Bexhill Circular walk

This is an edge of town walk of about 6 miles. It includes riverside fields and farmland, hedgerow remains of ancient woodland, reedbeds, vegetated shingle and a wonderful mile of rock pools at low tide. There are no hills or particularly muddy areas. Refreshments and toilets are available at the start point - Bexhill railway station - and towards the end of the walk. Explorer map 124 covers this route

Walk Directions

1. Take the second left as you leave Bexhill Railway station and walk north up Sea Road
See story Sea Road
- this is not the road that runs back alongside the station. Continue up the hill and cross the road after the junction with Buckhurst Road so that you can stay on the pavement which continues up at a higher level than the road. You will come to Manor Gardens on your right, which are worth exploring. At the Old Town junction past Manor Gardens, take the Hastings Road which goes in front of Quakers Mill and is signed as leading to the parish church.
See story Manor Gardens

2. Go into the churchyard and walk around to the right of the church, leaving the churchyard by the gate at the north-east corner. It is easy to miss your way at this point. You need to pass between 2 gates marked "Private" and find the narrow twitten that goes between a beech hedge on the left and a wooden fence on the right. Follow this twitten until it curves round to the right near a dual carriageway road.

3. You will come to a footbridge on your left that crosses the motorway. Now you are on the signed "1066 Bexhill Walk" route.
1066 connection is that William's Norman troops landed at Pevensey Bay and Bexhill and some made their way up Sea Lane, wreaking havoc as they went.
Turn left off the footbridge and then right into a suburban street with very large houses.
Bexhill had a reputation as a seaside resort with fine air and good bathing during the 19th century. The railway came in 1846 and many convalescent homes and hotels were built - like the houses in this part of town.
Walk along until you come to Southlands Court on your left and turn left immediately after it - there is a signpost showing the 1066 route.

4. You will soon find yourself in a modern housing estate. Walk along until you come to a wooden seat. Just before the seat, on your right, there is a twitten between two hedges. Walk along here (still on the 1066 route). This twitten winds along between the backs of houses and gardens for about a quarter of a mile.
Where there are trees following the line of a twitten like this one you can estimate their ages. Here there are some large oaks and ash trees that must be older than the modern houses - this means that the twitten follows the route of an older path.

5. You come out onto a road. Immediately opposite you will see a stile which you climb into a field. Walk along the field edge, with the hedge on your right until you reach another stile which takes you into a pasture field.
If you look at the ground of this field, especially if the sun is low in the sky, you can see that the "bumps" appear to be separated by dips in fairly regular arrangements. This suggests buildings that have fallen down and tracks between them. Big nettle patches also suggest human habitation as they often occur where there were latrines or middens that raised the nitrogen content of the soil. I haven't yet been able to check the records to see if there is a deserted village marked here.
Cross this field on a diagonal - the finger post shows the angle - heading for the far right (north east) corner.

6. Climb the stile in the corner and cross the lane. Take the middle of three tracks and walk in front of Boulder Cottage. A little further along, at Worsham Farm, the lane turns right - stay on it and walk along past low farm buildings on your right. At the end of the buildings, take the right fork. Here you are leaving the "1066 Bexhill Walk" route. Follow the track which heads east between fields, past a landmark pine tree.

7. Continue along this track which becomes very overgrown and muddy underfoot. On your right you can see water pumping station works. You continue through a small grove of mature oaks and plants and fungi associated with ancient woodland. The track goes on beside a ditch on the right.
I have seen some species of fungus and plants here that are markers of ancient woodland: boletus fungi, dog's mercury plants and butchers' broom. These suggest that there was once more extensive woodland and that this belt is all that remains of it, a feature sometimes called a ghost wood.

8. After a while the hedge path finishes with a gate and a stile which you climb into a field. Follow the hedgeline along the right side of this field to another stile and continue, keeping the hedge and metal fence on your right. You are now walking past a large landfill site.
This landfill site is due to close in 2008. Meanwhile the tip is producing so much methane that another generator is planned to produce electricity for local use. There are already 2 generators working in this way. When the tip closes, the area will be landscaped and become Pebsham Country Park which will safeguard the small space between Bexhill and Hastings. It will include Filsham reedbeds.
The path, which is a relatively new one, stays beside the fence until at the bottom of a slope you come to a kissing gate. Go through it, turn right and then immediately left over a stile and onto a wide path between hawthorn hedges and ditches.

9. Walk down to Combe Haven, the river, and turn left to walk along the near-side bank.
See story Combe Haven and Filsham Reedbeds
Cross the river on the next wooden footbridge you come to, turn right and continue down the other bank. You will come to an interpretation board and a plank walkway leading into Filsham Reedbeds. There is a bird hide at the end of this walkway but beware of how slippery the boards can be beneath the trees especially.

10. Continue along the river bank until you come to another wooden footbridge. Cross back to the other side of the river and turn left. Walk along the west side of the river until the path reaches a car park. Go through the metal gate into the car park and cross a wide ditch. Immediately after the ditch look for the metal gate on the right and walk into the playing fields. Cross the playing fields towards the pavilion to the south west. On the left of the pavilion there is a kissing gate and a short twitten leading to the road. At the road turn right and walk to the pedestrian crossing.

11. Cross the road, walk a little further to the right and then turn left down Bridge Way which leads to a new metal footbridge over the railway line. You will now find yourself on the beach
See story The fragile coast and the wreck of the Amsterdam
and by turning right and continuing to walk westwards you will come back to Bexhill. There are many alternative ways to do this - at low tide the sands and rock pools are full of delights.
The tops of the sandy cliffs are also of interest, as is the vegetated shingle which lies between the railway line and the main part of the beach. There is a café and toilets at Glyne Gap, and a coastguards station at Galley Hill
See story Galley Hill
the highest of the sandy cliff tops and the last one before the flats mark the edge of Bexhill.
The sea wall and esplanade were built between 1882 and 1911. A cycling boulevard was created in the 1890s - the sport was still new and popular. Then in 1902 the De La Warrs established a motor racing course between east Bexhill and Galley Hill - the first in the UK.

12. When you reach Bexhill esplanade, the war memorial is at the bottom of Sea Road, which leads back to the station. The De La Warr Pavilion and the Colonnade are a little further along the sea front.

Stories

Sea Road

This used to be Sea Lane, before the 19th century development of Bexhill. Then, the land between Old Town and the coast was marshy and uninhabited, and this lane was the way to the beach used by fishermen and smugglers.
At the junction by Manor Gardens where the roundabout is now there used to be an enormous walnut tree. It survived until early in the 20th century and when its stump was finally removed, a gavel was made from the wood. This is still used by Bexhill Council.
This lane was the route used by smugglers to bring their cargoes inland - sometimes requiring as many as 50 pack ponies. In the first half of the 18th century, smuggling in the area was run by the Hawkhurst gang who, in November 1744, smashed up the house of the Bexhill riding officer and terrorised his family, apparently to keep him occupied and out of the way during a major landing taking place that night.
In 1824 a blockademan jumped into a smuggler's boat at Bexhill to try to prevent the landing, but the crew pulled away with him on board and his body was found on the lowtide sands sometime later.
Another local gang, the Little Common men, fought a battle with 40 armed blockade men at Sidley Green in 1828. The smugglers had their long "bats" but few guns and 10 were arrested. They were sentenced to death, but eventually transported instead.
Another of Bexhill Corporation's civic possessions is a three handled silver tankard apparently from the Little Common smugglers - whether willingly given or confiscated I haven't been able to find out.

Manor Gardens

The manor house that was here was built in Medieval times to provide accommodation for bishops visiting from Chichester. It went to the Sackville family in 1561 and became a shooting lodge for the Dukes of Dorset.
It came to the De La Warr family through the marriage of Viscount Cantelupe to Lady Muriel Brassey in 1891 and the next decade or so saw its heyday. Aristocratic visitors could play tennis and cricket, try the new sport of cycling, bathe in the sea or visit the theatre or circulating library. The "tudor" fireplace now to be found near the tulip tree in the gardens was installed in 1891 as part of the refurbishment of the house. The house was demolished in 1968 as part of a road widening scheme.
The De La Warrs contributed hugely to the development of Bexhill during the early 20th century when it became a resort for convalescents and cognoscenti of good air and culture. By the 1950s the town became Bexhill on Sea. The Maharajah of Cooch Behar, whose sojourn (and death) in Bexhill in the early 20th century was marked by a memorial on the sea front was one well-known resident who came for health reasons. This memorial is now removed.
It was the De La Warrs who had the sea wall and esplanade built, and the famous art deco Pavilion.

St Peter's church

There has been a church here since Saxon times - Offa, King of the Mercians signed a charter in 772 allowing land for it.
The present building contains Saxon stonework and remains within its walls, but is mostly Norman, with a Victorian restoration in 1878. One of its delights inside is a very old glass window depicting various saints, including Saint Zitta, patron of domestic servants. The window is dated 1470. I haven't as yet been able to find out more about this unusual saint.
Between 1804 and 1815 the area to the north and east of the church was occupied by King George III's Hanoverian legion - hence Barrack Road nearby. These 2000, mostly cavalry, troops met with considerable suspicion from the local people (Bexhill's population was about 200 at that time) but it seems that the German soldiers won their locals' hearts by their singing in church and musicianship in their band (they gave concerts in the town) and by the quality of care they gave their horses. Many marriages were celebrated between the German soldiers and local women in this church, and people still come from north Germany looking for their ancestors here.

Combe Haven and Filsham Reedbeds

Just before the bridge across the river, in the hedge on your right, there is a boundary stone - one of many set up when Bexhill borough was incorporated in 1902. The tradition of walking the bounds and humiliating the councillors with tricks and booby traps went out of favour in the 1920s.
When the tip closes all this area, including the reedbeds which you can reach by a new boardwalk a little further down the valley, will be part of the new country park. That is, except for land given over to the proposed road further west up the valley. This will link Hastings and Bexhill and, allegedly, reduce traffic on the heavily used coast road. There is controversy about this road and strong local resistance to the plan as well as some support for it.
Filsham reedbeds are home to lots of plants and creatures. I have seen many dragon and damsel flies, diadematus spiders, yellow underwing moth, reed warblers and kestrels. Among the plants relatively easily spotted are purple loosestrife, hemp nettle, marsh woundwort and a wide variety of willows.
The rangers hope that bitterns, now extremely rare, will be lured back to breed in this habitat which is ideal for them. There is some rivalry between the rangers of this reserve and the one at Rye Harbour, regarding who will be favoured by the bitterns first.

The fragile coast and the wreck of the Amsterdam

When you reach the coast you can see the fragility of the sandy cliffs, and the narrowness of the strip occupied by the railway line.
These cliffs erode very quickly if they are not protected by massive blocks of Scandinavian granite - a new consignment has been put in place during the summer of 2005. It is well worth timing your walk, if you can, to reach this point at low tide.
Then it is possible to see the outline of the wreck of the Amsterdam. This was a Dutch East India Company ship with three masts, built in 1748. In January 1749 it was travelling from Rotterdam to Batavia (Java) with 330 crew one of whom came aboard with yellow fever.
By the time the ship reached this part of the English Channel, 50 men were already dead, and 40 sick. In a storm there were not enough crew to man the ship properly and its rudder was damaged. The ship was wrecked on the sands here at Bulverhythe and local people knew that its cargo must include supplies for a long journey and a large amount of silver bullion for trading.
The Mayor of Hastings took charge of the situation and got the silver to the Customs House under guard. But even as the storm continued to blow, and the crew to die of the fever, people were desperately trying to loot whatever they could. And for many years thereafter, at low tide, local people attempted to salvage goods and materials from the wreck. The Hanoverian troops were even put to this task during one promising low tide period, but like many before and since, they found that the more you dig, the more the remains sink into the sand. The wreck remains are now protected from further digging.
There is also a petrified forest on the beach between the footbridge at Bulverhythe and Galley hill which can only be found when the tide is particularly low.
From here to the centre of Bexhill, you can usually see turnstones feeding on the beach or the grassy areas above it. They are delicate birds, with bright black, white and brown markings, about the size of a blackbird, and they feed by turning stones and shells over with their beaks. The traditional view is that these birds winter here but breed in Greenland while some are migrants passing from North Europe to West Africa, but as I have seen them at different times throughout the year I think some are now breeding here.
Along the cliffs you will come across a spreading succulent-type plant with bright green colouring and orange and red fruits in summer. This is Hottentot fig, and the fruits are edible. It is an introduced species from South Africa which rapidly establishes large colonies. At the Lizard in Cornwall, National Trust rangers have to abseil down the cliffs to remove it as it squeezes out less robust native species. There is vegetated shingle along this section of the coast, which is a fairly rare habitat. Look out for yellow horned poppies,
sea kale and woody nightshade. Goldfinches flock and feed here in late summer when the teazle and hemp agrimony heads are in seed.

Galley Hill

There was once a Martello tower here, one of the line built in the early 1800s as part of coastal defences against Napoleon. The cliff erosion has been rapid and it has long since fallen into the sea and been washed away. There are existing ones at Norman's Bay and Seaford where you can see the design - no door on the ground floor, a moat, high parapets and revolving gun emplacements on the top. The walls are very thick and incorporate bomb-proof ammunition stores. They were named after a defensive tower in Mortella Bay in Corsica, which the British encountered in 1794 and were impressed by.
There was another one in central Bexhill, where the Colonnade is now, and both are said to have been built by "Yorky" Smith (a builder who walked from Yorkshire to London to find work) and the Hanoverians. There was an Admiralty signal station here from the late 18th century onwards, and it has long been used as a Coastguards' lookout point.
I haven't yet been able to find out the origin of the name, Galley Hill, but suspect it may have something to do with gallows.
Just west of Galley Hill is a marker showing the beginning of the De La Warr's early motor racing track. Its inception was delayed for two years by a nearby resident who got an injunction preventing the Earl from using his land. Even so, it was still the earliest venture of its kind in the UK.