyke.
As we start to walk down the hill we can see the village of Poynings sitting below.
To the left of Poynings below we can see Paragliders up on to of Devils Dyke, hoping they are still there when we return.
Nearing the bottom of the hill I start Pole dancing, well I was slipping and sliding all around my walking pole desperately trying to keep upright much to the amusement of Mike. The pole was the only thing that kept me upright. So glad I bought it!
At the bottom of New Timber Hill we meet up at the entrance of Saddlecombe Farm again. Here we chat to a resident of one of the cottages that has lived here for over 40 years. She said it was worse since the NT bought the farm, but then everything is better through rose tinted glasses.
We take some more paths that then lead us into Poynings.
The area was known as “Puningas” in 960AD. Some have suggested the name came from "sons of Puna" or "people of Puna", Puna being the nickname of a hammer-wielding Saxon leader. Others have suggested it means, “The people of the pond”
Holy Trinity Church is Poynings’ parish church, located at the east end of the village, on The Street.. The church is in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, Archdeaconry of Horsham.
The church was in the Domesday book but it was rebuilt by the de Poynings family in 1370. Its similarity to Alfriston church have left some people speculating that it had the same master mason architect. The church has an echoing empty interior and scant signs of the wealth of the donor family. There are only the smallest fragments of fourteenth century glass surviving in the plain glass windows. With its big, centralised, empty interior it has been noted that it feels more like a grand old mosque than the usual homely busy-ness of many medieval parish churches.
In the village opposite Holy Trinity Church there is a small sheltered memorial called Cora's Corner, which pays tribute to a former resident of Poynings; two benches in the shelter, Judy's Seat and Merrilee's Seat, are tributes to Cora's two daughters. The road linking Cora's Corner to the Royal Oak is called Cora's Walk.
 |
| Coras Corner |
We left Poynings along more footpaths and re-join Poynings further up as we walk back out onto Poynings Road.
We walk down Mill Lane off Poynings Road and follow this down pass the old mill.
We let a walker out of a gate and we continue onto a path beside the Poynings Stream.
As we walk along we can see the stream overflowing and take taking course along the footpath, are we going to be able to get through?
At the bottom where the stream crosses the path it is indeed flooded. Mike checks out the depth and ends up with wet feet, guess he's boots aren't waterproof after all! why didn't that walker earlier warn us of the flooded path?
Not to be beaten we walked back up the path and I could see a way across where the little waterfall was, so we crossed carefully and made our way back on track.
 |
| Zoomed in to the paragliders above Devils Dyke |
We squelched on uphill and out onto Clappers Lane and then took another footpath with another flooded entrance. Mike made he's way across the log run carefully and was disappointed to see me skip across easily hoping I'd slip!
We cross the Poynings Stream again.
Across a broken Stile, where Mike on the other side began slipping and sliding nearly doing the splits!
We find a bench just outside of Fulking where we stop for a bite to eat and drink.
We then continue out into Fulking and onto Edburton Road.
A distinctive feature of Fulking is the remains of a late Nineteenth Century water supply system. A hydraulic ram, housed in small building near the Shepherd and Dog public house, pumped water from Fulking Hill to a reservoir at the western end of the village street, where a drinking fountain and water trough were provided. The water was then fed by gravity to two further reservoirs, supplying two hand pumps along the street.
The building housing is a Grade II listed building and the hydraulic ram bears the inscription,
‘He sendeth springs into the valleys which run among the hills | Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness’ (Psalm 104, verse 10 and Psalm 107, verse 8).
The drinking fountain is also listed, and bears the inscription,
‘To the glory of God | And in honour of John Ruskin | Psalm LXXVIII | That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God | But keep his commandments | Who brought streams also out of the rock’ (Psalm 58, verses 7 and 16)
The system was installed in 1886. Henry Willett, a wealthy brewer from Brighton, and John Ruskin are usually credited with devising and instigating the water supply scheme.
As a consequence of its history, Fulking has no parish church of its own. Ecclesiastically, it remains part of the parish of Edburton, and uses St Andrew's church, Edburton, as its parish church. The church is part of the Downland Benefice, together with the churches in Poynings, Newtimber and Pyecombe. Fulking's old houses are a plum pudding of different types: one or two are made of local greensand, some are timber framed (like the Shepherd and Dog pub, under its stucco), some flint, some brick, one or two thatched, even one with a corrugated iron extension. The house are mainly expensive, but not exclusively and it has some council-built homes.
Since the Norman conquest one thousand years ago, the Crown Estate owned the Poynings Estate which covered around 4000 acres including many farms in the Weald and on the Downs at Fulking, Poynings and Pyecombe. It was all sold between 1980 and 1984 to tenant farmers, but some have noted that in public ownership, the estate could have been at the heart of the new South Downs National Park driving forward sustainable farming and landscape restoration.
We take a footpath up the Fulking Escarpment.
After much climbing we are up on top of The Fulking Hill!
A great view back down to Fulking below.
We walk around back to Devils Dyke.
As we walk towards the car park, I almost ducked as a paraglider came really close and, low along the path, thought he was going to hit me but he turned away and back over the hills.
The Devil's Dyke is probably one of the UK's most popular hang gliding and paragliding sites and with this comes the inevitable overcrowding issues. The popularity of this site is due to its close proximity to London, its location in the South East, its good facilities (the Devil's Dyke pub and restaurant at the top of the hill) and the popular Truleigh Run - a series of bowls extending 4km in a westerly direction from take-off.
Over the years, fatal accidents have occurred and a contributor factor in some of these has been due to overcrowding. The Devil's Dyke is popular with model flyers also, so the Southern Hang Gliding Club has established rules to maximise on safety. On busy days a marshalling system may be established to limit the number of pilots in the air. All that being said, it's possible to turn up on a good flying day to find no-one else is there, especially mid week!
The Southern Hang Gliding Club has designated take-off areas for hang gliders and paragliders. The paragliding take-offs are mainly directly in front of the pub. The preferred hang glider take-off is in an area referred to as the Paddock; this is the area between the earthworks and the barbed wire fence just south of the pub. Gliders can be slid under the barbed wire fence or carried over the large style.
As the wind veers more to a northerly direction, although not an official take-off, hang gliders can launch directly from the behind the bowl as this gives an in to wind take-off direction; as well as easy access to the northerly ridge (series of bowls extending to Truleigh Hill).
Sorry for so many Paragliding photos, but it was so cool watching them.
We had a pint of Doombar in the Devils Dyke Inn before driving home. A great 8 mile walk althougn cold and muddy!
