Plumpton to Hassocks walk

Plumpton to Hassocks

Distance: 11.5 miles (10 miles to Ditchling)..
Time without long breaks: 6 hours (add time for pub breaks and Ditchling museum – see below – which closes at 5pm).

Terrain: One very steep climb up Plumpton Bostal.
How to get there and back: Train to Plumpton station, on the London to Eastbourne line. Train back from Hassocks (both go via Haywards Heath from London, so get a return to there and two singles).
Pub breaks: The Half Moon at Plumpton is always worth a visit, but is only a couple of miles in. Then it's a long break until Ditchling, which has The Bull and our recommendation, The White Horse. There is a pub next to Hassocks station if you have to wait for a train.
More information: There are two alternative routes to this one (see panel below) – for a longer walk you can start from Lewes (see walk 13) or, if you have less time and are heading to Brighton, there is a shorter walk which goes to Stanmer Park and village.

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This route incorporates one of the most beautiful stretches of the South Downs, ascending to the ridge via the steep climb of Plumpton Bostal and then following the South Downs Way to Ditchling Beacon, a National Trust site with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. It then takes you to the Jack and Jill windmills at Clayton before descending to the old village of Ditchling, a favourite artists' haunt. From here you can walk or get a cab to Hassocks station.

Exit Plumpton station from the western end of the platform (cross over the footbridge if travelling from London). There is a small gate that leads on to a path that runs along the side of Plumpton racecourse, with the vista of the Downs ahead. After passing the racecourse buildings, you emerge at a lane. Turn right and then in 75m turn left down the drive to a farm which becomes a footpath. Keep along the path, going through a field and then over a stile into trees. Cross the wooden footbridge over a stream and then follow the path as it runs along the edge of a long field. It then becomes a track that leads to Plumpton Agricultural College.

From the pub, turn left, cross over the road and take a right to begin the climb up Plumpton Bostal. This chalk track takes you up the escarpment to the Downs ridge (bostal is the old Sussex term for the steep tracks that lead up to the top of the Downs, derived from the Anglo-Saxon words for hill and rising path). The climb can be a bit of a challenge in places if you are not particularly fit, so take your time and rest when necessary. The views from the top over the Weald of Sussex below are breathtaking. You will probably want a break at this point and it's worth taking a pause after the climb to take it all in. Turn right when you reach the ridge path and then follow the route of the South Downs Way.

Continue along the ridge path, passing more tumuli and some dew ponds. After about a mile you will reach a wooden gate at a junction of paths. Here you will find the Keymer Post – which bears the names of the towns at the end of the four routes. Carry on straight ahead. After a further 1/4 of a mile, turn off left at a signpost and take a track that soon turns sharp right. Follow this until you reach a track on your right (Mill Lane), which goes past New Barn Farm. Continue along the lane and, where it meets another, turn left, following the sign for Jack and Jill. This will take you to the two windmills at the top of Clayton Hill.

Go through the wooden gate and then, after about 100m, bear left to reach another gate. This is the top of Burnhouse Bostal, which forms part of the Sussex Border Path. Turn down this long, winding track, which will take you back down to the foot of the South Downs escarpment. The path, which is steep in places and can be muddy in winter, bends to the right before heading through trees and then running between fields. It emerges at Underhill Lane. Turn right and then, after about 150m, cross over the stile on the left and take the footpath. Passing a farm, a vineyard and a copse on your right, the path then cuts across two fields. Go through a gate and cross over a stream via a footbridge.

At the end of the Twitten, take a left down East End Lane to reach the High Street. If you turn left and then right down Church Lane, you will arrive at the parish church and the village green, which is the site of Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft. Ditchling has long been associated with the art and crafts movement. This started in the early 20th century when Eric Gill founded an artistic guild here, which attracted many other artists such as Hilary Pepler, Edward Johnston and Frank Brangwen (see the panel below). Other famous previous residents include Dame Vera Lynn, who lived in Ditchling from the early 1960s until her death in 2020.

When you reach the end of the college, turn right along the path that runs parallel to the front of the main building for a short detour to 12th-century Plumpton church, which has some medieval wall paintings. Although it might seem incongruous now, the church is here because this is the site of the original village. Return the way you came, rejoining the road you were on. You pass the entrance to Plumpton Place, an Elizabethan manor house. Take the gate to your left, proceeding along a fenced-off path into a field and then head diagonally across, aiming for the far corner.by the road. Cross over a stile and go through the trees. You emerge at the Half Moon pub. At this point you are only 2 1/2 miles into the walk, but it's a lovely place to stop off.

In about 1/4 mile, you will come to a turning to a house and some farm buildings on the left. If you turn off here, you can walk to Stanmer and Falmer, from where you can catch a train into Brighton (see panel below). To continue on this route, though, carry on straight ahead. Look out for burial mounds on either side of the track, with views of the village of Westmeston down below. After 1 1/4 miles, you come to a pair of gates onto a road and a signpost. This is Ditchling Bostal. Cross over by the car park and continue to the trig point at Ditchling Beacon. This National Trust site and nature reserve with spectacular views is the site of iron age hill fort. It is also home to a variety of wildlife – look out for kestrels, redwings and the rare silver-spotted skipper butterfly.

The windmills are a famous local landmark and feature in the animated version of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman (Briggs lived in nearby Westmeston). Way down below the hill, to the left of the windmills, is the castellated entrance to Clayton Tunnel, on the main London-Brighton line, which was the scene of a horrific three-train crash in 1861. Head back the way you came until you get to the wooden signpost again. Rather than go back past the farm in the direction of Devils Dyke, take the left-hand fork in the direction of Ditchling Beacon via the metal gate. Continue along the ridge track until you find yourself back at the Keymer Post and the path junction where you were previously.

The path emerges at a small housing estate on the edge of Ditchling. Turn left and then take the next path on the left which runs between the houses. The path emerges at a road junction. Take a right and walk up South Street to the main crossroads at the heart of the village and The Bull pub. Ditchling is a lovely old village worth exploring. We suggest turning right at the crossroads into Lewes Road. Just after a terrace of red brick houses, take a left by an old lamp post, following the public footpath sign. This is The Twitten (Sussex word for an alleyway) and leads to the Old Meeting House, now a Unitarian chapel, and its graveyard.

The green itself is a beautiful spot to take a break. Just over the road from the church, on the other side of West Street, is the White Horse, which used to be a real traditional village pub. It has recently rather sadly been refurbished, but it's still a good place to get some sustenance and have a rest before the final leg of the walk. There don't seem to be many buses from Ditchling to Hassocks, so you will need to either order a cab from the pub or walk the last mile and a half to Hassocks station via the village of Keymer. Head Westwards along the main road out of Ditchling and keep going. Trains from Hassocks go to London and Brighton.

Alternate Routes

The shorter route (7.6 miles/4 hours, view map) goes to Stanmer, rather than carrying on to Clayton and Ditchling. It's a good one to do if you're heading to Brighton (or Brighton football stadium) or if you don't have enough time for the longer routes. About 500m from the top of Plumpton Bostal, take the gate on the left and follow the path that runs parallel to a driveway to a farm. After 400m, bear right and take the wooden steps on your right, turn left and go over the stile (if you carry straight on, the path becomes Ridge Road, an old trackway that emerges at Falmer). Go straight ahead until the fence on your right ends, then head diagonally across the field until you reach a stile. Cross over this and then go through the gate ahead.

There are longer and shorter routes which offer alternatives to the one detailed above. For the longer option (13 miles, 7 hours - view map), you start from Lewes, climbing up to the ridge of the Downs from there rather than Plumpton. Follow the first part of the route of walk 13, but rather than going through the gate on the South Downs Way which leads to the path to Plumpton, continue straight ahead and pick up the route on this page from the top of Plumpton Bostal (If you don't mind the climb back up, you can still visit the Half Moon – an extra 3/4 mile – and then pick up this route from there).

The path runs down to Moon's Bottom. When you reach the bottom of the valley, take the gate into the field with trees on your right, then go through the gate on the right into the woods. The avenue of trees leads to a confluence of paths. Take the chalky track ahead that descends down past a shaw called Granny's Belt. This track will take you to Stanmer. You'll pass a cafe and some toilets and, shortly beyond this, the village church, which is next to a pond. Just beyond the church is a junction of lanes where there is a wooden signpost. If you carry on straight ahead, you will reach One Garden, the original walled garden for Stanmer House. As well as the garden, it houses a restaurant and a market selling local produce.

Return to the junction and turn right, passing Stanmer House itself, a Grade I listed Georgian mansion, which has a garden cafe and bar. Just past the house, take the pathway on the right that runs parallel to the road. Where the path finishes. just before the park lodge gates, cut through by the car park on the left emerging through a gate onto a road. From here, turn left past the 60s modernist buildings of Sussex University. You will soon come to a pedestrian subway on your right that goes under the road and leads to the football stadium and Falmer station, which has frequent trains to Brighton and Lewes (alternatively, carry on straight ahead following the paths that run along the front of the campus and up some steps until you reach The Swan at Falmer village).

The community of artists and crafts people at Ditchling was established after the typographer and sculptor Eric Gill (see below) moved to the village in 1907. In 1920, together with his apprentice Joseph Cribb and fellow artists Desmond Chute and Hilary Pepler, Gill founded The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic. A Roman Catholic community based on the medieval trades guilds, they built a chapel, studio and workshops north of the village at Ditchling Common, where they also lived with their families. Established around the twin ideals of work and faith, and with the aim of promoting each other's work, the Guild described itself as 'Men rich in virtue studying beautifulness living in peace in their houses' (no women were admitted until 1972).

A key tenet of their ideology was anti-industrialisation and the community eschewed the use of electricity and modern conveniences. This did not deter prospective members, however, and by the beginning of 1922 the group's ranks had swelled from four to 41. Gill left the Guild two years later, but it continued to flourish without him as part of the wider Arts and Crafts movement. Crafts the Guild specialised in included calligraphy, engraving, stone carving, weaving and wood- and metalworking. Central to its activities was the Saint Dominic's Press, a printing press run by Hilary Pepler, which enabled members to circulate their ideas and channel their creativity. Publications produced on the press included the Guild's own monthly journal, The Game. The Guild was wound up in 1989, but its work resulted in the establishment of the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft.

The legacy of Eric Gill, once described as 'the greatest artist-craftsman of the 20th century', has been irrevocably damaged by revelations that emerged in the late 1980s concerning abuse of his daughters. This has resulted in calls for Gill's work to be banned or destroyed. As he is central to the village's artistic legacy, this presents a difficult challenge for the museum. Fortunately, there are many other Ditchling artists whose work and lives are worth celebrating. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Plumpton to Hassocks

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

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Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond