DAY FOUR: PYECOMBE to STEYNING

Have I only been walking four days? This is the first indication I'm going to Winchester.

Pyecombe, famed for making shepherds crooks, has a church with a unique gate called a Tapsel Gate. The central pivot, making the swing gate, allowed the coffin bearers to walk as pairs through the gate and rest the coffin on the top of the gate. The handle is a crook made locally. 

SDW Slug Nation

Though it might look like a worn road in need of some gravel, these deep ruts in the chalk are hundreds of years old. I'm following a drovers road, I've seen a lot of mountain bikers, they're real devil-may-care people too. The paths have definitely been affected by their tracks sometimes making it hard to walk in them because they're narrower than people. I hope they don't destroy ancient tracks like this. 

It Doesn't Get Much Better, Except If There Was a Brownie Box

A quick stop to see the medieval donkey wheel. Donkeys would be made to walk in a treadmill mechanism to raise water from the well. The National Trust owns this now, there's a nice looking cafe there but it wasn't open. 

The Donkey Wheel

Paragliders Over the Hill Fort Near Devils Dyke

Next stop, the Youth Hostel at Truleigh Hill. Pretty ugly. This was a 1930's summer house. Yuck. But it makes a clean place to stay if you're walking through. They had a good cafe set up. Lunch was in the front yard on a picnic bench.

Lunch View

Drinking Water for Walkers and Pups

Crossing the River Adur. Isn't it good of them to build this bridge for us? Again I'm struck by the opportunity to walk across a country as beautiful as this and be totally accommodated. Not only accommodated but welcomed and encouraged. It's a national pastime and so good for you.

I love the wooded paths. Here it feels like I'm making a journey and there's a sense of mystery. Then again, the open Downs give me views of where I was hours ago and where I will be at days end. 

I Had Lunch on That Far Left Hilltop

Piggies!

Steyning ( said Stennin) is a Tudor town with perfect buildings of the period. The church is 12C.  Steyning has history that pre-dates the Conquest. St Cuthman, a Celtic saint from c8 or c9, is alleged to have arrived here pulling his sick mother in a cart. When the tow rope broke he naturally assumed that this was a sign from God that here in Steyning is where he should stay. They were quick to jump to conclusions in those days it seems....

King Ethelwulf (d.853), father of Alfred the Great no less, was buried in the church and in the porch of today’s church is a coffin lid, adorned with the royal symbol of two crosses, that is believed to have been his. It was a big miss not to go in, since research showed it's a wealth of surviving Norman decoration. Alfred was later re-buried in Winchester, I can catch up with him there. 

YAY! The Tea Shop!

Steyning With the Downs Above

This well was at the pub and found 
during renovation excavations. 

  For some reason the daily mileage is turning out to be longer than I expected. Garmin clocked 12.68 on a day that was scheduled to be 9. I feel like there are things to see and do outside walking that I'm missing. I was relieved to sit in the hotel lounge , have dinner brought to me by smiling, attentive people even if they were being paid to do so, a glass of Prosecco, and eavesdrop on the guest conversations. I'm always interested in what other people are doing when they're here.

As evening fell, the peacock was quietly wandering the grounds, a shower, major stretching, a call to George that went through, the village church bells started to ring, and bed. But even if it's the same wake and walk it's still a new wake and walk with a new beautiful start and a new road.