Forest Way Country Park Leaflet
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FOREST LFLT 2_ FOREST LFLT 2 20/03/2013 12:15 Page 1 Contact information How to get there You can contact us at: Forest Row, Hartfield, Withyham and Groombridge are Rights of Way & Countryside Maintenance, served by regular bus services. There are train stations Economy, Transport & Environment Department, at East Grinstead and Eridge. For information on time- ESCC, County Hall, St Anne’s Crescent tables and routes, contact Traveline 0871 2002233 or Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1UE National Rail enquiries on 08457 48 49 50. tel: 0345 6080193 e-mail: [email protected] There is a public car park and toilets at Forest Row. There is also parking available at Hartfield Old Station The Bluebell Railway now connects to East Grinstead and in Groombridge (see map). linking Sheffield Park, Horsted Keynes and Kingscote. tel: 01825 720800 To further explore the rights of way network in the www.bluebell-railway.com area, the 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Explorer map No. 135 Ashdown Forest, includes all of the Forest Way. The Spa Valley Railway connects Eridge, Groombridge, High Rocks and Tunbridge Wells For more local information try: tel: 01892 537715 www.enjoysussex.info FORES T WAY www.spavalleyrailway.co.uk www.lovesussex.com Forest Way Country Park is more than the abandoned railway track Investing in your future Interreg IVA 2 Seas that you may see at first glance... Part-financed by the Cross-border Co-operation European Union Programme 2007-2013 (European Regional Development Fund) FOREST LFLT 2_ FOREST LFLT 2 20/03/2013 12:15 Page 2 The Forest Way takes you deep into East The Forest Way Code Sussex countryside, part of the High Weald The track is a Shared Use Path – please Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. have consideration for others Litter - take it home Walk or ride the Forest Way and take in the delights Flowers - admire and study but please leave for others of the great outdoors. The flat, tree-lined track winds Access - respect adjoining owners’ property and use through a peaceful, historic countryside of small fields only recognised paths and routes and scattered farmsteads among wooded, rolling hills Horse riding - refrain from galloping for mile after mile. It is particularly accessible for Dogs - keep under close control and clean up after people with mobility problems. your dog The History of the Railway No motor vehicles allowed. The line was opened in 1866 as a continuation of the line from Three Bridges. Although becoming a busy Cycling along Forest Way commuter line, it eventually fell under the axe of the When cycling please remember: Beeching cuts in 1966. Ironically, Dr Beeching lived • to give way and leave plenty of room to walkers, near Forest Row and regularly travelled up to London horses and people with mobility problems on the line when he was Chairman of British Rail. • to carry a bell or call out; never assume people can The disused railway line was bought by East Sussex see or hear you approaching County Council in 1971 and designated as a Country • take care at road crossings and on the shared drive Park in 1974. between Tablehurst Farm and the A22 Major surface improvements in 2002 led to the Forest Way's inclusion in the Sustrans National Cycle Network - route 21 - which runs from London to Eastbourne. National Cycle Routes 1 Regional Cycle Routes 17 County/Unitary Auth boundary www.highweald.org District/Borough boundary London 1 Dartford Gravesend Rochester 1 14 17 Gillingham 1 21 1 Sevenoaks 19 13 Maidstone Canterbury 13 14 12 16 16 15 17 18 21 Tonbridge Forest Ashford 17 2 East 12 19 Grinstead Way Dover Folkestone 18 Tunbridge Wells Crawley 17 Worth Crowborough 11 2 20 Way 21 19 Cuckoo Trail 2 to Brighton to Eastbourne to Hastings Final fOREST INSIDE13_ Final fOREST INSIDE 15/03/2013 11:49 Page 1 Swallows FORES T WAY with their distinctive forked tail streamers and glossy Groombridge blue-black plumage can be originally meant ‘servant’s seen from April to October bridge’. Local tradition and are likely to be nesting Badgers are nocturnal suggests that it owes its in nearby barns and mammals seldom seen during origin to a Saxon named buildings. Take a moment to the day. Look out for tracks ‘Gromen’, who built a admire their agile graceful and excavations. They moated stronghold flight as they feed on live underground in East Grinstead where Groombridge insects on the wing. ‘setts’, which can Bluebell Railway and often be hundreds of years now stands. B2110 trains to London old. Badgers are protected by law and must not be link to the Worth Way disturbed. A22 Ham Bridge Spa Valley Railway Main route: Groombridge 1 Ham 9 /2 miles / 15 km River Medway Withy Ball’s Green P Withyham Forest Row Hartfield B2026 B2110 B2110 Forest Row A22 B2026 village began as a series of lodges to house B2110 Eridge Station Hartfield’s name Royal hunting B2188 parties visiting also records Ashdown B2110 A26 Ashdown Forest. A22 Forest’s past as a Royal It later developed as hunting ground. Derived a coaching halt on the from the Saxon word ‘feld’ Foxes can sometimes be London to Eastbourne meaning open land, Hartfeld seen during the day. They live road, but did not gain is literally ‘open land where wc P in underground ‘earths’ and full parish status until harts (deer) graze’. Forest Way Roads Footpaths Bridleways NCN cycle route Toilets Parking Pubs Bike hire use a strong musky scent to after the coming of Wild garlic mark their territories - see if the railway. is found growing Withyham lies at the point Trees and Wildlife you can catch a whiff! in large colonies where the rivers Withy and of a river valley and carries a Ham converge. Withyham You may notice that many of large areas to either side distinctive garlic means ‘withy meadow’ or the trees along Forest Way of the Park can be flooded smell. It looks its water meadow where and in the surrounding fields for weeks at a time. best between coppiced willows grow. are Alder or Willow. The river also attracts April and June This pleasant hamlet boasts This is because you are in birds: look out for Mallard, when it produces a cluster of quaint tile-hung the floodplain of the River Herons and Moorhens an abundance of houses of which the earliest Medway and these trees like along the river, and even white flowers. is dated 1507. the wet ground - the occasional Kingfisher. hki.