Washington Common, West Sussex

 

Looking east to Chanctonbury Ring

 

Path along the south side

That are lots of little nooks and crannies hidden away in our localities that we often never ever discover until we step out of our normal routine and take a different path. Washington Common is one such place that I only stumbled across recently, and yet I've been passing it on the A24 for years! It occupies the areas to the north west of the Washington roundabout just a few miles north of Worthing on the A24. If you take a left turn off the roundabout west towards Storrington along the A283, then take a right turn off the main road just a few hundred yards ahead at Clayton Farm, you hit an untarmaced lane that creeps up the hill. No boy racers allowed! You have to take it easy on a badly pock-marked route which takes you up to a National Trust car park. From where radiates a network of paths over Washington Common, a cosy little area of hillside, heath and woodland. Ideal for walking the dog or just yourself for that matter!

 

Chanctonbury Ring in the distance

 

Route back to the carpark

 

 The path winding up from the car park along the south side of the hill gives great views of the South Downs and Chanctonbury Ring. Just do a circular tour along this stretch, then strike north through the trees, up over the top, down through the woodland, and then head back towards the car park by a different route. When I was about there was so much water that it was like a mini Everglades with vegetation sprouting out of pools of water saturating the woodland. It's a wonder I didn't bump into Noah, well it is early 2014! Near the common and at the western end towards Storrington is a very pleasant area of rather opulent residential settlement struggled out along the little lanes such as Vera's Walk.

Looking westwards to South Downs

 

On the heath

 

 

Drenched woodland

 

Vera"s Walk in fact is named after the pioneer of a community that was set up here in the 1920s. Vera Pragnell was the daughter of a wealthy textiles industrialist and as a young 25 year old used her legacy to set up a Utopian community in this area in the 1920s called 'The Sanctuary.' Sounded like some glorious open air version of Cold Comfort Farm. What is it about Sussex that attracts these bohemian havens? Not far away to the east of Lewes is Charleston Farmhouse where the assorted progressive intellectuals, writers and artists of the Bloomsbury group strutted their stuff back in the pre-war years. I think they would have been at home in 2014 Britain! Anyway, Vera Pragnell invited people to join her in a back to nature  'Sermon on the Mount' type endeavour. They were a rum bunch, including mystical Christians, nudists (not sure how that relates to the Sermon on the Mount!), alchemists and actors, but eventually as time went on the relatives sold off the land and now it is a pretty prosperous slice of Sussex real estate hidden down leafy lanes.

By the carpark

 

The Sanctuary hut

 

Heart of the old sanctuary community

You can now explore said leafy lanes which pan out and prod through the surrounding farmland and woodland, sometimes ending up back on a main road into or out of Storrington. One things for sure, the folk living in these very comfortable looking dwellings won't be short of a bob or two. This is leafy, prosperous Sussex at its Garden of England best.

If you want a bit of industrial grit mixed up with our Sussex idyll there is a quarry a little further to the south west and bordering the A283, that's if you're into dumper tracks and suchlike negotiating mud and puddles.

This area is not really for the ten miler hiker type person, more the Sunday afternoon stroll merchant, perhaps with a dog or family in tow. Toasting muffins round a log fire after a bracing circuit of this little corner of Sussex would be a cool way to round off a crisp, cold winter's afternoon. If you fancy something a bit more commercial, then head for Squires Garden Centre, a very respectable joint with quite a large modern café where you can grab a baked potato for lunch or maybe a cream tea. I would recommend it and you can find it a few stallion paces north of the Washington roundabout on the left of the main road, but don't wander into 'Kates Cakes,' the local cake factory, by mistake.