Downs Link: Henfield to Christ's Hospital

The Downs Link, a bridleway link between the South Downs Way and the North Downs Way, is well waymarked, using signposts adorned with the ‘two-tiered bridge’ logo. This section marches across the flat country between the Sussex towns of Henfield and Southwater. In between it takes in the Southwater Country Park, once the site of major brickworks but since pleasantly landscaped. The route ends at the 16th-century Christ’s Hospital School, perhaps best known for the arcane and somewhat bizarre uniforms it suffers its pupils to wear.

From the car park, head north along the line of the railway. After a mile, beyond the northern river crossing at Betley Bridge, a bridle gate leads into a field, where the line of the railway is less clearly defined. After a second bridle gate, the track is again enclosed between two hedges.

After another 0.5 miles (800m), turn left on a crossing track. At the B2135, turn right and walk towards Partridge Green (where buses connect with Brighton and Horsham). Just short of the bridge over the railway, fork left on a narrow path down to rejoin the railway track bed.

After a mile (1.6km) or so, the Downs Link crosses the B2135 and eventually enters a pleasant wooded cutting. It then passes under the A272. To the north of the road, you will come to the former platforms at West Grinstead Station and a preserved carriage in which there is information about the Downs Link. Shipley Mill can be found about 2.5 miles (4km) to the west of here. It can be reached by road or on footpaths from the Downs Link at grid ref. TQ183214, past West Grinstead Church and through Knepp Park. The mill was built in 1879 and is the last working smock mill in West Sussex. It was once owned by the writer Hilaire Belloc, an early long-distance walker who described a journey on foot across the country.

To the north of the A272, the Downs Link enters a more varied landscape; an attractive patchwork of small woods and fields, perhaps the most appealing countryside on the whole of the Sussex section of the path. The footpath network to the east of the old railway is well marked and provides excellent
opportunities for return circuits linking West Grinstead, Southwater and Copsale.

Another 1.75 miles (2.75km) on, the track bed brings you to Copsale, where the Downs Link crosses the road next to the former Bridge House Inn. On the south side of the road there is a car park for Downs Link users. After another 0.5 miles (800m), the route burrows under the Southwater bypass and continues along a lane, parallel with and to the right of the line of the railway. After crossing another road, the Southwater Country Park is to your left and there is another large car park. At the turn of the century, the 54-acre site of the park was occupied by the brickyards of the grandly named
Southwater Brick, Tile, Terracotta Pipe and Clay Company. By 1981, after 1,000 million bricks had been produced, the clay ran out and the works closed. In 1985, following extensive landscaping, conversion to the Southwater Country Park was complete.

After Southwater Country Park, you emerge opposite The Lintot pub. Cross the road at the pedestrian lights and pass the platform of the former Southwater station to go under a bridge. The Downs Link now approaches Christ’s Hospital, alongside the main Horsham–Portsmouth railway, with the playing fields of Christ’s Hospital School over to your right.

Join a metalled drive and follow it out on to a road, where you should turn left and, shortly, turn left again over the railway. If you are finishing the day’s walk at Christ’s Hospital Station, go ahead at this point instead of crossing the main line. After 200yds (183m), fork left. The station is no more than a few minutes’ walk away.