Walk 01 : Wendover Circular

Wendover was established and based on an agricultural economy. In the 19th century it became well known for its cottage industries of lace making and straw plaiting. The chalky Chiltern fields provided the most suitable straw for the latter industry.

Anne Boleyn's Cottages, Tring Road, Wendover. Pretty black and white thatched cottages. The land on which the cottages are built, was given by Henry VIII on his marriage to Anne Boleyn (1502 - 36; second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I) in 1533. Whether the cottages were built at the time of the gift is not known; the first record of these cottages are from an estate map dated 1620.

Whiteleaf is within a part of the Chiltern escarpment rich in historical sites. Whiteleaf Cross is carved into the chalk hillside above the village. Alongside the cross are the remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds. The cross rises above the ancient settlements of Monk’s Risborough, Princes Risborough, Bledlow, Horsendon and Saunderton; settlements which are linked by the ancient Lower and Upper Icknield Ways. The Upper Icknield Way originated as a prehistoric track following the chalk downs of the Chilterns and passing through the village.

Pulpit Hill fort, the remains of which are 1km north east of Whiteleaf, was one of a series of hilltop forts including Liddington (south of Swindon) and Ivinghoe (near Tring) among others. The forts are generally Iron Age (750 BC - AD 42), although Ivinghoe has earlier origins.

Walk 02 : Saunderton via Bledlow Circular

The Parish Church of Holy Trinity,Bledlow, dates from the 12th century. The nave is believed to be part of the original church, which probably once had transepts and a central tower. Of special interest are the nave arcades, which are fine examples of early 13th century work and also the 14th century windows. There are some interesting remains of medieval mural paintings in the north aisle, particularly that of St. Christopher.

Lyde Gardens,Bledlow, are well worth a visit at any time of the year and may be entered through a gate on Church End immediately east of the churchyard. From the east side of the churchyard you can look down into the Lyde where water from eight springs emerge. The closeness of Holy Trinity Church to the steep banks of the coombe resulted in the local proverb: ‘They that live and do abide shall see the church fall in the Lyde.’

St Mary’s Church, Radnage was built largely during the 13th century. The church tower is original and is about 3 metres square and of a style which has elements of the late Norman and early English periods. The nave probably dates from the late 13th century and is thus probably a later addition to the original building. It is decorated with wall paintings, which span six centuries. The porch was added in the 15th century and has a fine perpendicular arch above the door.

Walk 03 : Saunderton via West Wycombe Circular

Hughendon Manor (tel 01494 755573, www.nationaltrust.org.uk) was a mediaeval manor, later bought by Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1847. He used it as a private retreat until his death in 1881. The house contains most of his furniture, books and pictures and the garden has been recreated according to the design of his wife Mary Anne. The house and gardens are open from 1pm – 5pm Wednesday to Sunday from April until October. 1pm - 5pm at weekends in March.

West Wycombe Caves (tel 01494 533739, www.hellfirecaves.co.uk) were built by Sir Francis Dashwood, who built the house at West Wycombe Park in 1750–2 with local labour. The individual cells of the caves are called the Recess, Whitehead’s Chamber, XXII, the Labyrinth, Children in the Caves, the Great Hall, the Minders’ Cave, the River Styx, the Cursing Well and the Inner Temple. A visit to West Wycombe Park (NT) would be a short detour from the main walk. The house is very theatrical with façades formed as classical temples and it has a fine landscape garden. The caves are open from 11am – 5.30pm, daily from March until October. 11am – 5.30pm (or dusk), Saturdays and Sundays from November to February.

West Wycombe village has fine examples of houses from the 16th to 18th centuries and West Wycombe Hill has fine views and has an Iron Age hill fort, part of the original landscape design of West Wycombe Park. Now it is the site of St Lawrence Church and the Dashwood Mausoleum.

Walk 04 : Chesham to Great Missenden

The name Chesham is taken from the river Chess and there is evidence in the river valley of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Roman remains. In the middle ages the town’s prosperity was based on the mills along the Chess and the market. The town spread north in the 19th century when factories and saw mills were established and many attractive 18th- and 19th-century houses remain in the town. The 14th-century church of St Mary is made of flint and was extensively restored in the 1860s by G. G. Scott. It contains a wall painting of a bishop in vestments, which may be of the 14th century, some 15th-century glass and two windows with glass by Morris & Co.

The Lee is a pretty village centred on the village green and it has several houses built in the Arts and Crafts style. The old church of St John the Baptist (just west of the new church) contains wall paintings of the 13th to 15th centuries. In the churchyard there is a memorial to the Liberty family in the form of an Art Nouveau-influenced Celtic cross by Archibald Knox (1916–17).

Great Missenden is a small town with many interesting houses in the centre. There is an abbey at the south end of the High Street, which was founded in 1133 by William de Missenden as a house of the Arroasian (later Augustinian) canons and in the 12th and 13th centuries was one of the largest Arroasian houses in England with about 26 canons. It is now a college offering adult education courses. Great Missenden was the home of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Walk 05 : Tring Circular

The 137km (85 mile) Ridgeway is supposed to be the oldest long distance footpath in England. Linking Ivinghoe Beacon with Avebury in Wiltshire, it is a route that has been in use for at least 5000 years. It is part of a track that originally stretched from the Wash in Norfolk to the Dorset Coast, and was used in more recent times by livestock drovers. Until the Enclosure Acts of the mid eighteenth century, the Ridgeway was a series of tracks on the crest of the downs, much as it still is today between Pitstone Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon. There is a map set in stone on the top of the Beacon that details the whole route

The most famous owner of the Ashridge Estate, across which much of the afternoon section of this walk passes,was Francis, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. Known as the "Canal Duke", his pioneering work in the sector is commemorated in the Bridgewater Monument, erected in 1832 and next to the first tea stop on this walk. You can climb the monument for a small fee from 1pm to 5pm April to October weekends and bank holidays for fine views over the countryside: ask in the tea kiosk opposite to get access if the tower is not open during these hours (it depends on how many volunteers the Trust has available on any given day).

In 1759 Bridgewater employed engineer James Brindley to build a canal from Manchester to Worsley, Lancashire, one his other estates, to transport coal from his mines there. Brindley's innovation - a technique called "puddling" - enabled the canal to travel in an aqueduct across the Irwell River valley. The aqueduct became the wonder of the age, and sparked a canal building boom that lasted till the advent of the railways in the 1830s. Bridgewater himself is buried in Little Gaddesden Church. Ashridge House, which is situated at the other end of the grand avenue leading up to the monument, is now a well known business school. The grounds are owned by the National Trust.

Aldbury seems such a quintessentially typical English village that is hard to believe it is not a film set, and indeed has been used for this purpose on several occasions. With a pond, church, pub, tea room, post office, sundial and even a set of village stocks, it seems to have everything a village should have. Its population, 675 people in 1831, was said to have been swelled by the influx of workmen to build the nearby Tring Cutting, a major engineering feat of the early Victorian era, which allowed the London to Birmingham Railway, the first long distance railway line to reach London, to be built.

Berkhamsted (reached on the Extension to the main walk) was the childhood home of writer Graham Greene, whose father was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School. Berkhamsted Castle (tel 01375 858486), next to the railway station, is a classic Norman motte and bailey castle, built by Robert, Count of Mortain, the half brother of William the Conqueror. Thomas a Becket, Henry II's chancellor and later martyred when archbishop of Canterbury, lived here from 1155 to 1165. There is not much to see, just a few ruined walls, but entrance is free, and if you have just missed a train at Berkhamsted, it is worth a quick look. The castle is open until 4pm in winter and 6pm in summer.

Walk 06 : Henley via Stonor Circular

Henley is supposed to be the oldest settlement in Oxfordshire, dating at least from Roman times, but it really came into its own from the 12th century onward as a river crossing and a port for shipping grain and timber to London. These days the town has a much more refined air. It is supposed to have 300 listed buildings and is famous for its annual Regatta, held in the first week of July since 1839. A recent famous resident was the Beatle George Harrison, whose former house (or its heavily barbed-wired garden fence) is passed on this walk.

The entrance to the magnificent stately home of Stonor Park (tel 01491 638587) is passed on the main walk, though the house itself cannot be seen except from the short cut of the main walk. Dating back to the 12th century, it boasts Tudor features with Georgian remodelling, and has been the home of the Stonor family continuously for over 800 years. Unfortunately, only superhumans would have the energy to complete the main walk and visit the house, so perhaps this is one to mark for a future visit. The house is open to the public from 2pm to 5.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays from April to September, and Wednesdays from July to August. It has a tea room. In 2003, admission was £6 for the house and gardens, or £3.50 for the gardens only. The bus from Henley (see Walk Options) stops outside the entrance gates, but unfortunately only runs on days that the house is shut.

Though it looks like an ancient ruin, the abandoned church in Bix Bottom just before Valley End Farm (point [7]), only fell into disuse in 1875. Before that, it was the Church of St James, which had features dating back to Norman times.

Walk 07 : Henley via Hambleden Circular

Henley is supposed to be the oldest settlement in Oxfordshire, dating at least from Roman times, but it really came into its own from the 12th century onward as a river crossing and a port for shipping grain and timber to London. These days the town has a much more refined air. It is supposed to have 300 listed buildings and is famous for its annual Regatta, held in the first week of July since 1839. Though the Regatta does include five days of rowing competitions, its more serious side is as a part of the summer "season", a social whirl for the well to do which also includes Ascot and Wimbledon. Non-rowing fans/socialites may prefer to avoid this walk during Regatta week, though only the first section as far as Temple Island is really affected by it.

The neo-classical folly on Temple Island, two kilometres downstream from Henley, was built in 1771 by James Wyatt as a fishing lodge for Fawley Court, the Christopher Wren designed mansion further down the river. It was the first example in England of the so-called Etruscan style. Today the island is owned by the Henley Regatta, and is rented out for corporate entertaining.

Hambleden is not to be confused with Hambledon in Hampshire where cricket was invented. WH Smith, founder of the newsagents (and also, incidentally, the supposed target of the satirical Gilbert and Sullivan song "Ruler of the Queens Navy" in HMS Pinafore), is buried in the churchyard (he became posthumously Lord Hambleden), and the company owned the village till 2003, when it put it up for sale. The parish church has several interesting memorials, including one to the family of Sir Cope D’Oyley, who died in 1633, on which the children are shown carrying skulls if they died before their parents. To the left of this tomb is an oak chest used by the Earl of Cardigan when he led the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854

Walk 08 : Marlow Circular

Most of the fine buildings in Marlow’s High Street and West Street are Georgian (18th century), but the town was already well established in the days of the Doomsday book (1085), when the town had "twenty three copy-holders, one serf and one mill", as well as "a fishery which yields 1000 eels". Its church was famously surrounded by marsh, prompting one churchwarden in 1777 to ask for money "for a cast iron brazier wherein to make a large charcoal fire and warm the church in cold damp weather". Famous residents include Mary Shelley, who lived in West Street for a year along with her poet husband Percy Bysshe Shelley while finishing her novel Frankinstein. TS Eliot also came to Marlow to escape the bombing in London at the end of the First World War, and the town was home to Jerome K Jerome, whose novel Three Men in a Boat so immortalised the pleasures of "messing about on the river".

After the dissolution of the Monasteries, Bisham Abbey (pronounced Biss’am) seen across the river on this walk, was given by from Henry V111 to his divorced wife, Anne of Cleeves, the only one of Henry’s wives to be smart enough to realise when Henry did not want her and so get a generous financial settlement (including several fine houses) out of him. She lived to happy old age, widely respected by her adopted countrymen.

Hurley was once a Benedictine Monastery, and you can still get a real feel for what it must have been like in those days if you wander around the village. The chapel of the monastery (now the Parish Church of St Mary The Virgin), its refectory and several other buildings are still extant. A leaflet is on sale just inside the church which gives a guided tour.

The islands near Hurley Lock are one of the few places where the Thames splits into channels. A ford across the river at this point was the origin of Hurley, which is mentioned as far back as the Saxon Chronicles. Since the islands and the weirs erected between them were barriers to navigation, the villagers not surprisingly made a good living helping boats through them

Hambleden is not to be confused with Hambledon in Hampshire where cricket was invented. WH Smith, founder of the newsagents (and also, incidentally, the supposed target of the satirical Gilbert and Sullivan song "Ruler of the Queens Navy" in HMS Pinafore), is buried in the churchyard (he became posthumously Lord Hambleden), and the company owned the village till 2003, when it put it up for sale. The parish church has several interesting memorials, including one to the family of Sir Cope D’Oyley, who died in 1633, on which the children are shown carrying skulls if they died before their parents. To the left of this tomb is an oak chest used by the Earl of Cardigan when he led the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854

Walk 09 : Kintbury to Great Bedwyn

This walk begins and ends at villages standing on one of the loveliest stretches of the Kennet and Avon canal. Completed in 1810 to carry goods from London to Bristol, the canal became derelict after the advent of the railways, but was later restored to provide a useful leisure amenity.

Kintbury is known for the St Cassian’s Centre, a Christian Retreat for young people. Following the example of Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719) the Centre teaches leadership skills founded on faith, service and community. 

Bedwyn Brail A Roman Villa was discovered here in 1780 in the present day Bedwyn Brail, near to the line of the Roman road from Cirencester to Winchester. However, the earliest reference to a settlement at Bedwyn dates from 778, in a land grant from King Cynewulf of Wessex

St Mary’s Great Bedwyn

The present church of St Mary's was started in 1092, and took about 200 years to build. Beneath the church are the massive remains of a Saxon church begun in 905. The south transept houses the 14th Century tombs of Sir Adam de Stokke and his son, Sir John. In the chancel is a memorial to Edward Seymour, father of King Henry VIII's wife Jane, and later Lord Protector to the young Edward VI.

Great Bedwyn Despite the antiquity of many of the buildings, few in Great Bedwyn were built before the 18^th century. Among the exceptions is Castle Cottage in Farm Lane, which dates from the 17^th century and is one of the oldest dwellings still standing. A devastating fire occurred in the village in 1716, and destroyed or severely damaged twenty-eight houses. This explains why many of the older properties date from the middle of the 18^th Century

Walk 10 : Alton Circular

The Church St Mary, East Worldham dates from the 12th century, though it was extensively renovated in the fifteenth century. Shortly afterwards, it was given by the Bishop of Winchester to his newly founded Magdalen College in Oxford. A 14th century effigy in the south wall is thought to mark the burial place of Philippa, wife of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, whose son Thomas was Lord of the Manor here.

Gilbert White’s famous Natural History of Selborne, based on his observations in the countryside around the village, was published in 1789, and it has never been out of print since. It is supposed to be the fourth most published book in English after the Bible, Shakespeare and the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Reverend Gilbert White’s grandfather was vicar of the Church of St Mary’ Selborne from 1681 to 1727 (it is this Gilbert White, not the famous naturalist, who is named in the historial list of vicars at the back of the church), and White himself was born in the Vicarage in 1720, moving to The Wakes, where the Gilbert White Museum now is, when he was nine years old.

White was ordained in 1747 after studying at Oxford University, and he was appointed vicar of a parish in Northampton that was within the gift of his college. However, he loved Selborne so much that he appointed a curate to run that parish, and himself became curate first of All Saint’s Church, Upper Farringdon from 1761 to 1784 (visited on this walk), and then, later in life, of St Mary’s Selborne. White died in 1793 and is buried in the north east corner of the churchard. At his request, the stone was simply marked GW 26 June 1893.

The Gilbert White Museum (tel 01420 511 275) in The Wakes, Selborne, not only recreates his house and garden, but also has a section on Captain Lawrence Oates of Scott of the Antarctic fame - the man who stepped out of the tent to die in a blizzard saying: "I am just going outside. I may be gone for some time". The reason is that in 1953 when the Gilbert White Society were trying to raise money to buy The Wakes, the Oates family offered to help on condition their family collection was exhibited too. The museum is open 11 am to 5pm daily except for the week after Christmas.

Chawton. Though her novels are set elsewhere, Jane Austen was always a Hampshire girl at heart and she was devastated when her father retired in 1801 as vicar of Steventon, a small North Hampshire village, and moved his family to Bath. Jane hated Bath and wrote nothing during this period. Worse, when her father died four years later, she, her sister Cassandra and their mother were left with little money and no fixed home.

It was Jane’s brother Edward who finally came to the rescue. He had been adopted by the wealthy but childless Knight family, and so had inherited the Great House at Chawton (now Chawton House and recently opened as a library of women writers of Jane Austen’s time). Edward found his sisters and mother a house in the centre of the village, and they moved there in July 1809.

Jane was delighted by "our Chawton home", and immediately started writing again. Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion were all written here, and it was while living in Chawton that she first won outside acclaim as a novelist when her youthful novels - Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility - were at last published. The house is now run as Jane Austen’s House by the Jane Austen Trust (tel 01420 832 262) and is open 11.00am to 4.30pm from March to November, on weekends only December to February. Among the exhibits is the creaking door to the room where Jane did her writing. The hinges in the door were kept deliberately unoiled so that she could conceal her work if anyone came in, writing novels not being considered a suitable profession for a lady.

Alas Jane’s happiness at Chawton proved shortlived, as in 1817 she fell ill with a mystery illness, and died in Winchester, where she had gone for medical treatment. Because she was the daughter of a clergyman, she was buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral. Cassandra and her mother remained in Chawton for the rest of their lives, however, and are buried in the churchyard around the back of the St Nicholas’s Church, which like the Great House is passed on this walk.

The walk from Chawton to All Saint’s Church, Upper Farringdon was a favourite of Jane’s, not just because it passed through her brother’s estate, but because she was friends with the family of John Benn, the vicar there: in her letters she writes of walking over to Farringdon for tea. Gilbert White was also curate here from 1761 to 1784 (that is, some time before Jane Austen lived in Chawton, though he knew and visited with Jane’s father when the latter was Vicar of Steventon). Note the amazing and very ancient hollowed out yew tree in the churchyard (to the left of the church door, as you approach it from the road)

The curious red brick building across the road from Farringdon church is Massey’s Folly. Designed and built by the Reverend Thomas Massey, with only three local labourers to help him, it took 30 years to complete between 1880 and 1910. The design was apparently influenced by the daughter of an Indian civil servant, who used to visit Massey secretly. The building stood empty for 15 years after its construction; it was then turned into the village hall and school

Walk 11 : Petersfield to Liss

The ancient market town of Petersfield was founded in the early 12^th century and later became a coaching centre on the main London to Portsmouth route. At the centre of the market square is a fine equestrian statue of King William III dating from 1753.

The village of Steep was the home of first world war poet Edward Thomas who is commemorated by a memorial stone on Shoulder of Mutton Hill. He lived at 2 Yew Tree Cottages along the lane from All Saints’ church. He enlisted in the Artists Rifles and was Killed at Arras in 1917 aged 39. The clear windows in the south wall of the church were engraved in 1978 by Laurence Whistler in the poet’s memory. The church dates back to 1140 and contains an impressive set of embroidered kneelers depicting the natural history of the area.

Walk 12 : Guildford to Farnham

Still a family residence, Loseley Park (tel 01483 304440)was built in 1562 by Sir William More and is considered a fine example of Elizabethan architecture. Its attractions include paintings, tapestries and panelling from Henry VIII’s now lost Nonesuch Palace, and a beautifully restored walled garden. The famous Loseley Park ice cream brand also originated here, and is on sale in the house’s shop, though the product is actually manufactured elsewhere.
Opening Times:
Garden, Shop and Tea Room: May to September, Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00 am to 5.00 pm, plus Bank Holiday Mondays in May and August.
Loseley House: May to August, Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm, plus Bank Holiday Mondays in May and August.
Garden/Grounds:£3,00 adult, £1.50 child, £2.50 concession.
House and Garden:£6.00 adult, £3.00 child, £5.00 concession.
Check these details on www.loseley-park.com.

The official way into the house is 600 metres south along the lane crossed at point [3] in the walk. However, the information staff at the house have advised the author that it is all right to either walk up to the house from the lake, or go through the gate marked PRIVATE at the point marked [*] in the text, provided that the gardens are open to the public that day, and provided that your intention is to visit the house, gardens or tea room. Once inside the grounds, to get to the tea room, follow the signs through a gateway in the wall to the left hand (eastern) end of the main façade of the house. The shop and ticket kiosk for the house and walled garden are also through this gateway.

Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton (tel 01483 810235) exhibits the paintings of 19th century painter and sculptor George Frederick Watts, who has - perhaps somewhat fancifully - been described as "England’s Michelangelo". Contemporary with the pre-Raphaelites, the paintings have a similar character to them. Part of the pleasure of the gallery is the cosy and unpretentious atmosphere of the place. As Nicholas Albery, creator of the original Time Out Book of Country Walks commented: "This is how all galleries should be: wonderfully intimate, eccentric and on a human scale". The gallery is open 2pm to 6pm daily except Thursday and 11am to 1pm Wednesday and Saturday from April to September: from October to March it closes at 4pm instead.

Watts Chapel was the project of Watt’s second wife, Mary, who designed this Celtic, Byzantine art nouveau masterpiece without architectural or building experience. Much of the work was done by local villagers. Every interior surface is covered with what Mrs Watts called "glorified wallpaper" - angels and seraphs made out of gesso, a material which her husband used when rheumatism meant he could no longer handle wet clay. The painter himself is buried in the cloister behind the chapel

The Surrey Heaths are not as natural as they look, nor as extensive as they used to be. Based on the sandy Greensand soils, they are in fact an ancient man-made habitat created by rural communities over many generations of grazing and wood cutting. With the decline in the grazing of animals on the heaths in the last century, the woodland has gradually started to re-occupy the heaths. Puttenham Common is now actively managed to preserve its unique habitat for plants and animals.

Walk 13 : Guildford to Gomshall

Only a romantic ruined keep remains of Guildford Castle today, but under Henry III it was a key royal residence. After Henry’s death in 1272, the castle fell into disuse, and were eventually bought in 1611 by Francis Carter, a local worthy, who used it as a private house. The ruins were bought in 1885 by Guildford Borough Council. It is now a park, open during daylight hours. From the top of the keep there is a fine view of the Wey river valley.

What looks like a trigonometry point on Pewley Down just outside Guildford in fact commerates its gift to posterity. It was bought it in 1920 by the Friary Brewery Company in memory of those who died in the First World War. Many of those unfortunates doubtless dreamed of views such as this during their ordeal in the trenches.

Positioned atop a wooded hill, St Martha on the Hill is perhaps one of the most romantically situated churches in the country. Of Norman origin, though rebuilt in 1850, it was originally a stop on the Pilgrims Way. This route ran from London and Winchester to Canterbury, and carried visitors to the shrine of Thomas à Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury murdered by four knights of Henry II, and later canonised. Though in places the route followed what is now the North Downs Way, in others it ran just below the Downs, as it does in the section of this walk between St Martha on the Hill and Shere. The church apparently had a female hermit, who lived on alms from pilgrims. There is evidence of Bronze Age settlement on the hill, so as a place of worship it may well be pre-Christian. The ashes of the actress Yvonne Arnaud are scattered nearby, as a memorial to the right of the exit gate attests.

Shere is often cited as Surrey’s prettiest village, Its Church of St James, built in 1190 is a rare example of a church completely in the Early English Transitional Style. In 1329 the anchoress Christine Carpenter (an anchoress was a kind of halfway house between a lay woman and a nun) was enclosed in a cell in the north wall of the church, receiving food through a grating on the outside wall. After three years she returned to the world, but then petitioned to be re-enclosed. The bishop consented. You can still see where her cell was situated to the left of the altar.

Shere also has a Museum (tel 01483 203245) in Shere Lane, which is open Sunday to Friday, 1.00 to 5.00 pm. It is rather pleasant to wander the village, with its pretty old houses and quaint shops: if you are tempted, note that a short cut to Gomshall Station takes no more than half an hour: see Short cut from Shere to Gomshall at the end of the main text

Walk 14 : Effingham Junction to Westhumble

It is often assumed that England is a lot less wooded than it used to be. In fact, the last 150 years or so has seen many former farmed areas and commons revert to woodland as traditional methods of countryside management died out. A fine example is Great Ridings Wood early in the main walk. Though it looks like ancient English woodland (particularly in late April when the bluebells are out), it was all cultivated arable land as recently as the 1770s. The bridleway followed through the wood on this walk - Old London Road - was as its name suggests once the main road to London. The wood is now managed by The Woodland Trust.

Polesden Lacey (tel 01372 452048) was originally a Regency House, built in 1821, but it was in the Edwardian period that it really came into its own. Between 1906 and 1909 it was taken over and extensively rebuilt by Mrs Ronald Greville, a society hostess, and was the scene of many glamorous house parties. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, mother of the present queen, also spent part of their honeymoon there in 1923. Now lovingly preserved by the National Trust, the real appeal of the house today is its stunning location on the crest of a hidden valley of the North Downs (there are fine views from the gardens), and the pastoral tranquility of the estate. The house is open from 11am to 5pm from late March to early November, and the gardens all year from 11am to 6pm.

Denbies Wine Estate (tel 01306 876616) is a remarkable sight, a huge vineyard that looks like a slice of France that has been airlifted the heart of England. Billing itself as the "largest wine estate England has ever seen", it produces 400,000 bottles of wine a year, or around 10 percent of total UK production. The estate has a large visitors centre, open from 10am Monday to Saturday and 11.30am on Sunday, and closing at 5.30pm from April to December and 4.30pm January to March, and there are also vineyard tours. For more information see www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk

Walk 15 : Coulsdon South Circular

England was once covered with commons - common grazing lands for a particular village. Many were lost to private landowners in the Enclosure movement in the 18th century, and others have reverted to woodland for lack of management or become farmland. The preservation of Farthing Down, Kenley Common, Coulsdon Common and Riddlesdown on this walk is due to the forward thinking of the Corporation of London (the local authority for the City of London), who in the 1880s started to acquire land in and around London to promote good health and give Londoners a place of recreation. These particular commons were purchased in 1883, and the decision was a popular one. In the 1900s thousands of day trippers would come to picnic on the commons on summer weekends, and visit Gardner’s fairground on Riddlesdown. All four commons are particularly rich in wild flowers in spring, and are the habitat for many birds and insects. The Corporation still owns some 10,000 acres of land, which is all managed for the public good at no cost to the taxpayer

Happy Valley is different from the other commons in that it was only turned into an open space in 1937 and 1938, when various local farms were bought by Coulsdon Council as part of the London Greenbelt scheme, which sought to limit the spread of London by preserving a ring of open countryside around the city. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its flora and as a habitat for ground nesting birds such as larks.

Chaldon Church has a wall painting dating back to the Middle Ages.

Walk 16 : Hurst Green to Chiddingstone Causeway

Chartwell (tel 01732 868381, www.nationaltrust.org.uk) the former home of Winston Churchill, is now owned by the National Trust. Churchill lived at Chartwell from 1924 until just before his death in 1965. The house is open from Wednesday to Sunday from late March until early November 11am – 5pm.

Ide Hill was noted for its fine hunting. During the 16^th century the old Hunting Lodge became a secret rendezvous for Henry VIII and his future queen, Anne Boleyn of Hever. In times of unrest, a beacon on the hill, transmitted alarm signals from the South Downs to Shooters Hill, Eltham (on the outskirts of London). To the south-east of the village is Hanging Bank, a one time gallows site.

Walk 17 : Snodland to Sole Street

Snodland was the largest village in England until it took on town status in 1988.Until the 19^th century, the town – the name probably derives from a person ‘Snod’, one of the Saxons buried on the Hill - was a small agricultural village, the population in 1801 just 312. But paper and cement manufacture changed all that and the current population is around 9,000.

The town’s most famous landmark is the Snodland Clock Tower, built in 1877 by the Hook sisters in memory of their brother Charles. The Hook family were the owners of the Townsend Hook Papermill that borders the Medway. The 15^th-century Hall House, opposite the Red Lion pub, once a smallholding growing hops for beer.

The village of Harvel actually means Hart land - open land frequented by harts and stags - recorded as Hertfelde in the late 13th century and amended by local dialect.

Luddesdown is a remote, peaceful village surrounded by organic farmland, nestling in a picturesque valley. How different things would have been if the Ministry of Defence had got its way in 1983 and been allowed to take over 500 acres of prime farmland for year-round training for Army minelaying and tactical exercises. A tank was brought into the valley to demonstrate its low noise levels but this – literally – backfired and, after fierce opposition from local people, the plan was scrapped in 1984.

Luddesdown Court (not open to the public), beside St Peter and Paul church with its Norman tower, dates from 1100 and has features from Saxon, Norman, Tudor and Jacobean times. It [is considered to] may be England’s oldest continually occupied house.

Walk 18 : Wadhurst Circular

Wadhurst is a pleasant village set on a ridge and has many attractive weatherboarded or tiled houses. The village was once one of the most flourishing of the iron-smelting centres of the Weald. The industry had modest beginnings in the 2nd century, but by the middle of the 16th century it had established Sussex as the foremost industrial county of England. However, by the 17th century competition from Swedish iron imports led to a gradual decline in the industry, resulting in its eventual demise at the start of the 19th century.

The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, Wadhurst, dates from the 11th century. It is famous for 31 iron tomb slabs dating 1617 to 1799, a greater number than any other church in England, reflecting Wadhurst’s connection with the Wealden iron industry. The church has a Norman tower with a pretty needle spire. In the west window of the south aisle there is glass designed by Burne-Jones and made by William Morris.

Mayfield, a delightful village situated at the end of an almost detached ridge above the headwaters of the River Rother. There are many attractive old buildings along the High Street. The Church of Saint Dunstans, Mayfield, was named after the 10th-century priest who was a principal adviser to all the Wessex kings of his day. His effigy is in the church. His many achievements included founding abbeys and becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. A legend exists that while St Dunstan – a man of many talents – was forging a horseshoe, he was approached by the devil in the guise of a fair lady. However St Dunstan, seeing a cloven hoof protruding from beneath the dress, grabbed the devil’s nose with his red hot pincers, resulting in a mighty leap to Tunbridge Wells, to plunge his nose in a stream. Thereafter the devil vowed never to enter any building with a horseshoe over the door.

Walk 19 : Stonegate Circular

Burwash dates back to Norman times. The Church of St. Bartholomew was built in 1090 although the tower is all that remains of the original Norman structure. The church houses the rare 16th century Geneva Bible discovered in 1954 among a collection of old books in the church vestry. During the late 17th and 18th centuries Burwash along with many other villages in the area was a haven for smuggling, a capital crime for which several villagers were executed. Originally the Revenue had been insistent that the smugglers may not be buried in consecrated ground; although a compromise was reached whereby their headstones were carved with the skull and cross bones. Several such headstones are to be found in the churchyard; although some are fairly weathered the marking is still quite distinguishable.

There is also a memorial plaque in the church to John Kipling (Rudyard’s son) who was reported missing, believed killed at the age of 18, in his first battle (the Battle of Loos) on the Western Front in 1915.

Bateman's (tel 01435 882302, www.nationaltrust.org.uk) Bateman's House (former home of Rudyard Kipling) is now owned by the National Trust. Kipling lived at Bateman's from 1902 until his death in 1936. His wife, Carrie, who died in 1939, left Bateman's to the National Trust, as a memorial to her husband.

The house is open daily except Thursday and Friday from late March until late September 11am – 5pm.

Walk 20 : Robertsbridge Circular

Bodiam Castle (tel 01580 830436, www.nationaltrust.org.uk) Built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrygge as a defence against attacks from France. England was at the time seriously under threat from a possible invasion and had suffered a number of raids, Rye and Winchelsea having both been sacked and burned in 1377. Bodiam being on the river Rother and 14 miles upstream from Winchelsea was consequently vulnerable to such raiding parties. However by the end of the 14th century this threat had very much reduced and the castle took on more the role of a comfortable home for the Dalyngrygge family. The only action that the castle saw was during the Civil War (1642-51) when the interior was more or less gutted after which the castle was left to deteriorate. A local Squire, John 'Mad Jack' Fuller, rescued the Castle in 1828, paying £3000 to save it from destruction. Although it was not until it was purchased in 1916 by Lord Curzon, who embarked on an extensive restoration and research programme that the fortunes of the castle truly improved. Lord Curzon bequeathed the castle to the National Trust. The castle is open 10am – 6pm, daily from March until October. 10am – 4pm, Saturdays and Sundays from November to February.

St Mary’s Church, Salehurst was built largely during the 13th century, and has portions of early and later styles of English architecture. It is noted for its north and south aisles of seven bays each, dated from the 13^th century.

Walk 21 : Pluckley Circular

All the land on which this walk takes place was owned for almost 900 years by the Dering family: they only sold it in 1928. A particular feature of their estates are the distinctive Dering windows on all the houses. These have the appearance of eyes with brows arched in surprise, and were added during Victorian Times in reference to a legend that during a Dering baronet gave his Roundhead pursuers the slip by leaping to freedom through such a round-headed window. You can also see the Dering family crest of a black horse on the cowls of the oast houses, and in the south chapel of St Nicholas Church in Pluckley.

The writer H E Bates (1905–74) lived in Little Chart Forstal. His service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War yielded many short stories such as Flying Officer X, but he is perhaps best known for The Darling Buds of May, a tale of rural life, which was made into the popular TV series starring David Jason and Catherine Zeta Jones. During the Second World War, doodlebugs (flying bombs) caused much damage, earning the village the nickname of 'bomb alley'. Little Chart’s medieval church was destroyed by a doodlebug and was replaced by the 1950s built St Mary the Virgin.

The TV series of The Darling Buds of May was filmed in the pretty village of Pluckley, but it has another claim to fame - as reputedly the most haunted village in the country, claiming at least 12 ghosts. In the Black Horse pub – once a moated farmhouse dating from 1470 – watch out for the discerning poltergeist who preys only on teetotallers. Take a seat by the door and you might see your orange juice swept aside by an unseen hand. Meanwhile the churchyard of nearby St Nicholas Church is allegedly haunted by a Red Lady who sobs as she searches for the unmarked grave of her stillborn baby.

Pluckley Station opened in 1842 and the timber-framed, Kentish-style clapboard building remains largely unchanged, possibly making it the oldest station in the world. When it was built, the staff would have comprised the stationmaster, two clerks, two signalmen, two porters who doubled as shunters, and a plate layer, or lengths man, who maintained the track. Not much evidence of any of them now!

Walk 22 : Amberley to Arundel

Amberley Museum (tel 01798 831370). This is a working museum which has an interesting collection of exhibitions related to bygone crafts and trades. It houses working craftspeople as well as a narrow gauge railway, vintage buses and a cafe.

Arundel Castle (tel 01903 883136). An impressive looking castle which has the unusual distinction of being both an ancient castle and a stately home. Special events are often organised here during summer weekends including Falconry Displays and re-enactments of battles.

Walk 23 : Hassocks to Upper Beeding

Hard though it is to believe it now, in their natural state the South Downs would have been thickly forested like the rest of England. The first clearance was in the Neolithic period (the Stone Age), when the Downs were favoured by settlers for their easily cultivated soil and defensive advantage. Later the Downs were more used for animal pasture, creating unique chalk grasslands. Grazing kept the grass short, enabling a wide range of wild flowers to grow. During the Second World War and with the advent of modern farming, large areas of the Downs were ploughed up to grow cereals, The remaining pastures were often neglected, allowing the spread of bushes and reducing wild flower populations. Conservation efforts today tend to focus on reintroducing grazing to the remaining grasslands: the sheep or cows you see on this walk are thus very much workers in the environmental cause.

The South Downs Way, created in 1972, was the Britain’s first long distance bridleway. Many of the paths it uses, as well as the broad paths that climb slantways up the front of the Downs escarpment to join it, were originally drove roads for moving livestock herds.

It used to be assumed that Wolstonbury Hill was an Iron Age (600-100 BC) fort, but recent research by the University of Bournemouth has cast doubt on that. The fact that its earth rampart is outside of the ditch not the other way round suggests that it may in fact have been a stock pen for keeping cattle or other livestock in. However, it the researchers also concluded it was probably a bit older than originally thought - late Bronze Age, perhaps

Devil’s Dyke is a steep sided valley, characteristic of the South Downs, and caused by water erosion. One legend has it that the valley was an attempt by the Devil to dig a channel to the sea in order to flood southern England and prevent the spread of Christianity. (If so, he was digging in the wrong direction). A local farm woman supposedly scared the Devil away by lighting a candle and setting her cockerels crowing.

Bramber Castle (slightly off the route: see directions in the text) is a ruined Norman castle that once dominated a huge estate in the South of England and was originally on an inlet of the sea. Built shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1066, it was one of five key castles that guarded strategic valleys leading down to the south coast, and thus protecting William the Conqueror’s supply lines to Normandy. Occupied by the de Braose family, it fell into disrepair after the family died out in 1394. It is now open to the public (free entry: no fixed hours). There is not a whole lot to see, but the surprisingly large site has a certain romantic air and fine views in winter (obscured by foliage in the summer). The Church of St Nicholas is one part of the castle that survives intact. St Mary’s House in Bramber is also worth a visit. A fifteenth century house, it is open to the public from 2pm to 6pm on Thursdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays from Easter to September

Walk 24 : Lewes via Rodmell Circular

Lewes Castle (tel 01273 486 290) and the Barbican House Museum nearby are open to visitors until 5.30pm daily (last entrance 5pm). The castle, which is visible for much of this walk, was built around 1070 by William de Warenne who fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. In the 1264 Battle of Lewes the rebel Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, with an army of Londoners and 5,000 barons, defeated Henry III leading to England’s first parliamentary meeting at Westminster in 1265.

Lewes Priory Only the ruins of the priory remain as the church, which was as large as Westminster cathedral, was demolished during Henry VIII’s dissolution of monasteries. The Priory of St. Pancras was also founded by William de Warenne.

Anne of Cleves House, Lewes (tel 01273 474610) is a 16th century timber framed Wealden house given by Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves as part of their divorce settlement, but she never lived there. The house now contains the museum of Lewes charting the town’s history from the 16th Century to the present day. It is open to visitors from 10am to 5pm,Tuesday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Monday and Sunday. Admission is £2.80.

Southover Grange House and Gardens, Lewes An Elizabethan house built in 1572 by William Newton, using Caen stones from the ruins of Southover Priory. John Evelyn the diarist lived here while attending grammar school.

Monk’s House, Rodmell (tel 01892 890651)was the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf who lived here from 1919 until Virginia’s suicide in March 1941 (when she filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the river). Her ashes are buried in the garden. Leonard remained here until his death in 1969. Visitors to the house during the years they spent here included Vita Sackville-West, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, Maynard Keynes, T. S. Eliot and Roger Fry. The house is open to visitors on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, April to the end of October 2pm to 5.30pm. Admission is £2.60.

Walk 25 : Lewes via West Firle Circular

Positioned at a gap in the South Downs, views of Lewes are dominated by Lewes Castle. Construction of the castle started soon after the 1066 Battle of Hastings. Two hundred years later, the Battle of Lewes led to England's first parliamentary meeting in Westminster in 1265. Five hundred years after that, Thomas Paine would meet with a debating club in the Inn that is now the White Hart Hotel. Paine wrote a pamphlet called Common Sense that sold half a million copies in 1776 and inspired the American Declaration of Independence, signed later that year. His relative obscurity compared to the likes of Thomas Jefferson is sometimes attributed to his later book Age of Reason, regarded at the time as atheistic.

Lewes has also been the home to Harveys Brewery for two centuries, using their own spring water and local hops from Kent and Sussex. The beer can be sampled in the lunch pub.

The Parish Church of St Thomas a Becket in Cliffe, now a district of Lewes, is thought to have been built in the 12^th century with the present body and tower dating from the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

Ramparts and ditches can be seen at the site of the Iron Age fort of Mount Caburn. The site was occupied prior to Roman times. Legend says that the hill was created from earth thrown up by the Devil as he dug Devil's Dyke (a hollow in the Downs to the west). Another tale tells of a giant called Gill who would hurl his hammer from the summit.

Firle Place nestles at the foot of the South Downs and has been the home of the Gage family for five centuries. A group portrait by Sir Antony Van Dyck hangs in the Hall. The house is open on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from late May to late September (tel 01273 858335).

The writer and critic Virginia Woolf, lived at Monk's house in Rodmell until, in 1941, she committed suicide by walking into the River Ouse, weighed down by stones in her pockets. An inquest in Newhaven recorded a verdict of "suicide while the balance of her mind was disturbed".

Walk 26 : Southease to Seaford

Rodmell’s best known landmark is the Monk’s House (tel 01892 890651).Thiswas the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf who lived here from 1919 until Virginia’s suicide in March 1941 (when she filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the Ouse). Her ashes are buried in the garden. Leonard remained here until he died in 1969. Visitors to the house during the years they spent here included Vita Sackville-West, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, Maynard Keynes, T. S. Eliot and Roger Fry. The house is open to visitors on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons only, April to the end of October 2pm to 5.30pm. Admission is £2.60.

St Peter’s, Rodmell is a restored Norman church dating from the 12th century.

St Peter’s, Southease This church has the unusual feature of a round tower and houses a collection of mediaeval wall paintings.

Bishopstone is so called because the Bishops of Chichester stayed here until the 1600's. St Andrew’s church has some of the earliest Saxon works in Sussex and parts of the eighth century structure remain. The church hosts two Summer fetes, on the first Saturday of May and the first Saturday of August, and it is worth considering these dates when planning to go on this walk as both events provide welcome refreshments. Otherwise please note there is nothing available between Rodmell and Seaford.

Walk 27 : Berwick to Eastbourne

Arlington Reservoir was constructed in 1971 as demand for water increased. This 120-acre site is a designated site of Specific Scientific Interest and a local nature reserve.

On its 30th anniversary Bill Oddie opened a waymarked pathway around the perimeter called ‘The Osprey Nature Trail’.

Wilmington Here the famous 226 foot chalk figure of the Long Man of Wilmington towers above the village on the side of Windover Hill. It is unknown what this male figure carved into the chalk bearing two long staves represents, but theories include that he may be a fertility symbol, an ancient warrior, or just an 18th century folly.

Jevington In the 1780s this was a renowned area for smuggling organised by James Pettit, known as ‘Jevington Jigg’, the local innkeeper and leader of a local gang. His activities were well documented in reports and newspaper accounts at the time. He stored his contraband in the inn which is now the Eight Bells, the suggested lunch stop for this walk. In 1788 an attempt to arrest Jigg was made by a party of armed constables as he played cards inside the inn. He escaped by quickly donning women’s clothes, dashing outside, and feigning hysterics. The constables were too slow to react and he made his escape by horse. He shortly returned, but this time was captured after being discovered hiding in the loft. After various adventures he was convicted of horse stealing in 1799 and sentenced to 14 years at Botany Bay.

Filching Manor and the Motor Museum, Jevington (tel 01323 487838) on the short cut via Jevington houses a private collection of veteran and vintage cars. It is open to visitors from 10.30am to 4.30pm Thursday to Sunday from Easter to October. Admission is £3.50 for adults and £2.50 for concessions.

Beachy Head This famous landmark is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising164 metres above the English Channel at a location indicated by its distinctive red and white striped unmanned lighthouse.

Walk 28 : Seaford to Eastbourne

The Martello Tower in Seaford is the most westerly of a chain of 103 such fortresses (the other end of the chain being in Aldeburgh, Suffolk) built to protect the South East coast of England against invasion in the early part of the Napoleonic Wars. It contains a museum of local history, open 11am to 1pm and 2.30pm to 4.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays year round, and on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons in summer.

The Seven Sisters is the name for the undulating cliffs between Cuckmere Have and Birling Gap. They are thought to have been formed by glacier meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age: the meltwater carved steep sided valleys, which were then truncated by sea erosion into the cliffs we see today. The original Seven Sisters are the Pleiades, a group of seven stars which Greek mythology portrayed as sisters. There are in fact now only six Pleiades, one having exploded in antiquity, and from the approach to Cuckmere Haven there seem to be only six humps on the Seven Sisters too. But there are in fact seven: one is hidden from view from this angle.

Belle Tout lighthouse was built in 1834 and had 30 oil lamps shining 23 miles out to sea. But it was often obscured by low cloud and fog, and so in 1902 the present Beachy Head lighthouse was built at the foot of the cliff. Erosion on these cliffs is rapid - up to 40cm a year - and in 1998 Belle Tout was in danger of falling into the sea. In March of the following year, it was moved 30 metres back from the cliff edge on hydraulic jacks.

In 2002, a large piece of Beachy Head also fell into the sea, and the debris from this is still visible. The houses and hotel at Birling Gap are also likely to fall into the sea soon: erosion here is as fast as a metre a year, and pictures in the Exceat Visitors Centre show dramatically just how quickly the cliffs have retreated here over recent decades

Walk 29 : Hastings to Rye

Hastings nowadays is most famously connected with the battle of 1066, although it existed long before as a small community, to become a Saxon settlement after the Romans left early in the 5^th century, taking its name from the group of Saxon invaders, the Haestengas.

Hastings Castle (tel 01424 781111) was built high on the sandstone rocks above the town, by William the Conqueror in 1067. Although just a ruin today, it is still worth a visit which includes the dungeons and an exhibition area. The castle is open 10am – 5pm, daily from April until August. 11am – 3pm daily, from September to March.

St. Clements Caves, West Hill, Hastings(tel 01424 422964) have over time been put to many uses including a military hospital, an air raid shelter and even a dance hall. Open 11am – 5.30pm, daily from Easter until September. 11am – 4.30pm, daily from October to Easter.

Visiting Winchelsea today it can be difficult to imagine with the sea over 2km away, that 700 years ago it was one of England’s leading ports. This new town of Winchelsea replaced the earlier old town, which was sited on a massive shingle spit somewhere out towards Dungeness (probably offshore from the village of Camber). The old town of Winchelsea was devastated by storms in the 13^th century, with the great storm of 1287 causing its final destruction. At the time, the loss of Winchelsea could be compared to losing Portsmouth today, such was its importance. King Edward I ordered a commission to find a new site for the town. Building commenced in the 1280s, from the Strand to the New Gate (where you can see the deepest section of the town ditch around Winchelsea, part of the town’s defence), with the streets being laid out on a grid system.

The wealth of new Winchelsea in its heyday was based largely on its huge wine trade. (There are 47 known cellars in the town.) Other trades included wool, timber, iron, shipbuilding and repair. Winchelsea along with Rye emerged to be of far more importance than Hastings (one of the Cinque Ports along with Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney). The storms of the late 13^th century, which had destroyed old Winchelsea, caused silting of the Hastings harbour ruining its future as a port. Thus Winchelsea and Rye joined the Cinque Ports to become the ancient towns whose duty in the days before a navy, was to defend England’s most vulnerable coastline and provide transport for the King and his retinue in return for trading privileges. The King effectively gave them a licence for piracy, allowing them to attack anybody in the channel.

However the heyday of new Winchelsea lasted only a few generations. By the middle of the 14th Century the town was in terminal decline. In the 1340s it started to suffer from shingle drifts, and was unable to get ships easily in and it started to lose its livelihood. Eventually the returning shingle bank sealed the town’s fate.

St. Thomas’ Church, Winchelsea is semi ruinous. All that's left (the transepts and the eastern end) is about a third of the original 59 metre long building, although it is still a functioning church. It was badly damaged during various raids; particularly a French and Spanish raid towards the end of the 14^th century. With the town in decline the damaged sections were quarried rather than being repaired.

The Look Out is named from the days when the look out man was stationed here during the French wars. It is also the site of Winchelsea windmill destroyed in the hurricane of 16^th October 1987.

Rye as a port faired much better than Winchelsea and benefited from its decline and final abandonment as a port in the early 16^th century. However over the centuries it had constant battles with nature, being affected by the eastward drift of shingle across the mouth of the harbour, and the enclosing of the salt marshes along the rivers Rother and Brede causing gradual siltation.

Walk 30 : Dover to Deal

As a port, Dover is not quite as a busy as it used to be in pre-Channel Tunnel days, but it is still fascinating to pause on the cliffs for a while early in this walk and contemplate the complicated workings of its huge Eastern Docks, the main ferry terminal. The town's other star attraction is its large medieval castle, which is well worth a visit, but really needs a day out of its own: this is just one of several disused military forts which are dotted around the town. Just in front of the castle and to the left of the church, is the remains of a Roman Lighthouse, which is clearly visible from the sea front. The cliffs below the castle contain a World War II bunker, later converted to a civilian command centre for us in the case of nuclear war, before prime minister Margaret Thatcher closed all such centres as a waste of money: traces of this can also be seen in the early stages of this walk. Dover was also the English town that suffered most during World War II, being under artillery bombardment from German forces in France for the whole war.

The White Cliffs of Dover were formed 80 to 65 million years ago at the bottom of what was then a tropical ocean. The chalk is made up of the small shells of millions of sea creatures. It is estimated that it took 10,000 years to create 15 milimetres of chalk (that is a million years to make 15 metres). In places the chalk is 250 metres deep. The cliffs are actually the terminus of the North Downs, which run all the way from Farnham, just south west of London to this point. Originally the ridge stretched across to France, but was broken by the ice 26,000 years ago during one of the ice ages, separating the UK from Europe. Incidentally, there are no blue birds over the White Cliffs of Dover: the famous World War II song was written by Nat Burton, an American who had never been to England.

South Foreland Lighthouse (tel 01304 852463) was built in 1843 to protect shipping from the Goodwin Sands, which at low tide can be seen just off shore in the later part of this walk. Guglielmo Marconi, the radio pioneer, made the first ship to shore transmissions to this point in 1898, and it was also home to the world's first international radio transmission, to Wimereux in France. The lighthouse is open to the public from 11.00am to 5.30pm, Thursday to Monday, 1 March to 31 October.

St Margarets had a population of 419 in 1801, when a wall was put up to prevent the bay being used by Napoleon's invasion forces. Its proximity to the Continent (it is the closest place in England to France, at 29km or 18 miles distance) and hidden cove made it a popular landing place for smugglers for much of its history. The St Margaret's Museum (tel 01304 852 764), passed on this walk, is open 2pm to 5pm Wednesday to Sunday from late May to early October. The Pines Garden, opposite the Museum, is also worth a visit if you are on one of the shorter walk options.

Deal beach is popularly supposed to have been the landing site for the forces of Roman general Julius Caesar when he came to Britain in 55 BC to see if it was worth invading. He apparently decided that it wasn't, and it was not until 43 AD that the Romans returned, under the emperor Claudius to permanently occupy the island. The Romans later turned Richborough, just up the coast behind Sandwich (both of which places are now inland) into their main port of entry into Britain

Walmer Castle and Deal Castle were built by Henry VIII in 1539-40 as artillery platforms to guard against a threatened French invasion. They were never permanently occupied and saw only minor military action. Walmer Castle (tel 01483 252000) later became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (the ancient association of port towns in the South East of England, which were given special privileges by the crown). The Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo fame, died here in 1852, as much later did WH Smith, founder of the newsagents: both men were Lord Wardens. The castle has fine 18th century gardens is open Wednesday to Sunday 10.00am to 6.00pm from April to September, or until dusk the rest of the year. Deal Castle, also passed on this walk, is open similar hours but is also open Monday to Tuesdays in summer.

Deal has a rather sleepy air these days, but was a major port in the days of sailing ships. Convoys of ships used to collect in the area just off its beach, which offered a protected anchorage due to the presence of the sand banks of the Goodwin Sands offshore, and cargo would be loaded or offloaded from them using rowing boats. Because of the sandbanks, the area was known among sailors as The Downs (Downs coming from the same Saxon word as the word dune). At times up to 1000 ships could apparently be seen in the bay. The centre of Deal still retains some fine buildings from this era, best seen by taking the short detour at the end of this walk, as well as many cosy nautical pubs. The town has many useful information boards explaining its history