Robertsbridge and its abbey

When first founded in 1176, Cistercian Robertsbridge Abbey, unique in Sussex, was in the High Street near the George Inn and war memorial. Presumably because the austere Cistercian monks found a rumbustious and noisy medieval town not to their liking, they migrated eastwards around 1210 to a deeper solitude in a remoter and more isolated location. It was an important abbey visited by kings including Henry III and Edward II. Buried there were notables such as Sir Edward Dalyngrigge and his wife, the builder of Bodiam castle, and Sir John Pelham who helped capture John II, King of France, at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

Of the abbey remains, the present house, some way outside the village, was the Abbot’s Lodging.Although much altered and largely screened from public view, it contains much 13th-century work including the abbot’s great hall roof. What you can see from the lane is a high, stone wall which was part of the monk’s refectory or dining hall. Further east lies more abbey walling, unseen from the lane. After Henry VIII dissolved the Abbey in 1538, much was left standing and survived until the late 18th century, when it was used as a source of building stone. Look carefully in the village, where stones and timber from it can be seen, including a carved roof boss in the church rooms in Redlands Lane.

Kentish hops and oast houses

In autumn, when the hops from the fields around Robertsbridge have been harvested, you may be lucky enough to see an oast house in action and catch the scent of drying hops on the air. Oast houses have characteristic conical or tapering pyramidal roofs with a vent cowl at the top. Below is a floor laid with narrow gaps between the boards, and joists that are usually covered by sacking. This is at first floor level and below is the fire, sometimes, as at Redlands Farm on this route, outside the oast house with fans to direct the hot air into the building (less of a fire risk). The hops are spread out to dry, and the hot air is drawn through the thin floor by the powerful updraught provided by the oast ‘chimney’.

Hops were crucial to the brewing industry, but nowadays locally grown ones tend to be used at the premium end of the market, imported hops having largely taken over in large scale beer brewing. Many oast houses have been given a new life by conversion into dwellings.

From the car park turn right and then walk towards the town centre, turning left into Fair Lane, just before The Seven Stars, a fine 15th-century timber-framed building. Continue ahead (ignoring Fayre Meadow to the left) and cross over the A21 on a footbridge.

Across the bridge bear left to descend and turn right on the lane. Continue along the lane and pass Redlands, a farm that still has a working oasthouse that dries hops from its own fields. Continue along the lane which bears right as it passes Robertsbridge Abbey’s somewhat scanty remains.

Continue along the lane until a footpath sign just before a gate and farm sheds; go right and continue between fences. At the end go right onto a concrete track which you follow until it bears left. Here continue ahead on a rising woodland track, going right before reaching some gates to follow a footpath within the edge of woodland. Through a field gate descend in sheep pasture to another field gate near a single-storey building. Continue ahead on a track.

At a T-junction, near Salehurst Park Farm, go left onto a rising track, enjoying more good views, including oast towers, hop fields and Salehurst church spire. Continue ahead at a crossway by a stone house, now on a footpath rather than a track. This emerges into the open and continues as a path between fences, rising towards the crest where the path bears right opposite a field gate into the edge of Maynards Wood.

Still within Maynards Wood, bear right at the next footpath sign and continue along a track, then go over a stile. Continue ahead alongside a hedge in pasture. Leave the field via a stile and after ten paces go right into Park Wood to follow the main path as it gently descends, passing a cross-tracks (where side turns are marked 'private'). Eventually turn left at a signposted four-way junction and emerge from the woods at a stile beside a sewage works.

Descend into the valley bottom between chain link fences, then continue ahead across a field to a hedge corner, where you go forward along the hedge. At the field corner go left onto a footpath within the edge of a copse. This path curves right to rejoin the footbridge over the A21. Across this continue back down Fair Lane and turn right back to the car park.