Halnaker Lane

I have no idea why West Sussex CC gave it this name.  The route we walked was nearly 20m NE of Halnaker as the crow flies.  I thought when we returned that we’d missed the windmill, which would have been a shame and there was no exhausted crow to tell us otherwise…¹

But it’s a great walk on an old road.  At one point it passes through Hen Wood.  As Chris is from Wales she thought the name might come from the Welsh meaning ‘old’, which it certainly is.  But I can't find any evidence to back her up.  Anyway, it’s the sort of road drovers would have used to take their stock north to Farnham and London.  

The walk starts at SU 692165, just west of Clanfield and #1 gives the flavour adequately enough.  Just the sort of old road we love being inside, as it were.  And it was another beautiful day.

What we did not do, to our shame, was complete the walk in one go.  And we did it backwards, so #1 and #2 were taken two days after the next three.  Also we didn’t do the stretch of tarmac that goes through Hyden Wood so missed Dead Woman’s Gate.  (We remarked on Dead Woman’s Thorn outside Ledbury as being the burial place of a suicide, not welcomed inside the parish boundary, and here’s another example.  It was a melancholy spot at one time, no doubt.)

I have also omitted to mention North Cottages at 688175 because the solitary pine tree there does not seem to have been a signpost, except perhaps to North Farm.  But there is an interesting feature there: a possible stance on the RHS of the road (#2)?  I’m not totally convinced either.

The next (in this case, previous) longer and even more beautiful stretch starts in open country at 675192 and goes north to Drayton Cottages on the edge of Hen Wood.  What perfection.  I think the pictures tell the story better than any feeble words from me.