For the Fourth Day of Christmas: A Feast in Fernhurst

The Fourth Day of Christmas was known in the medieval church calendar as the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It was a day of reflection, an interlude in the raucous celebrations that marked the other Twelve Days. For OutdoorLads in 2024, it'll be nothing so sombre, but a chance to expend accumulated calories ascending Sussex's highest hill, Blackdown, before having a pub lunch in Fernhurst. Blackdown needs no introduction: the great whale-backed bluff often features in our walk schedules, and Fernhurst is the most delightful village; its buff stone cottages surround a green. We'll take delight in each other's company, take in the views of the Low Weald, and take stock of 2024.

The sights:

Blackdown: A rugged greensand plateau, 280m high, cared for by the National Trust. It is named after the dark pine trees that cap its summit. Its human history is interesting: Middle-Stone Age (6000BC) people dwelt there; smugglers hid their contraband in caves there; London was alerted to the coming of the Spanish Armada by a beacon there; and in 1967, Iberian Airlines Flight 062 crashed there due to a faulty altimeter reading; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lived there at Aldworth House; and from 1796 to 1816 the navy had a shutter telegraph station there.

Low Weald: "The wooded and watery Low Weald...is a low-lying gently undulating landscape of clay vales and gentle ridges of limestone and sandstone. The landscape is small-scale, intimate and tranquil with a medieval pattern of small irregular pasture fields enclosed by a strong network of shaws [thickets] and tall, thick, species-rich hedgerows." (West Sussex Landscape: The Low Weald Character Area).

Fernhurst:  A stone and tile-hung village in West Sussex, near the border with Surrey. To the west of the A286 it is modern and suburban; to the east of it it is ancient and characterful, with cottages and a handsome early C18 house, The White House, around a small village green. We'll have lunch at the Grade II-listed Red Lion Inn.

The route (please check this at the OS website to see the elevations): 

We'll head southeast through Haslemere through Shepherd's Hill and Haste Hill to pick up Chase Lane which will take us along Tennyson's Lane and Pen-Y-Bos track to Blackdown's plateau. After breaking at The Temple of the Winds, we'll descend to Fernden Lane, cross it and take a footpath across Reeth Copse to Fernhurst. After lunch at the pub, we'll follow Old Glebe north, then a footpath, then Copyhold Lane, then a footpath again back to Fernden Lane, which we'll walk north along. Before long we'll take a footpath to Belle Vue Lane then a byway to Scotland Lane. We'll then be in the suburbs of Haslemere, and a quick walk through them will return us to the station.

Dogs:

I love having dogs on my walks and this walk is very suitable for them although there will be considerable lane walking and some fields with livestock. A dog off the lead must be obedient.

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(The pictures were taken by the leader on his walk recce in December 2024. OutdoorLads is welcome to reuse them.)