Midhurst at Midwinter: A Jolly Traverse of the Holly Hursts

Please note that this is a weekday walk (it's taking place on a Wednesday). 

'Hurst' in a place name means 'wooded hill', and these wooded hills will be stocked with seasonal shrubs such as holly, ivy, spruce and so forth. Starting by car or bus amid such woods we'll ascend Woolbeding Common, pause to appreciate the panorama, and then descend to the valley of the River Rother and the spick-and-span timelessness of the town of Midhurst. Here we'll split up and have an hour and a bit to find places to look at and lunch at. At a set time we'll meet up to complete the walk, finding further quiet corners, fir tree forests and historic homes (chief among them the imposing ruins of Cowdray House) and generally delighting in the Christmassy company of our fellow OutdoorLads.

The sights:

Henley: A straggle of picturesque cottages and farms on the edge of Verdley Hill. There are superb views back to Blackdown Hill. The Duke of Cumberland Arms pub is C16.

Woolbeding Common: Oak, sweet chestnut, birch and rowan growing on the greensand give way to bilberry, gorse and heather. These areas don't feel like Sussex but more like the edge of Dartmoor. Birdlife includes green and greater spotted woodpeckers and perhaps resident linnets and stonechats. The heath has always provided local people with heather to burn and now the National Trust is cutting back birch trees to prevent forest taking over the biodiverse heathland. There are superb views from the highest point across the Weald to the South Downs. 

Woolbeding: The first village on the River Rother west out of Midhurst. All Hallows Church is tall, unaisled, Saxon, but restoration has removed most character and the chancel is from 1870. Woolbeding Hall is a delightful house of 1700, with French-looking additions of 1875. Home from 1972 until his death in 2006 to businessman, philanthropist and art collector Simon Sainsbury, and later his civil partner Stewart Grimshaw. The National Trust opens the gardens. Woolbeding Bridge is C14. Kinetic Greenhouse (it opens like a flower), 2021, designed by Thomas Heatherwick to display plants from the Silk Road. Cedra, water sculpture by William Pye, 2011.

Midhurst: To quote my go-to topographer Ian Nairn in The Buildings of England: Sussex: 'To the main road traveller, Midhurst, like Petworth, is a bewildering series of acute ninety-degree bends combined with an inexplicable cottagey cosiness in the buildings, so different from the open market-places of Hampshire. Few towns are more deceptive, few towns withhold themselves so firmly until the traveller gets out of his car and on to his feet: few towns in particular have a more exciting relationship with the surrounding countryside'. The parish church (St Mary Magdalene and St Denys) is disappointing: some parts are C13, but most seems to be from the restoration of 1882. It overlooks a pleasant if rather empty square. The Spread Eagle Hotel is 1700, the Old Market House is C16, Market Hall (Now Eagle House) is 1552 with an C18 front. The former library is a ramble of tiled and timbered cottages of the C17. The biggest building is Cowdray House, just NE of the town, the epitome of sober but splendid Tudor architecture, dating from 1492 to 1542. It was left a ruin by a fire in 1793 and so spared from being Victorianized. 

Easebourne: A Cowdray Estate village (identified by yellow paintwork), mostly sandstone with some timber framing. Many good C19 estate cottages. Sycamore Cottage is C16 and the best of a mile of cottages that stretches up the village's High Street. St Mary is a priory church from the C13, but almost everything is now of 1876. Easebourne Priory was founded in 1238 and what is left are the buildings around the cloister which now form an amalgam of medieval, C17 and C18 design. 

The route (please click on the link in red to be taken to the Ordnance Survey website):

The westwards Serpent Trail will take us along Verdley Edge to the highest point of Woolbeding Common. Paths heading south will bring us to Eastshaw Lane which will bring us to Woolbeding village. Heading further south over the bridge, we'll almost get to the A272 and the western edge of Midhurst. After an hour exploring the town and finding food and a place to eat it, we'll meet up again, ascend St Anne's Hill, then proceed along the River Rother past Cowdray. A gravel track in the grounds of the house will take us to Easebourne where we'll walk along the High Street, then Easebourne Street north to Whitters Copse. At Verdley Farm we'll pick up a footpath heading west back to Henley. 

Dogs:

I love having dogs on my walks and this walk is suitable for them, except that there will be a number of stiles to cross (you may have to lift your muddy beast over them), lanes to walk along, a few fields with livestock and the town of Midhurst where they won't be welcome in cafes. Any dog off the lead must be obedient.

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(Picture credits: woolbeeding common panorama by wimbledonian (licensed for use under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; Swallows Bottom from Older Hill by Roger Lovett; Henley by Ben Gamble; Great Common by Ben Gamble; View across Woolbeding Common by Martyn Pattison; Pound Common by Colin Smith; Old Buddington seen from near to Locks Cottage by Shazz; Through the gates of Woolbeding House by Shazz; Woolbeding Bridge over the Rother by Shazz; Town Hall, Midhurst by Roger Cornfoot; Capron House by Oliver Dixon; Eagle House, Market Square, Midhurst by Stefan Czapski; Harveys Bottle and Jug, Elizabeth House, Church Hill, Midhurst by Jo Turner; Cowdray Castle by Roger Cornfoot; Ruins of Cowdray Castle Midhurst by Chris Gunns; Easebourne Priory by Ben Gamble; Sowter's Farm House at Easebourne by Shazz; Faggot Stacks by Robin Webster; The track to Verdley Farm by Shazz. All photos are copyrighted but are above credited to their copyright holders and are licensed for further reuse under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0). The other photos are by the leader.)