A 10.5 mile 4 hour bank holiday bike ride out to Roffey Park and back, avoiding roads where possible.

With the forecast showing cloudy skies from late morning (another BBC weather fail then), we set out at 7:25 to take advantage of the morning sun and lower temperatures and were soon pedalling along the bridleway out of Ifield West and onto Kilnwood Lane. At the crossroads with Faygate Lane, we took the left towards Faygate for a couple of hundred yards before turning right onto the footpath that runs almost parallel with Wimlands Lane, which we then joined by Wimlands Farm where we could take in the views over Horsham before heading down the steep hill of Wimlands Road towards The Frog & Nightgown.

We then turned south-eastwards down Brook Lane, an ancient hollow way that crosses the railway 200 metres north-east of the Wimlands Road level crossing and emerges onto the main Horsham to Crawley road. After crossing the A264 and briefly paying Newlands Farm on the Old Crawley Road a visit, we took the footpath from Clovers way for the moderate climb up to Roffey Park, enjoying the views across the valley through which the A264 runs. After admiring the mid 19th century mansion that is Roffey Park, we descended down the estate's northern driveway to cross the main road to the Cherry Tree, where we stopped for a short break. Unfortunately it wasn't yet 10am and the pub was shut so it was water and cereal bars rather then beer, (coke for the younger of the two of us) and chips!

Suitably refreshed, we took the bridleway next to the pub and crossed the railway and made our way through a large wheat field back to Wimlands Road for a 300 metre pedal to the next footpath, taking us eastwards back towards the railway and eventually to Faygate station, where we once again crossed the railway using the road bridge and took the path that runs alongside it across the bottom of Faygate playing fields. After crossing the railway (for the final time!) via a foot crossing we entered the woods, passing a (seemingly lived in) hermits shack before climbing a hill with a similar gradient to that at Roffey Park, but it seemed much steeper at that point of the ride, that returned us to Kilnwood Lane and nice flat and downhill ride home.