Forest Way & Ashdown Forest Circular
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eastsussex.gov.uk 5 Cycling in East Sussex: Avenue Verte Route Guide Forest Way & Ashdown Forest circular This circular route dissects Ashdown Places of Interest → Forest, affording glorious views of Ashdown Forest Lying at the heart of the High Weald along the way. You’ll the High Weald Area of Outstanding be cycling along Avenue Verte, the Natural Beauty (AONB), Ashdown network of cycle routes that links Forest covers 10 square miles. Despite London with Paris, which includes what the name suggests, it is not seven miles of the Forest Way, a thickly covered in trees. The word purpose built cycle path along a ‘forest’ actually comes from the Latin disused railway track. ‘foris’, a term meaning ‘outside the Crowborough – Groombridge common law’ – in this case an area Starting from Crowborough Station, of land set aside for royal hunting. you soon join a rollercoaster of tiny Echoes of the royal hunting legacy lanes that take you west through live on in Ashdown Forest with place woodland and the villages of High names such as King’s Standing, Hurstwood and Fairwarp before a long where the monarch reputedly took climb north up to Chelwood Gate. A part in the chase. steady climb on a beautiful, quiet lane Crowborough Sir Arthur Conan Doyle past Suttons Farm sets you up for a lived here and wrote his Sherlock fantastic long descent from the high Homes stories in the town. In ‘The ridge running across Ashdown Forest Valley of Fear,’ Holmes investigates down into Forest Row, leaving you a murder at Birlstone Manor in with the best part of the ride – seven Sussex, involving his enemy Professor glorious flat, traffic-free miles along Moriarty. The Manor is based on the Forest Way, a disused railway that Groombridge Place. takes you through Hartfield to the Forest Row The village grew as a edge of Groombridge. series of lodges to house royal Groombridge – Crowborough hunting parties visiting Ashdown From here the ride follows National Forest. It later developed as a Cycle Network Route 21 south along coaching halt on the London to delightful quiet lanes. The route Eastbourne road. follows one of the tributaries of the Forest Way The railway line was River Medway, past Harrison’s Rocks opened by the London, Brighton & to Eridge Station, located on the Kent South Coast Railway in 1866 as an / Sussex border. From here a short extension of the Three Bridges to section of gravel track keeps you away East Grinstead branch line. Forest Row from the busy traffic of the A26 before was the busiest of the intermediate a major climb up over Blackdon Hill. stations, dealing in minerals and The final part of the ride takes you general goods. It was finally closed through Limekiln Wood along a rough as part of the Beeching cuts in 1966. track where nature is starting to take Hartfield Just off the Forest Way, over, ending with a fast descent back Hartfield is a village with two ancient to Crowborough. 2 inns, a 13th-century church and many Grade houses built between the 16th and 18th Moderate / Strenuous centuries. Derived from the Saxon word ‘feld’ meaning open land, Hartfeld is Major climbs literally ‘open land where harts (deer) Four climbs of 70-110 metres and graze’. The site of Pooh Bridge, where many shorter ones. The last 10 miles Winnie the Pooh played Poohsticks with of the ride are either downhill to his friends in the series of books by AA Forest Row or along the Forest Way Milne, is located nearby. Refreshments Starting point Eridge Station, Jarvis Brook, High Hurstwood, Fairwarp, Forest Way, Crowborough Hartfield, Groombridge Distance Tourist Information Centres 39 miles / 63 kilometres Ashdown Forest Llama Park: Off road/rough sections 01825 712040 1. There is a ¾ mile gravel section Cycle Hire and Shops alongside the A26 to the northeast Forest Row: Future Cycles: of Eridge Station 01342 822847 2. The Forest Way is a well-surfaced, traffic-free trail along a railway path, used for seven miles 3 Cycling in East Sussex Forest Way & Ashdown Forest circular Avenue Verte Groombridge East A Grinstead 22 Groombridge B 2 F 0 o 2 re 6 10 s 21 t W B ay Station Eridge Ashurst Wood Avenue Verte 8 8 ay ay 1 dw t W 2 e es B r M For B211 A Rive 0 ven ue Ver te 6 2 A Standen Hartfield F F Harrison’s o OR r GE Rocks e RO st A W D a R y o t h e r 0 f 1 i r 21 e i l rvo B d se B21 Re 10 od o ck W a ir Tr e The Huntsman l W e v ra G h g u Eridge o 200 R 180 Eridge 2 2 B A 21 Forest Row 10 160 B2110 See inset 140 120 k 100 The c Metres a Tr 80 Huntsman h 6 g 2 8 0 8 u 60 2 1 o B 2 B R B r idle 40 way 20 Eridge F 6 0 O 2 RG A E R Sta OAD Bream D A Five Hundred Acre Wood O e t R Broadstone Wood Eridge r Y e R Hindleap Warren Eridge Crowborough Nutley Forest Row Eridge O V I R Warren e P u n H e I v ND LE A AP W Beechen R L e E AN st D E Ho Wood G ath AT ly E M ILL LA NE 26 Wych ASHDOWN A Cross Limekiln ) Horncastle y Wood a Wood w y FOREST B Crowborough ( ck a Tr l e Hornshurst 7 v 5 ra Circular Route (on road) 1 Wood 2 G B & 5 c 7 a 2 rm A 88 Press Ridge 1 a B 2 T A 2 B Warren 2 0 Suttons Farm 2 2 Raven 6 Traffic-free route Wood D R O YF GROVE R W E H D T N IRC National Cycle Network (on road) LA B Red Lion B 21 00 0 0 21 A259 B A Road Chelwood Gate B2100 Kings Crowborough Arms B2244 B Road Jarvis Rotherfield Brook Newnham’s Wood WESTERN RD Nutley Minor Road (arrow indicates steep Windmill hill pointing downhill) 6 A2 B2101 Mill Railway Wood 6 2 0 2 C B HELW Eridge OOD Railway Station (with name) GAT E RD D A O R 5 7 N 2 A W Church O D W O L D A A H v Danehill e n Pub u Nutley e V e r t e Pollardsland House of Interest A 2 Wood 2 Burnt Oak FO RD BURNT OA BR K ROAD OO Foresters O HI K Arms LD LL D LA Car Parking O ND W S Easy To Miss N H Turning IL S Fairwarp L T P R ERRYMA E NS LANE E Cackle Street REET T ST H Take Care! THE A S T Sheffield IN G Forest NE FO L LA R TOL D D A L Herstmonceux E High O A N R N Follow Road Sign as Marked A K E L Hurstwood A S O R T LE N E Y 6 R N T 2 U 0 1 A 0 B 2 Miles L 2 S B T T Start of route E K Maypole IC P Inn A 22 A 0 1 2 2 3 Kilometres 7 5 A 2 6 © Crown copyright and database rights 2012 Ordnance Survey 100019601 Cartography © CityCycle Guides.