Through the Conifers at Bedgebury-2019-12-02
Distance: 7.25 miles,Minnimum Time: 3hrs 30mins,Difficulty: Hard,Description:The name Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) may not trip off your tongue, but he is well known to astronomers. He lived and worked in Hawkhurst for 30 years and during that time discovered over 3,000 double, or binary, stars (two stars revolving around a common centre). Not content with that, Herschel was also one of the pioneers of photography. He invented the process of reproducing photographs on sensitised paper, and was the first to use the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ in the context of photography. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, next to Sir Isaac Newton.Where to eat and drink: The Oak and Ivy is a 14thcentury pub slightly out of the centre of Hawkhurst on the A268. It serves baguettes and a good selection of bar meals. In Hawkhurst, there’s a good café in the Kino Cinema on the main street. At Gill’s Green there is Great House, which serves imaginative pub food, including excellent deli-board selections.Directions: Leave the car park, turn left along the main road and take the arrowed path right beside Pear Tree House. Cross a stile by a gate and bear right, following the hedge to a stile. Walk through woodland and cross rough pasture to a stile and road, opposite the Kentish Rifleman pub.Turn right, then left along Talbot Road and soon pass the village green (The Moor). Take the footpath right down Henshill Lane, keeping left by Lodge Cottage into woodland. Just before farm buildings, bear right into a field and keep left to a stile. Turn right, then left before a gate and follow the field-edge to a stile in the corner. Go over the stile ahead, walk through the edge of a copse and keep left on entering an orchard.Where the path splits, go right along the orchard edge to a stile, then cut across the field to another stile. Turn right along the field edge to cross a stile and plank bridge. Continue ahead to a stile and road. Cross the stile opposite and head uphill to the A268.Climb the stile opposite, keep right through the hospital car park to a stile, then head across a field to a stile and walk through woodland. Bear diagonally left across a field, go back into the woods, following a track that soon swings right over a stream and soon exit the wood. Cross a field, go through a copse and follow the clear field path to a plank bridge and gate. Turn left along the field-edge.Turn left and walk along the wide track that leads towards Little Pix Hall Farm. Walk through the farm, and take the first track on your right past some cottages. Follow the concrete track as it meanders downhill and across a stream, then turn right. The track runs along the edge of the wood, bears left and then the bridleway goes straight on where the track curves right into a field. Go through a gate, the track soon curving right and continuing to a junction of two tracks. Take the path on the right and continue to walk through the woods, passing silver birch trees and young conifers. You’ll eventually reach a junction where two tracks lead off to the left. Ignore these and continue ahead, following the blue arrow waymarkers.Carry on down the slope and, at a signpost, take the track on the right and pass beside a barrier. Now walk past a large pond (you’ll hear the ducks quacking through the trees as you pass) then take the large track that slopes down to your right. It’s used by vehicles and can get very muddy. When you come down to a T-junction of tracks turn right and walk down to Siseley Farm and follow the track left.Turn right along the farm drive and take the footpath left opposite Soper’s Farmhouse. Keep to the right-hand field-edge, climb a stile in the corner and keep ahead beside trees to a stile. Drop down through woodland, cross a bridge and continue to a stile by a gate. Follow the track ahead through Trewint Farm to the road. Turn left, then immediately right, bearing right at the end to reach the Great House pub.Cross the busy A229 here and walk along Heartenoak Road until you come to a byway on the right. Follow this past Ockley Mill Farm and up into the outskirts of Hawkhurst. Turn left on reaching the road, walk to the crossroads and then turn left to return to the car park.
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