Slindon Medieval Park Pale and village walk
Slindon is our largest traditional estate on the South Downs - this circular walk goes round Slindon's Medieval deer park, following the route of its 'Pale,' then through the unspoilt Downland village of Slindon.
There are two short optional diversions - the first takes you to an Early Stone Age raised beach; the second, in the late summer and autumn, to a nationally-famous display of pumpkins.
Map
Start:
Park Lane car park, grid ref: SU960077
1
Take middle track from car park, away from the road. After around 275yd (250m) turn through the first gate to your left. Continue for 545yd (500m) through the woodland - famously rich with bluebells in May - till you meet a bank slanting in from your left. This is 'the Pale'.
2
Keep along the track for around 490yd (450m) until it goes through a gap in the Pale, then turn right.
Slindon Park Pale
Looking back round a corner of the medieval Park Pale - a raised bank, once topped with a solid fence. This was used to confine livestock seasonally or more permanently - either deer for hunting or domestic animals.
3
Look out for a few great white trunks among the other trees - haunting reminders of the famous and enormous Slindon Beeches, victims en masse of the 1987 storms. In around 380yd (350m) the Pale bears right again.
Relic beech
A relic beech from the Great Storm of 1987. Among and sometimes rising above the other trees are a few great white trunks - haunting reminders of the famous and enormous Slindon Beeches, victims en masse of the 1987 storms. Now they are haven and home to owls, bats, woodpeckers, and kestrels, together with many insects.
4
In around 545yd (500m), behind a yew tree to your left, you can take a brief detour down a signed track to the Early Stone Age raised beach. Archaeological finds of stone tools are evidence that half a million years ago people were working here by the seaside, though now of course the sea is miles away. Back to the Pale and to your left just before it bends right, you can see Druid's Grove - a hauntingly beautiful survival of Slindon's great beech trees.
Druids' Grove
The hauntingly beautiful Druid's Grove includes trees which survived the 1987 storm. With sunlight slanting onto a soft mossy bank, it's a great place for a picnic.
5
Within the next 275yd (250m) you pass through a stile, then the track joins a tarmac lane from your right. To your left you'll see a huge chalky mound - the root-system of a giant fallen lime tree, now a sheltered habitat for wildlife including solitary wasps. Just beyond and beside it is an arc of soft-brick wall sheltering a bench.
Walled bench
This sheltered bench is built into the remaining fragment of wall of the Regency teahouse at Slindon.
6
The Regency tea-house as it was before the Second World War was described by Sir John Pope-Hennessy as having 'a Trafalgar balcony' - inferring some of the structure was cast-iron. The tea-house burned down in the early 1940s.
7
In another 275yd (250m) the lane meets Top Road - go right and follow the path that winds through the trees just back from the road. Step over a low wall, then follow Top Road beside Slindon House - now used by Slindon College. At the next turning, go right down Church Hill - or if it is autumn, a worthwhile diversion is straight ahead along Top Road for a 100yd (90m) till you see to your right the amazing display at Slindon's famous pumpkin-grower.
8
Go down Church Hill until it bears left at the bottom, to your right is the village pond. Immediately after the pond, turn right, go through the gate, fork left and follow the cobbled path though the woods till you return to the car park.
Village pond
The village pond at Slindon is fed by a spring.
End:
Park Lane car park, grid ref: SU960077
