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56 Pictures: In search of The River Medway by bike - Ifield to Turners Hill via Worth Way and back via Crawley Down, Tilgate and Broadfield (1 Sept 2018)

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Some time ago I discovered that the River Medway, over a mile wide at it's mouth on the southern side of the Thames Estuary, has it's source over 40 miles away as the crow flies (and 70 miles upstream) in Turners Hill, a small West Sussex village located on a steep ridge in the High Weald, approximately half way between the towns of East Grinstead & Crawley.

 

A search for the source, a spring almost half a mile to the north west of the village centre, seemed a good basis for an off road bike ride route and the morning of Saturday 1 September 2018 provided excellent weather conditions, so my son & I pumped up our tyres, grabbed our cameras and set out on what turned out to be a ride of over 21 miles over the course of almost five and a half hours.

 

 

Starting in Ifield West, we took a direct route to Crawley Town centre, via the underpass near to Snell Hatch and Ifield Road, passing through Church Walk and along Haslett Avenue to Sutherland House, the Paymaster Building, where we were able to join Tilgate Drive and coast down to the subway under the railway close to the Water Gardens in Furnace Green.

 

St Johns Church, The Broadway redevelopment, Civic Buildings/Library/Mall, Sutherland House

Once under the railway we made tracks to Worth Way and headed east under the Balcombe Road, along Church Road and over the motorway, past Worth Lodge Farm and on to the old level crossing keepers house on the Turners Hill Road.

The 17th century Street House in Worth, formally a coaching inn.

Views south and north respectively from close to Worth Lodge Farm

The buried bridge crossing the former railway track on the lane from Worth Lodge Farm to Turners Hill Road

The crossing keepers house near Compasses Corner

Worth way now becomes a long, straight and flat ride to Wallage Lane and Rowfant station, where one of the posts supporting the old level crossing gates can still be seen, before a climb to Rowfant Business Park where we will be leaving Worth Way.

The surviving level crossing gate post at Rowfant Station

Views to the west of Rowfant Business Park

At this point, we turned briefly south onto the lane leading into the business park from where we located the south easterly footpath to Turners Hill. I'd not told my son, but I knew that this was going to be a long and steady climb through woods and then fields as we climbed over 100 feet over the course of roughly two thirds of a mile before we reached the 16th century Miswells House and the road close to our goal; the source of the River Medway.

The footpath from Rowfant to Turners Hill

Miswells House, between Crawley Down & Turners Hill. The western wing, which is at the rear of the house and not visible from any publically accessible areas, dates back to the 16th century or earlier. That eastern wing, shown in the photo, is an extension added in 1902 in the same style as the original.

We were now ready to find the source of the Medway, a small spring in woodland under a line of electricity cables, accessed via a small track. On arriving at the track it seemed that it may have been on private land with no public right of way, but fortunately the owner of the house through whose garden the track went was working in his garden and said it should be ok to go up the track. We pedalled as far as possible and then left our bikes to fight our way through some quite dense (and in places very prickly) woodland, gps tracker in hand following the course of the fledgling river. I say river, but our exceptionally dry summer meant that there was no water flowing, but the ground was soft and the course of the water could easily be seen.

We eventually reached the head - a small round pot, perhaps 18 inches in diameter, at the foot of a bank with holes in it from which water would clearly be pouring from after wetter weather. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but this is what we found. One taken with a flash and one without, as the dense leaf cover didn't give me the best light for a decent photograph.

The source of The River Medway


Whilst we had now visited the main goal of our ride, we still had plenty of places to visit, so we returned to our bikes and the fairly busy main road and continued up to Turners Hill. We were hoping for a nice quiet road, as it was closed for some works in the village, but apparently 4 'road closed' signs aren't enough to make the message clear!

On the climb up to Turners Hill we passed a number of older buildings. Firstly a pleasing on the eye, but not listed mock Tudor house and then, on the junction of Lion Lane and the main road through the village is 10/11 Lion Lane, a white painted set of semi detached houses dating back to 1821. Further up Lion lane, and set back from the road is Mantelmas which dates back to 1660 when it was two cottages. By the mid 19th century the property was operating as a shop, as evidenced by the extant shop front on the left of the photo and is now a single private residence. Next door is the Red Lion Public House, a much changed 16th century inn.

Mock Tudor House, 10&11 Lion Lane, Mantelmas & The Red Lion

Next, we planned to look at a few other older houses in the centre of the village and we decided to do this on foot so, after locking our bikes to the bus stop sign we went for a wander.

The Bank, a large 18th century building.

The 18th century Forge House (to the left, slightly recessed), The Bank, in the middle; an 18th century front to probably a much older house and, confusingly, another house called The Bank next door, as seen in the previous picture. I hope the postman is on the ball!

A 17th century cottage belonging to the Paddockhurst Estate, now better known as Worth Abbey.

31 Church Road, a stone built house dating back to 1828

Which way shall we go? If we go to East Street we will see New Stone Cottages, a group of 5 mock Tudor semi detached cottages built in 1919 by Lord Cowdray or we could cross the road to Cannons Farm, now more commonly known as The Crown Public House, parts of which date back to 16th century.

Back to the bikes and time for a quick sit down in the bus shelter with a snack and drink, before climbing back on our bikes and returning down lion Lane where, on meeting the road to Crawley Down, it forms a cross roads with a public footpath heading east which, after about a third of a mile, joins what appeared to be an old hollow way linking East Street in Turners Hill with Sandhill Lane in Crawley Down, the southern end of which is made up for motor vehicles. Before reaching this we were surprised to cross a road, marked only as a farm track on the map, whose volume of traffic can only be explained by the shoot that was audible until we reached Crawley Down. It was nice to Dennis Hopper though. Having promised my son that we had now been to the highest point of our ride, topographically speaking, he wasn't expecting the steep incline which followed the steep decline into a ghyll containing the River Medway, a mile downstream from our previous encounter with it. The end result was a get off and push for a couple of hundred yards, followed by a water break at the top of the hill before we set off again along Sandhill Lane towards Crawley Down.

Please shut the gate!

Born to be Wild and a vintage breakdown truck, parked on a randomly placed area of concrete.

The old Holloway, looking southwards back down the steep climb to the river and an unknown house viewed looking north west from a similar spot

We were looking for Mr. Bronson's wig, but all we found was this attractive, but unlisted house which probably isn't as old as it appears to be.

The 17th century Burleigh Cottage.

We didn't stay in Crawley Down, cycling the full length of Grange Road alongside Worth Way and then turning south again on the Turners Hill Road until we reached Wallage Lane, where we coasted down the hill, under the old railway bridge and returned to Worth Way at the point where we left it some hours earlier at Rowfant Business Park.

Crawley Down and a view along Worth Way from the Turners Hill Road bridge.

The Wallage, opposite the junction of Turners Hill Road and Wallage Lane, the southern (right) wing of which dates back to the 17th Century

Returning along the familiar route to Church Road in Worth, we elected to again leave Worth Way, so went straight across at the 90 degree turn along the (very narrow; cut the hedges please!) footpath that leads to the roundabout where Maidenbower Drive joins the Balcombe Road. Heading for the tunnel under the railway by Oriel High School, we passed Frogshole Farm, the playing fields and the school itself, pausing after the tunnel to make a decision as to which route we would take back to Ifield.

Curious cows at Worth Lodge Farm, looking northwards from the motorway bridge and the 16th century (but much renovated after a serious fire) Frogshole Farm, now of course a pub/restaurant.

The decision was to avoid any more big hills and continue to avoid roads, so we took the footpath that starts between the Shrublands & Forestfield estates in Furnace Green and leads to the side of the golf club car park in Tilgate Drive, passing Gainsborough Road playing fields and the allotments. We then went along Salisbury Road, at the bottom of the hill and along the footpath that takes users to the entrance to K2 leisure centre. From here, we passed the Broadfield Stadium and followed Broadfield Brook all the way to Ifield Mill Pond where we could cross the railway via Berrymeade Bridge and finally arrive home.

The well kept communal gardens at Forestfield, the view from Salisbury Road towards Tilgate Park and K2 Leisure Centre

Broadfield Stadium

Broadfield Brook & Pond

Sources:

http://www.turnershillcouncil.co.uk
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk


Text & photographs © Ian Mulcahy. Contact photos@iansapps.co.uk or visit my 'Use of my photographs' page for licensing queries.


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