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Robertsbridge to Uckfield Walk

to do

East Sussex Long

History

Club walks since April 2015, and a summary which goes back to Jan 2010.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sat, 20-Jul-24 Robertsbridge to Uckfield 2 weather fine and mostly sunny
DAC
Map walk - Robertsbridge to Uckfield
Length: 38.1 km (23.7 miles). Toughness: 3/10
Option to end at Heathfield after 23.5km
Catch the 8:45 from London Charing Cross arrives Robertsbridge 10:05. Buy a single to Robertsbridge (South Eastern railways single fares are half that of returns, so if returning via Tunbridge Wells, the cost of 2 SE single tickets will be cheaper than a return to Robertsbridge.)
This is a map based walk - it is preferable that you have the gpx on your smartphone / gpx device. (The gpx file is accurate having been recorded on the ground with various waypoints.The initial 9km of the walk is detailed in walk 222 up to just before [6] in the text.)
Return trains from Uckfield: xx:33 until 22:33
Ending at Heathfield: Bus 51 from Maynard’s Green, opposite to the Runt in Tun PH to Tunbridge Wells Station: 16:52, 18:21, 19:21, 20:26, 21:26
This is the initial stage of a walk from Robertsbridge to South Harting, inspired by Hilaire Belloc's walk undertaken in 1902, and recounted in his book The Four Men: A Farrago. Sections of the route taken in 1902 were along "cart tracks" which are now busy roads. Consequently this route varies in sections from the 1902 route, but importantly it passes by sights and villages and pubs detailed in the book.
This first section is from Robertsbridge to Uckfield, although there is a convenient drop out point at Heathfield after 23½km
Thursday 30th October 1902: Belloc set off from The George Inn, Robertsbridge to the Fullers Arms for breakfast, then onto Heathfield. Journeyed onto BlackBoys and then onto Uckfield and took a cart towards Fletching spending the night in a hut in the forest.
Lunch is at The Swan Inn, Woods Corner after 11.7km.
"...so we went into the Swan (which in those days I say again was the old inn), and we drank ale, as St. Leonard himself was used to do, roundabout nine or ten o'clock of an autumn morning."
  • Sean
    Jul-24

    Nice idea to have a series of walks inspired by Hilaire Belloc, a splendidly disputatious chap who I'm sure would have enjoyed himself on SWC walks. Reading his Wikipedia entry I see that as an undergraduate he once walked from Oxford to Marble Arch (55 miles) in 11½ hours, so perhaps that could be pencilled in for a future outing? I suspect that rating this 38 km Robertsbridge hike as 3/10 must have been in comparison with Belloc's other Herculean efforts, but it does seem at odds with the rest of the SWC collection: it's longer and with more ascent than almost all our 10/10 walks. [NB. the walk page shows a total ascent of 1520m, but smoothing the data points brings it down to a more modest – but still strenuous – 711m.]

  • DAC
    Jul-24

    walked from Oxford to Marble Arch (55 miles) in 11½ hours, so perhaps that could be pencilled in for a future outing? Phew; we'd have to split that into two walks at the very least. The landlord at The Ostrich PH mentioned the Four man walk book to me in the early 2000s and I picked up a 2nd hand copy of the out of print book. (It is now in the public domain, download link here.) In 2008 there were tentative plans for a 6 day SWC autumn trip which came to nothing. I intend going on this walk, alas no breakfast at the now closed (2004) Jack Fuller's PH.

  • DAC
    Jul-24

    Good day out for the2 of us. weather fine and mostly sunny