Forest Row Back and Forth

Forest Row draws its name from its proximity to the Ashdown Forest, a royal hunting park first enclosed in the 13th century. Forest Row has grown, first with the establishment of a turnpike road and later with the opening of the railway line between East Grinstead and Tunbridge Wells in 1866, which closed on the 2nd of January 1967 as a result of the report” The Reshaping of British Railways “in 1963 by East Grinstead resident and British Railways Board Chairman Dr Richard Beeching. The line is now a footpath called the Forest Way.

 We head out of Forest Row along the Forest Way, leaving it to pass to the ruins of Brambletye House. The house was the abode of one Henry Compton and his second wife, Mary Browne. Henry Compton came into ownership of the older double-moated manor at Brambletye by way of Richard and Edward Sackville, the 3rd and 4th Earls of Dorset respectively, who were brothers of Henry's first wife, Cecily Sackville, and his own stepbrothers after his widowed mother married the 2nd Earl of Dorset.

Passing South Park Farm, where we first glimpse Weirwood Reservoir, and after Mudbrooks House we climb and there are fine views of Weirwood Reservoir, Standen and St Swithun’s Church East Grinstead.

Standen is an Arts and Crafts movement House designed by Philip Webb for the Beale Family, now owned by the National Trust.

We head Eastwards into Ashdown Forest, then Northeast via Highgate back to Forest Row where we stop for lunch, after 6miles.

After Lunch we head out of Forest Row along the Vanguard Way, passing the site of the railway station and walking along a short section of the Forest Way then northwards to Cansiron Lane an ancient ridgeway tracks at least five thousand years old. Heading Eastwards along it then the High Weald Landscape Trail, there are splendid views towards Hartfield. After Collingsbush Wood, we turn southwards passing Ashdown House a former prep school, which is grade II * listed building designed in 1793 by Benjamin Latrobe. We head Westwards along the Medway Valley passing Tablehurst Farm on our way back to Forest Row.

Since this is my fourth Forest Row Walk, I have named it after the final Blackadder episode. This was co-written by Ben Elton who lives in Forest Row,

Optional drinks in one of the local pubs afterwards.