For ramblers and walkers the name Kinder Scout has a deep reverence. Hundreds gathered at this plateau in the Derbyshire Peak District in April 1932 for an act of mass disobedience. Angered that the moorlands were the sole preserve of landowners and grouse shooters, workers from the smoky urban centres of Manchester decided on a mass trespass.

It is debatable whether that event itself opened up the countryside, but it certainly changed opinion. The Peak District was designated as England’s first National Park in 1951. There are now 10 of them, the most recent, the South Downs, opening just ten years ago.

Long-distance footpaths have also proliferated since the Kinder Trespass, starting with the Pennine Way in the 1960s and leading to Hastings’ own Saxon Shore Way in the 80s. In 2000 the CRoW (Countryside and Rights of Way) Act provided a new category of Open Access Land, enabling people legally to roam off footpaths in certain designated areas.

PICTURE: Dave Young

Walking for health

The benefits of fresh air and exercise have long been recognised, but never more so than in this year of lockdowns and restrictions. Although the situation is massively better than in the 1930s, the Right to Roam campaign estimates that only about 8% of land in England is currently accessible by the general public. Sadly the remainder – 70% of it farmland – remains in private hands and closed to the public.

British farmers face a massive revolution, from the 1st January 2021 losing the £3.4 billion EU subsidy paid under the Common Agricultural Policy depending on the size of their farms. Instead the British government has pledged to make up the same amount based on environmental factors – protecting land water and air, tackling climate change and boosting animal health and welfare.

While this is clearly no bad thing in itself, the result is that British tax payers will now be paying farmers directly.  And in most cases we will still be excluded from the land on which our money is being spent.

Access for all

I’d like to make a modest proposal – not one penny of subsidy should be payable unless farmers allow the public greater access to their land. If I’m paying for your farm, you simply have to let me walk on the land.

Now I can hear the howls of objections – impracticality, health and safety, danger to livestock, etc. But listen. There are currently 140,000 miles of public foot-paths in England and Wales, a considerable proportion on farmland. If some farmers can cope with walkers, why can’t all? Every farm in the country is to be visited by inspectors to assess the level of subsidy payable under the new scheme. This is the moment that farms should have to produce an accessibility statement detailing how they will enhance the right to roam across their land.  Those from some other countries – particularly in Scandinavia – have a general right to roam anywhere. We have an unparalleled opportunity to continue what the Kinder Scout Trespassers started nearly a century ago, and we should
seize it.

• Use this online interactive rights of way map to find where you can walk and
ride in East Sussex. www.eastsussex.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/discover-
east-sussex/rightsofway/online-rights-of-way-map

Lost Forever

Walkers are being urged to help identify 10,000 miles of
historic footpaths that are missing from the map in England
and Wales and could be lost forever. All rights of way must be
identified before a government deadline of 2026, after which it will no longer be possible to add old paths to the official record. The walking group, Ramblers, wants walkers, historians
and map enthusiasts to use its new mapping site to identify missing footpaths. 

• www.ramblers.org.uk/news/latest-news/2020/february/find-map-save.aspx

We all know exercise is important, but six weeks into lockdown your customary trek around the block might be becoming boring? On calm days the seafront beckons, but is increasingly crowded. 

Fortunately, Hastings and St Leonards is blessed with plenty of nearby alternatives; some accessible on foot from the centre of town, others a 10-minute drive – or better yet, cycle – away. And, now rules have been relaxed, you may drive further afield to begin your exercise.

Aside from the popular Alexandra and Hastings Country parks, the area also has lovely, lesser-known green spaces. Take a map, ideally the OS Explorer range, preferably in paper format. An A-Z will do at a pinch while some of the larger areas have an online listing with a printable map. Navigation by smartphone is frankly not that reliable and small screens can prove hard to read in sunlight.

1. St Helens Woods 

Over 100 acres, tended by the St Helens Park Preservation Society. Blankets of seasonal wildflowers, trees – look out for non-indigenous specimen varieties – lakes and meadows. Wonderful vistas; great for bird and butterfly spotting. Multiple entry points including the Ridge (B2093) and Hillside road.
• sthelenswoods.co.uk

2. Summerfield Woods 

A steeply sloped 7.5-acre nature reserve with two ponds, rhododendron in season and a big badger population. Accessible from Bohemia Road and Briscoe’s Walk (running between Horntye Road and Holmesdale). Includes – currently closed – Bohemia Walled Garden. 
• www.bohemiawga.org.uk
• www.1066online.com

3. Church /Robsack Wood

Remnant of large ancient woodland that once covered Hollington. Enter from Churchwood Drive. Nature reserve with Grade 2 listed, C13th St Leonards Church in the middle.
• https://wildhastings.wordpress.com

4. Maplehurst Wood

Picturesque site of special scientific interest – access
via Beany’s Lane (off the Ridge Close to Conquest Hospital). Traces of former Wealden industries; brickworks, hops, quarrying. 
• www.facebook.com/pages/Maplehurst-Wood/
137663716255561
• www.highweald.org

5. Marline Valley Nature Reserve/Wood 

Mix of semi-natural woodland, unimproved meadows and a Sussex gill stream; access from various points on Queensway.
• https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk

6. Combe Valley Country Park/Filsham Reedbeds 

Nearly 1,500 acres in extent, mix of land use and ownership, extending to Bulverhythe beach with a large network of paths. Central valley tends to flood in winter. Important wildlife habitat with wide diversity of insects (currently many butterflies) and plants. Look out for ducks, geese, heron, egrets, raptors and many smaller species.
• bexhill-osm.org.uk
• www.combevalleycountrysidepark.com/

7. Old Roar Gill 

Hidden in the middle of Hastings – you may have driven over it without knowing. Directly north of Alexandra Park above Coronation Wood (planted in 1937 to celebrate George VI). Deep, narrow sandstone valley full of mosses and lichens culminating in a waterfall; paths can be very slippery. You may spot kingfishers and woodpeckers.
• https://www.1066online.com

8. Speckled Wood

Only significant green space adjacent to Ore. Includes remains of old allotments used by injured WW1 soldiers. The Community Land Trust campaigns to keep this area in public use. 
Habitat to a wide range of wildlife and plants.
• www.orecommunitylandtrust.org.uk
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speckled_Wood,_Hastings

Other routes 

OS Explorer map 124 (Hastings, Bexhill, Battle and Robertsbridge) shows several long distance footpaths crossing East Sussex:

National Cycle Route 2: 

When complete will link Dover to St Austell. Easiest route for rookie riders runs from Rock-a-Nore to the western end of Bexhill esplanade, (passing the
De La Warr pavilion). Also a section east along Barley Lane becoming a bridleway as far as Fairlight Place where it joins Fairlight road and arguably too dangerous to traverse. Safely cycle (and walk) from Pett Level towards Rye via the harbour bird reserve, or detour up the Royal Military Canal towards Winchelsea then on to Rye on an off-road route close to Camber Castle. 

• www.royalmilitarycanal.com
• https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk

Saxon Shore Way 

Hastings to Gravesend (part of the E9 European coastal path) Local section runs from Old Town to Rye via Country Park. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxon_Shore_Way

1066 Country Walk 

Pevensey Castle to Rye via Herstmonceaux Castle, Catsfield, Battle, Westfield, Icklesham and Winchelsea. Long, winding 50km off-road trail, best attempted in instalments. 
•www.ldwa.org.uk

High Weald Landscape Trail

Horsham – Rye; eastern section from Flackley Ash crosses a landscape of rivers and marshes.
• www.highweald.org

Useful Links

• wildhastings.wordpress.com
• www.hastingsnaturalhistory.org