Woodland ABOUT THE TRAIL 3 Rusper This is a self-guided A24 Rudgwick Faygate A264 walking trail. Warnham A264 Please read the Slinfold Horsham Horsham information below. Heritage Trails Lower Barns Green Beeding A24 Billingshurst Southwater Nuthurst Coneyhurst A272 Coolham A272 Cowfold Henfield Village Dial Post Partridge West Green Pulborough Chiltington A24 Coldwaltham X & Common Ashington Henfield Storrington Wiston Amberley Washington Small Dole A283 Steyning HOW TO FIND US Start point: Coopers Way car park, BN5 9FE. ACCESS & FACILITIES Walking grade: Easy, no stiles some inclines Distance: Trail (a) 60 minutes a mixture of tarmac, crushed stone and grass. Length 3.6km/2.25 miles. Trail (b) 40 minutes a mixture of tarmac and crushed stone. Length 2.3km/1.5miles. Info: www.hiddenhenfield.co.uk Refreshments: Plenty of coffee shops and pubs in the High Street. 13 Toilets: Public Toilets in High Street on map. St Antony’s Cottage Dogs: Please keep dogs on leads and clean mess up. Please respect the privacy of local residents. Photographs: Mike Ainscough Did you know that Henfield is a FIND OUT MORE: village that grew on a sandstone To learn more about the heritage of the wider district and discover additional trails, please visit ridge? Explore the ridge, the views www.horshammuseum.org and some stories of our historic Created by Henfield Parish Council & Henfield Museum supported by Horsham District Community Partnerships buildings on this 60 minute trail. Forum and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. am Dis sh tr r ic o t H C o m m u r m o F Exploring Horsham District’s Heritage u n s i p ty hi Partners Millenium plaque & Henfield common Information is correct at time of going to press. 6 The Lydds & downland views (a) Henfield Village Pass by the former school allotments, once tended by boys to produce vegetables for the & Common school kitchens; these are the last true market gardens once common in the village. At the top of the track, turn right and enjoy the views of the From the Coopers Way car park, walk through an South Downs from the Lydds. Here we can see, alley called Caudle Street to the High Street and from east to west, Wolstonbury Hill, Devil’s Dyke, turn left to pass the George Hotel Truleigh Hill (aerial masts) and Chanctonbury Ring. The original Anglo-Saxon village name 1 George Hotel & Greenfield House The George Hotel dates from Tudor times Hamfeld means “hamlet on high open land”, (1530s) and was first recorded as an inn in 1729. illustrated at this location. Continue west along Later it became a coaching inn on what was a this sandy ridge well drained for growing crops main route from London to Brighton. Doors at until you reach the back of Mill House. the side of the hotel car park show the former Note the grape vines. stabling area. Turn round and note the Tudor herringbone brickwork and wobbly chimney of Greenfield House behind its Georgian façade. Greenfield House 1 Continue south down the High Street to a green wayfarer post signed “Henfield Common” and go down the alleyway to the north-west corner of the Common. 4 Henfield Common, Heritage Millennium 5 Cricket club Plaque (b) 2 Lavender, Providence & Stipenhoke cottages The Common is “common land”, governed by Continue along Henfield Common North. On ancient law which allows commoners rights to the left are Lavender and Providence cottages, dig peat, take turf and wood, shoot game and former home and workroom of Ada Brown and graze animals. A village fair has taken place here Decima Allen who ran the Violet Nurseries in the since at least 1647, and continues bi-annually. The early 1900s, when Henfield supplied the flower Millennium Plaque, sitting where the causeway markets of London. The owners were suffragists meets the main road, celebrates Henfield and the violet flower was adopted as the Common and Cricket Club. Suffragettes’ emblem. The next cottages on the left, Stipenhoke, were the workers’ cottages. 5 Henfield Cricket Club, Memorial Field & Go straight on to take the longer trail (a) Stone (a) through the woods and around the border of the Cricket has been played here since 1720 and common. Otherwise, trail (b), turn right and walk Henfield Cricket Club, formed in 1771, is one of across the Common causeway to the main road the oldest in the world. The football pitches (A281), cross the road and walk up an unmade were created by villagers draining a marshy area road to Point 7 - The Mill House. and were completed in September 1950 as a memorial, marked by a stone on the edge of the 3 Reed Bed & woodland (a & b) woods, to commemorate villagers who lost their This is a lowland reed bed, a rare habitat, lives in WW2. Exploring especially on common land. The margins on From the Cricket Club, skirt the pitch and Horsham either side of the causeway (b) are important for woodland and follow the footpath along the flowers such as the Southern Marsh Orchid seen edge of the Common for roughly 400m and District’s in June. The woodland (a) dates to the late 1800s cross the main road via a gap in the grass bank Heritage and is notable for its oak trees. to Crabtree Cottage. Take the track up the right- hand side of Crabtree to the Lydds. Cat House 11 Henfield village & village Common Henfield 7 The Mill House (a & b) A windmill was erected here in 1820, in what is now the garden of Mill House, which also housed a steam mill. The windmill was 12 destroyed by gales and fire in the 1950s. 10 11 13 Exploring From the path up from the main road, turn right; from the Lydds, continue straight on. Now Horsham descend the footpath from Mill House to Barrow District’s Hill (A2037) and the Borrer Bank. Heritage 8 Borrer Bank, King James Lane (a & b) CP William Borrer, a famous Victorian botanist, M lived in Henfield from 1811 to 1862. He amassed 9 a collection of over 6,000 plants and trees, and 1 at the Borrer Bank we can see what was part of his garden. The remainder of his estate is 2 now housing. His plants were donated to Kew Gardens on his death. Cross the A2037 carefully here and pass 3 through the grounds of Springhills Care Home to a large track called King James Lane, which 4 has more views of the South Downs and catch a view of Broadmere Common. Springhills is a 8 significant name because the soil here is clay, and when water runs down from the sandy 5 ridge, it collects here, forming natural springs of clean water, an attraction for early settlers. 7 At the end of King James Lane, turn right by the corner of the white South View Terrace 19th century workers’ cottages into Weavers Lane. 6 Cross New Town Road and continue walking down Blackgate Lane, along the footpath leading to the Tanyard. KEY 9 Potwell, the Tanyard (a & b) 7 8 Potwell was the site of Henfield Grammar School 1 Points of interest between c1700 and 1800, and was the birthplace of William Borrer (marked with a blue plaque). Trail A and B Borrer conducted a unique study of lichens which, to this day and thanks to his work, are CP Car Park used to measure air quality. A tanyard, turning cattle hides into leather, was situated here M Museum through Tudor times until 1844. All that remains is the field, the former drying shed and the pond Refreshments and which was used to soak the hides in urine and shopping in Henfield dung as part of the smelly tanning process. High Street From the Tanyard, take the footpath to the left of Mill House Borrer Bank & natural world the pond down to the bottom of Church Lane. 9 9 10 10 St Peters Church (a & b) In 770, King Osmund of the South Saxons gave this land to the Lord of the Manor, Earl Warbald to build a church dedicated to St. Peter. A stone structure replaced the wooden church in 1250 and was enlarged in the 14th century, with an 8-bell tower added in 1450. The flint exterior was added in 1871 as part of a major renovation, with stained glass windows by Charles Kempe, a celebrated Sussex artist and friend of the vicar. The chancel contains two engraved glass windows by Sir Laurence Whistler, brother of Potwell Tanyard St Peter’s Church war artist Rex. Walk through the churchyard and down Church Terrace to where the Terrace meets Church Walk 11 12 13 by the Cat House. 11 The Cat House, St. Peter’s Cottage and the Reeve House (a & b) Built in 1550, the Cat House is one of a handful of Grade II listed thatched cottages in the village. In the 19th century it was owned by a local eccentric called Bob Ward, who decorated the house with metal cats. The legend is that these decorations were revenge for the death of his canary, killed by a pet cat belonging The Reeve House Martyn Lodge St Anthony’s Chimney to Canon Nathaniel Woodard, founder of Woodard Schools. Note the birds in the cats’ paws on the plaques. Ward teased the Canon 13 by jingling bells controlled by a cord through Continue along Church Street to Turn right along the High Street; the zulu hole as he passed on his way to church. the junction with the High Street the Plough Inn is on the same Neighbouring St.