Hastings to Battle, with quite a long detour!

This walk is approximately 18 miles long, but with coming from home, and allowing for slopes up and downhill, when we walked it at the weekend it was likely over 20 miles long, it took us about 10 hours with stops for food and drink, and a few parts were particularly muddy, which slowed us down a bit... Plus the weather changed from sunny to hailstones and back again with regularity, making us take off/put on cagoules, don/take off caps and shades etc etc... We started from home, but my first photograph is looking down at Rock-a-Nore Road and the Stade from Tackleway.

We decided to avoid taking the whole walk via Saxon Shore Way, particularly as a section is cut off, and headed up the East Hill and to Barley Lane, rejoining the Saxon Shore Way at Fairlight.

We often sit at the bench above when walking this way, and the amount of surrounding blossom provided a new image for me.

View from the bench

From Fairlight, the streets of which we are very familiar with, it's a relatively short walk over to Pett Level (above), where we both ate our first sandwiches of the journey.

We then crossed over to the Royal Military Canal (website), constructed over 200 years ago to help defend the country from the threat of a French invasion under Napoleon Bonaparte. Walking eastwards along the canal and the photograph above provides evidence of the possible consequence for people not controlling their pets, that is for the pet, not the human 😉

Royal Military Canal

We carried on down the canal to just before the New Gate at Winchelsea, then crossed to the north side and headed back westwards, when we reached Pannel Valley Reserve we looked out from 2 of their birdwatching hides.

View from Hide, Pannel Valley Reserve

We then headed northwards, joining the 1066 Country Walk, towards Icklesham, passing this windmill and home, in a field where on our last visit it was full of mushrooms and rabbits, apparently the wrong time of year and day this Saturday.

We reached the parish church of Icklesham, All Saints with St Nicholas, a 12th century Norman building, with additions and restoration up to and including the 19th century (website), and entered as we hadn't visited for a few years, well worthwhile.

We then crossed the road and walked up to the Queens Head Inn (website), early 17th century buildings that merged and were turned into a public house 200 years later in 1832. I was pleasantly surprised to chat to Martin, one of the two lads soon to be opening a micropub in Bexhill, who was working behind the bar! Excellent looking food being served up here, indeed, and 6 real ales, which we did sample (though not all, still miles to walk), and food-wise, we had to wait to eat our second sandwich a little later.

We had by then rejoined the 1066 Country Walk, and headed roughly westwards along it all the way from Icklesham, on the way spotting these rather delightful primroses by one of the short pieces of road we passed along, until we reached Westfield.

Having negotiated our way through the streets of Westfield, not so obvious a route, but my Ordnance Survey map certainly helped, we then again found ourselves wandering across fields, including the rapeseed field above. Until now, we'd not really encountered heavy mud, but that was made up for by 2 encounters before we reached Great Wood, to the west of Battle! Mr Hubris now gave us a good kicking, with brambles and barbed wire fencing helping give us a good scratching too, we had been really happy that we were so near to Battle with reasonably clean boots...

Anyway, we coped with the mud and stinky water, and crossed Great Wood, picking up speed, until coming out onto the road near the Grade II listed Battle railway station. This fun wee building was built in the mid 19th century, opening on the 1st of January 1852, and was where we caught a train back to Hastings, thank you very much. The interesting people also waiting at the station, including one very eccentric, could help me write an essay, but maybe for another day...

We got home half an hour later, great day!

Hastings to Rye Walk - Yesterday

My brother and I left Hastings at a reasonable time early-ish yesterday morning, with the aim of missing as much of the forecast rain as possible, and walked towards Rye with the wind behind us for most of they way! The photograph above was taken looking back over Fairlight Glen, a popular place to paint in the 19th century, particularly by Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (blog).

Once we'd completed crossing Hastings Country Park (blog) and cliffs, we descended to Pett Level, where we had a bite to eat, we carried on along The Royal Military Canal (website), constructed from Hythe to Pett to defend against the perceived threat of Napoleon in the early 19th century. We continued along by the canal to Winchelsea, where we walked up to the road and reached the 13th century New Gate (website).

Winchelsea's "New Gate"

Proud parents & their 4 teenagers

We walked through and then around the North of Winchelsea, returning to the wetlands, where we were followed by rain for the last 2 miles of our walk. Okay, we had damp backs to our legs, but we did miss the worst of the rain, mostly!

So, we arrived in Rye and walked up the interesting old streets to St Mary's Church...

Once up at the top of the hill and in St Mary's Church, I loved the stained glass window of another Pre-Raphaelite artist (1891), and best friend of Arts & Crafts Movement hero of mine William Morris, that is Edward Burne-Jones, an aspect of which was featured on the 2009 Christmas 90p postage stamp (St Mary's website).

We then had a pint each at The Queen's Head and caught the train home soon after as it was hectic in Rye, the walk there took about 4 hours, but we were back in Hastings in not much more than 20 minutes!

Ales imbibed in Hastings and Winchelsea

By Steve the Beermeister...

A wee wander around Hastings, and a walk out to Pett Level and Winchelsea, via the Royal Military Canal, and some great ales to quench the thirst... OK, it was a wee bit late for St Patrick's Day, but, For the Craic (4.8%), brewed by Box Steam Brewery of Wiltshire (website) is an excellent choice to start with. It is labelled a "Bold Fruity IPA", though not as pale as you would expect from US influenced IPAs these days, being a darker amber colour, but it certainly was "fruity!" This had a strong citrus aroma with a citrus and mango flavour provided by the Azacca hops used. Nice, dry and bitter, I liked this very much... Sláinte!

My next choice was imbibed at the Jenny Lind in the High Street (website), whilst waiting for laundry in the machines at the laundrette opposite... A very friendly service was provided, and a choice of 10 ales on offer, 6 of which come from local brewers, of which I chose the Franklins Brewing Company's Resurrection (4.2%, website), which was in excellent form, so much so, that I had to have a second pint during the drying, just to make sure it was so good! Pale and hoppy, with grapefruit in the taste, and a lovely refreshing dry finish, another excellent ale, presumably brewed with hops from the USA too.

My penultimate ale for this blog was enjoyed at the Dolphin Inn, Rock-a-Nore Road, as was the For the Craic mentioned at the beginning of this blog. This one was from Kent Brewery (website), their Prohibition (4.8%), and described as an 'American Pale Ale', which is obviously its type! You've guessed it, hops from the USA are used, though they don't disclose which. Anyway plenty of citrus in the aroma and flavour, a lovely pale golden bitter, and pretty damn good!

Finally, sitting opposite the graveyard where Spike Milligan is buried ("I told you I was ill"), we visited the family owned and run New Inn, Winchelsea (website), and enjoyed 1 of the 5 ales on offer. This was Oakham Ales (website) JHB (Jeffrey Hudson Bitter, 3.8%), an excellent ale, plenty of citrus aroma and flavour from the Challenger and Mount Hood hops used, with a refreshing dry bitter finish, cheers!

This was edited from my own blog.