Lewes to Rottingdean walk

Lewes to Rottingdean

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Distance: 8 miles.
Time without long breaks: Apx 4 1/2 hours.

Terrain: One steep climb, otherwise easy-going.
How to get there and back: Catch a train to Lewes (just over ah hour from Victoria). Return via a bus to Brighton and then train (it may be cheaper to buy a return to Haywards Heath and then two singles).
Pub breaks: The Juggs Inn in Kingston is quite early on into the walk. Rottingdean has a few to choose from, including the Black Horse.
More information: If you want a longer walk, there are two optional detours, including an undercliff walk to the Whitecliffs Cafe in Saltdean. Rottingdean can get very busy with tourists (and, sadly, traffic), so it's best to avoid visiting on weekends and bank holidays.

This walk up and over the Downs links two historic Sussex settlements. It ends at Rottingdean, an old smugglers village on the coast, once home to Rudyard Kipling and famous for its iconic black windmill overlooking the sea. The Copper Family, a multi-generational folk group who sing traditional rural farming songs, are from here (see panel below). The route also takes you along the old byway of Juggs Road and through Kingston, another lovely Sussex village with a windmill. It's a good walk to do before a night out in Brighton (there are frequent buses from Rottingdean to take you into the city).

Exit Lewes station and turn left. By the roundabout, behind Mountfield House and next to the Dripping Pan football ground (allegedly haunted by ghostly monks) is the curious Priory Mount, an ancient mound of unknown purpose and origin which you can climb up for views over the Lewes brooks. Follow the road round into Southover High Street. Further down on the left is Cockshutt Road, which leads to the ruins of Lewes' Cluniac priory (see walk 23). On the right, you pass Anne of Cleves house, one-time residence of Henry VIII's fourth wife and now a museum. When you reach The Swan pub, bear left then right into Juggs Road.

Walk up The Street, passing the church on your right, until it becomes a track. Ignore the gate on the right and take the steps through the woods ahead, following the sign on the post. This is the start of a steep ascent to the ridge of the Downs. Cross over a stile and continue up the winding path until you meet a track near the brow. Turn right and a few meters on, at a junction of paths by some gates, turn left to head east along the South Downs Way, as indicated by the wooden signpost. This is a glorious stretch of the Downs with some stunning views. In half a mile, you pass Dencher Road on your left, a track that heads down the steep escarpment. After another 20m, the path turns sharply right.

A mile further on, you will come to another junction of paths with a track leading off to the right. If you have time and fancy a longer detour, head up this track for about 3/4 of a mile and on the left you will find a plaque marking the spot of the old Norman chapel of Balsdean. Balsdean was a hamlet which became deserted in the mid-20th century. The area has bronze age burial mounds and there have also been finds suggesting it was a site of Roman occupation. The folk singer Shirley Collins claims to have seen a ghost of a Roman soldier when out walking near here. If not taking the detour, follow the track as it loops round and descends the hill with a pumping station down on your left below.

As you walk into the village. you pass a sign for Challoners on the left, the old Rottingdean manor house. At the T-junction, turn right and look for a gate in the flint wall on the left, which will take you into Kipling Gardens. Follow the path through the gardens which emerges onto The Green. On the right are North End House and Prospect House, once owned by Edward Burne-Jones. Cut across The Green towards the war memorial. On the left, overlooking the memorial, is The Elms, Rudyard Kipling's former home. Ahead of you is the church, which contains stained-glass windows which were created by William Morris and designed by Burne-Jones.

At the end of Whipping Post Lane, turn left to head down Rottingdean High Street. On the right you will pass Ye Olde Black Horse, allegedly the oldest building in the village. The Copper Family used to rehearse and sing here, although sadly the pub has recently undergone quite a drastic modern renovation. Further down the High Street, on the left, you will find The Olde Cottage Tea Rooms. Next door to it is the Old Customs House. This building used to be a tiny village shop which provided the inspiration for The League of Gentelman's 'local shop for local people'.

If you are feeling hungry at the end of your exertions and don't fancy a pub, we'd recommend extending the walk eastwards along the undercliff path. Head back along Marine Drive and turn right past the White Horse towards the seafront. Take the steps down on the right to join the path, which runs directly under the cliffs to Saltdean (watch out for the waves). After just over half a mile you will come to some steps, which lead directly up to the excellent Whitecliffs Cafe and Bar, which has sea views. Above, and on the other side of the coast road, is the art deco Saltdean Lido. The Coastway bus service to Brighton stops along this road.

Juggs Road was the old route from Brighton to Lewes, named after the baskets of fish the women from Brighton used to carry to market. Proceed up the road and then cross the bridge over the dual carriageway. Continue along the lane until it reaches a gate opening on to a beautiful stretch of open countryside. with views of Mount Caburn and Firle Beacon. Towards the end of the path is Kingston Windmill, a local landmark that can be seen from miles around. The track becomes a lane, emerging at a road. Turn left and walk into Kingston village. After about 600m, on the right, you will come to The Street and the Juggs Inn pub.

Instead of continuing along the South Downs Way, keep along this track. After about a mile, you will come to a T-junction of paths. Turn left for a very short detour to Harvey's Cross, a monument to Colonel John Harvey, who was staying with friends on The Green in Rottingdean and died on this spot in the 1819 in a riding accident. There are local stories of the immediate area being haunted, particularly by the sound of galloping horse hooves. Equine spooks aside, this is a good place to stop and rest. Turn back the way you came, passing the junction for the track you just came down and carrying on straight ahead.

Carry on along this track, passing a reservoir on your right and some buildings on the left. It becomes Bazehill Road, on the outskirts of Rottingdean. From here you will get your first glimpse of the sea. At the end of the road, turn left to reach the village. Rottingdean was initially a farming community (as portrayed in the works of Bob Copper – see panel below). Back in the 1700s, it was also a notorious haunt for smugglers (the Rudyard Kipling poem A Smuggler's Song was written during his time here). In the late 19th century, the village attracted an artistic and literary community and was home to both Kipling and the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, famed for his stained-glass windows.

For a quick detour, turn left past The Elms and then right down Dean Court Road. On your right is Tudor Close, once a hotel which was frequented by Hollywood stars such as Cary Grant, Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. The house also inspired the setting for the murder-mystery game Cluedo (which was originally called Murder at Tudor Close). Head back down into the village, passing the church. Past the village pond, on the left, is The Grange, a museum and art gallery, and opposite it, the Plough pub. Take a right into Whipping Post Lane, the site of the village stocks (and indeed a whipping post). Whipping Post House was once home to a Captain Dunk, a key figure in the village's smuggling community.

There are a few ways of reaching the windmill. You can head back up to The Green and take the track on the left past some allotments. Alternatively, continue down the High Street, turn right along Marine Drive, then take the path on the right alongside a modern apartment block. This becomes Sheep Walk, which leads to a gate to Beacon Hill, where the smock mill is located. It was built by Thomas Beard in 1802 and the remains of an ancient warrior were allegedly discovered when creating the foundations. On leaving the mill, head down the hill towards the cafe and car park, and cross over the road to the bus stop. From here you can catch the No. 12 Coastway bus into Brighton.

The Copper Family have lived in Rottingdean for centuries, working as farmers, shepherds, publicans and policemen, their family history closely intertwined with that of the village. Possibly starting with George Copper (born in 1784), the family have handed down traditional rural folk songs – sung in a harmonised a cappella style – for generations. George passed on songs, such as The Shepherd of the Downs, to his son ‘Honest John’ and grandson James ‘Brasser’. They were discovered in the late 1800s by Kate Lee, a founder of the Folk-Song Society. She plied Brasser and his brother Tom (the landlord of the Black Horse) with whisky and they sang their songs to her, wrote them down and were inaugurated into the society. Many years later, the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s brought the family further fame and the group were broadcast by the BBC and performed at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.

Bob Copper, Brasser’s grandson, was recruited by the BBC to collect songs in the communal folk style and he created an archive of hundreds that may have otherwise been lost forever. Bob published a number of books which incorporated many of the songs, including his celebrated 1971 volume A Song for Every Season. Adorned with his own illustrations, the books contain memories of his father Jim’s generation and of the rural traditions which, like the Sussex dialect, have now all but disappeared. He also wrote Across Sussex with Belloc, retracing the footsteps of the characters in Hilaire Belloc’s The Four Men (see walk 31), which includes some old Sussex drinking ballads. Bob knew the importance of saving this rich heritage and understood that the songs he collected needed the people and communities who had created them to bring them to life: ‘One can really believe in a song about the plough when it is sung by a ploughman, but, be it ever so sweetly sung by a man who does not know a share from a coulter or a whipple-tree from a pratt-pin, it will never sound quite the same'.

Bob Copper died in 2004, but the next generations of the Copper Family are still recording and performing live. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Lewes to Rottingdean

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond

Click on the image below to access
the full map on plotaroute