A Weekend Walk from Hastings...

Filsham Reedbed Entrance

We undertook this (roughly) 20 mile walk at the weekend, first heading westwards along the seafront from Hastings & St Leonards, then we crossed the railway line via the footbridge at Bulverhythe. We had to cope with a few hundred yards walking back along the A259 before turning onto the public footpath that took us up Combe Haven valley where, after passing the holiday park, we soon found Sussex Wildlife Trust's Filsham Reedbed Nature Reserve entrance to the right (website).

As a member of/donor to Sussex Wildlife Trust, I regularly visit Filsham Reedbed, a haven of peace and tranquility, with the call of birds the only noise we heard, and we saw 20 or 30 martins swooping in the sky. During our time in the Combe Valley Countryside Park (website) we saw many different birds, including martins, egrets and plovers, as we continued on our way...

We were going to stop at Crowhurst for a drink, after walking further along the footpath, and under the new road, but were too early, so we continued on to Battle. On leaving Crowhurst from St George's church and its famous 4,000 year-old Yew Tree, we rejoined the footpath, walking through Fore Wood Nature Reserve, and northwards to Battle, where there was a famous battle apparently (Battle Abbey Gatehouse above).

Anyway, we definitely required a drink, having run out of water, so we popped into the pub we always use when visiting Battle, though usually at the end of a walk before catching a bus or train back to Hastings, that is The Bull Inn (website). This is a 17th century coaching inn, built with stones from the original Battle Abbey, whose ales tend to include quite locally produced beers, we had a pint each of an Old Dairy ale, brewed in Kent, and the kind young woman behind the bar refilled our water bottle, cheers! 

We walked back the way we came to Crowhurst, and sat outside the Norman St George's church (website) to eat a sandwich, admire the yew trees and read the stones of the 2 Commonwealth war graves...

... before we returned to the now open Plough Inn in Crowhurst, and drank a pint each of Sussex brewer Long Man Best Bitter, cheers! This pub opens at 12.00 noon at weekends, we had been about 40 minutes early when we passed it in the morning.

De La Warr Pavilion

Anyway, we carried on walking along the 1066 Country Walk - Bexhill Link under the new road, and following the newly built pathway to Bexhill, where we stopped outside the iconic modernism meets art deco De La Warr Pavilion (website), opened in 1935, to enjoy our last snack of the walk. We then headed home to Hastings, followed by a wind from south of west bringing with it rain, still, it had been dry all day before that, so we couldn't complain, indeed, it was a grand day out, thank you very much.