Publication: Country Walking Circulation: 23489 Date: 01/03/2017 Readership: 70467 Page: 0 Size (cm²): 12 Display Rate (£/cm²): 5.79 AVE: 69.48

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HEROES on HEROES Famous fans ofwalking tell us the personwho most inspired their love ofthe world on foot. The answers are a fabulous mix ofthe public and the personal...

Julia Bradbury TV's most famous walker "Choosing my walking hero is simple. My dad, Michael. It may be a bit cliched but he took me out adventuring across the Peaks when I was a little 'un. As well as forming lasting father/daughter memories, those days have stayed with me forever and have helped forge a new path in my TV career. (Alfred Wainwright comes in at number two.)"

Robert Macfarlane Bestselling author of The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Landmarks "For me it would have to be the writer Nan Shepherd Dr Tori Herridge (1893-1981). She's an incredibly inspiring Geologist figure, and an unusual one, in the sense of and presenter being a woman of Channel writing about 4's Walking mountains and the wilderness and Through Time nature. She found her own path "My inspiration is the early in life and in literature, and it 20th century palaeontologist feels like she's so far ahead Dorothea Bate (1878-1951). of us. We're always only Like many forgotten women starting to catch Nan up." of her era, she undertook long, solo expeditions through wild and beautiful terrain. She went in search of fossils - and found oodles of them, including the remarkable dwarf elephants and hippos from Cyprus and Crete that I work on. Her diaries inspired me to retrace her steps and hunt down her fossil sites. It's not always easy to find them, and it has taken me along some rugged and precipitous Tori's series Mediterranean coast, in blistering Walking Through sun (or indeed moonlight when Time and Britain at needs must). But whenever I feel Low Tide are available like giving up, I ask myself, 'What to download at would Dorothea do?' And then, www.channeI4. news, campaigns of course, I keep on walking." com and lists of RSPB sites, visit www. rspb.org.uk 12 COUNTRY WALKING MARCH 2017

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FIONA BARLTROP is one of Country VILLAGE INN Walking's roving contributors. Based IIiII At the start of both in East Sussex, the South Downs and walks, Hartfield's Anchor Inn High Weald are on her doorstep. is an ideal base. B&B with a full English breakfast costs £60pn for one and £85 for "Coveringan areaofsome 560 square miles two. The pub has two bars, betweenthe North andSouthDowns, the and serves lunch and evening HighWealdisEngland'sfourthlargestAreaof meals. (01892 770424; OutstandingNaturalBeauty. As befits its name - www.anchorhartfield.com) derivedfromthe old Englishweald, meaningforest - itis one ofthe mostwoodedparts ofthe country. The highestground istheAshdownForest, originally a royal huntingpark, andthelargest open access space inthe South East. Nearlytwothirds ofitis heathland, one ofthe raresthabitats inBritain. Elsewhere, thepicturesque landscape is a patchwork ofsmallfields, hedgerows and copses. Several long-distance pathscrosstheAONB providinga wealthofwalkingopportunities. "

Walk 1 WaZk2 COUNTRY COTTAGES Where to start: The attractive village of Where to start: The 15th-century Anchor IIiII Perfect for a short self- Hartfield lies just to the north of Ashdown Inn in Hartfield is the starting point once catering break, Kent & Sussex o0. 0: Cottages have a couple of !:i Forest on the route of the High Weald again for this walk. 0: Landscape Trail. The walk starts out lovely properties near iI'i Hartfield: The Pump House Ashdown Forest via Five Hundred Acre WW. This stretch runs close to the infant Wood. The open heathland is covered with River Medway, which rises in the High gorse, bracken and heather and dotted Weald. After rejoining the Forest Way for with pines and birches. This part of the a further stretch, you head back along field Forest provided the inspiration for paths over higher ground, providing some the Pooh bear books by AA Milne, --=".--...... lovely views of the High Weald who lived near Hartfield. Heading countryside. Thereafter, a short back north you pass Gills Lap and roadside stretch leads to the memorial to AA Milne and EH Withyham, where the Wealdway Shepard, the books' illustrator, and High Weald Landscape Trail and just outside the Forest cross coincide. Having passed the famous Poohsticks Bridge. Don't DO THE church (whose square tower miss the Pooh Corner shop and WALKS! contrasts with Hartfield's slender tearoom at the end. Turn to our Route spire) you rejoin the latter route Cards at the back of for the last leg back to Hartfield. In a nutshell: A walk in beautiful the magazine and 'Pooh Country', taking in the look for Routes 6 & 7 In a nutshell: A lovely and largely for detailed walk landscape of Ashdown Forest directions. peaceful walk in quintessential that inspired AA Milne's stories. High Weald countryside.

WHY I LOVE IT... LOOK OUT FOR... MUST VISIT... I love the contrast - the Stonechats, a bird The popular Anchor Inn openness of the heaths frequently seen on the in Hartfield was formerly Creator ofthe H1gh and intimacy of the small, top of bushes on heaths, a manor, workhouse and Weald Landscape irregular fields. The land uttering a sharp loud school. The veranda is Tra.tl, Gerry is chock-a-block with call that sounds like two a great place to savour Sherwin heritage features created stones being tapped local cask ales, watch tells us by human use of the together. And place the world go by and more. area's wood, water, stone names such as pale, gate contemplate how human and iron over centuries; and hatch which indicate ilIl endeavour over centuries b there is a surprise around the former boundary of 0 has created such every corner. the Ashdown Forest. i!: a beautiful landscape.

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