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The village of Findon below Cissbury Ring from Muntham Clump. May 1999. |
This website created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.
A HISTORIC WALK ON CISSBURY RING
Map Reference TQ140080
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The village of Findon below Cissbury Ring from Muntham Clump. May 1999. |
Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999
First published in the West Sussex Gazette in October 1999.
I have found that there is nothing like seeing the past whilst walking armed with a map. Although the map may tell you where you are heading, it fails to record the past happenings in the area
This is an invitation to come for a walk
Before the walk, there is a car journey
Approximately four miles north of Worthing on the A24 there is a roundabout with an exit to Findon Village.
Take this and proceed down School Hill. At the foot are crossroads. The ancient Gun Inn, with a history going back six centuries, is on the right. On the left is the Village House, once a village hospital. Go over the crossroads flanked with 18th century properties, taking caution, as the crossroad is blind in both directions. Continue straight through the village and passed the site of Findon's old forge, now John Henry's Café. Steadily climb towards the downs.
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Wattle House on Nepcote Green in the Spring 1999. |
Leaving the houses behind, Nepcote Green lies on the right with its attendant Wattle House. The property was built in 1803 specifically for the storage of wattles for the annual Sheep Fair in September. It also incorporated living accommodation for two families until the 1950s when it was condemned as uninhabitable. There have been many debates in the late 1990s as to its future usage. This resulted in controversy, the villagers took a referendum on the Wattle House, and the final outcome and legal position are still disputed.
On Sheep Fair days in years gone by there were thousands of ewes and lambs penned on Nepcote Green. Side-shows and amusements were much in evidence. By the end of the day, some of the younger shepherds and agricultural workers, who had taken advantage of the liberal supply of free beer, were in just the right frame of mind to take up the challenge of a "Prize Fight". Joe Beckett, a professional boxer, temptingly offered "silver for copper" to anyone foolish enough to think they could benefit by putting their hard-earned money on a wager of lasting three rounds in the ring with him.
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The road to Cissbury after the hurricane in October 1987. |
Continuing upwards, at the end of the narrow winding lane is a small area for parking. Even when the car park is full to overflowing, it is possible to enjoy the vast area of Cissbury Ring and hardly meet a soul.
Continuing on foot
Leave the car park, head south through gates to the National Trust area of Cissbury Ring. On the immediate right is a conveniently detailed information board on Cissbury Ring provided by the National Trust who purchased the area in July 1925.
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The climb up to Cissbury through the disused dew-pond, May 1999. |
Walk straight ahead through the depression in the ground, which is a dried up dew-pond. This once had a clay lining packed with small flints but was broken up during World War II when troops and their vehicles occupied the Ring. (Soldiers also utilised Cissbury Ring earlier in the twentieth century, but they did not do so much damage).
Here at the dew-pond, the famous Southdown flocks would have paused to drink in days past, watched by their weather-beaten shepherd and his keen eyed dog. The Southdown sheep were distinctive with ample proportions but today are a rarity, having given way to the leaner and more shaggy crossbred, which produces two lambs to the Southdown's one. A hundred years ago the whole of the South Downs, stretching as far as the eye could see to Beachy Head, was an unfenced paradise for such flocks. The shepherds cared for their sheep by day on the hillsides, and returned them to the fold on the fields down in the valley at night.
Ignore the track to the left, this is the old tank road used by vehicles in the Second World War.
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The Tank Road in 1999 running from left to right in the photograph. |
Go through a gate and climb up straight-ahead through scrub to reach the dominating presence of the impressive outer rampart of the Iron Age Fort. This was built around 500 BC and comprises of a single bank and a ditch which is three-quarters of a mile round, and encloses 60 acres. Ascend the bank. This was reinforced in later years, against Saxon incursion, and in modern times was the scene of gun emplacements during the Second World War.
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The Cissbury landscape that has been designated as being of Outstanding Natural Beauty, of Special Scientific Interest, and an Environmentally Sensitive Area. On the horizon to the north is the famous Chanctonbury Ring landmark. This was in its time the site of a Roman temple and more recently also used in the Second World War.
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The track from Cissbury Ring to Chanctonbury Ring in 1994. (Chanctonbury Ring is top left on the horizon). |
Still looking north, and in the foreground is an immense mound of discarded straw. This is from the Gifford stables in Findon and the straw is from his racing yard. This area was once the site of a fine house called Fox Down. It was built in 1892 for the famed painter of horses and dogs, Edwin Douglas.
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Looking north towards Chanctonbury Ring from the top of Cissbury Ring in 1999. The site of Fox Down is just beyond the cornfield in the centre of the photograph. |
He died in 1914 and the property was demolished shortly afterwards. The fence around the straw area still follows the boundary of his garden. The practice jumps for the racing stables can be seen on the gallops further to the left and out of the above photograph. The white house on the skyline above is the site of the old Findon Windmill.
To the east nestles the village of Findon with the curvaceous Church Hill rising beyond. This has its own history of flint mines and an earlier windmill once proudly stood on its summit.
Findon Place, with medieval foundations, can just be glimpsed in the trees. As can the shingle broached spire of St. John the Baptist Church. When Sir Gilbert Scott renovated the building in 1867 he was so pleased by its architectural character that he described it as "almost unique".
The large house in the estate grounds immediately below the Ring is Cissbury House. Many years ago a road to Steyning wended its way through the cottages in this area then known as East End hamlet. The track meandered round the foot of Cissbury Ring and over the downs to eventually arrive at Steyning.
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Cissbury House in 1998. |
Watch, and listen out for the skylark overhead. It is the bird most associated with Cissbury and it can be heard as it soars upwards on its hovering flight.
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In spring and summer the wild orchids with their pink spikes can be seen amidst the other chalk loving plants.
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Orchid on Cissbury Ring. |
The scabious are also plentiful and attract the many butterflies and insects
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The Romans had a good eye for a strong defensive position and occupied Cissbury Ring they can be imagined walking the ramparts. They left proof and many souvenirs of their stay.
To circumnavigate the rim of the ring in an anti-clockwise direction, bear right and continue on a tour of the summit. Before very long there are a number of craters on left. These are the remnants of Neolithic flint mines where men dug for flint to fashion their stone axes in perhaps 2,000 BC what are 500 years one way or the other? Some of their skeletons have been unearthed by Victorian archaeologists, and one as recently as 1953. Cissbury is recognised as one of the most important archaeological sites in the country. The miners and their axes are gone but many flakes of flint are scattered from where they were struck five thousand years ago. Rabbits abound in the early morning and late evening and scamper in the scrub.
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Depressions in the ground are all that are left of the flint mines in 1996. |
To the east are the rows of roofs of Findon Valley with the downs of High Salvington rising beyond. The tips of the sweeps of the High Salvington windmill can be seen above the tree line and if it is a weekend, they may be seen to be working. Behind is Highdown Hill with its own historic windmill and traditional burial ground of the South Saxon kings.
Cattle are sometimes peacefully grazing on the breezy summit of Cissbury Ring and on occasions New Forest ponies spend the winter there
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Summer of 1999. |
It must not be forgotten that in August 1984 prosecution loomed for dog owners who did not keep their pets under proper control on Cissbury Ring. The threat was issued by the National Trust following an all too familiar savaging incident at Cissbury Ring. On that occasion, a goat, (one of five being used by the Trust in an experimental grazing scheme to combat scrub encroachment), was viciously attacked by a dog. It subsequently had to be destroyed.
Continuing round the Ring, the English Channel lies to the south. The flats and gasometer of Littlehampton and Bognor are usually visible, also the spire of Chichester Cathedral. On clear days, Selsey Bill can be seen stretching like a spur out into the sea to the east. If visibility is very good, the large hump beyond, is the Isle of Wight. If it is an exceptionally clear day it is reputed that the Purbeck Hills in far-away Dorset may be glimpsed.
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On the steep sided valley of Cissbury Ring to the South there was once a windswept rifle range used by the army. Next to this is Vineyard Hill so named because it is reputed grapes were grown here. Below is the golf course and the sprawling mass of Worthing disappearing into the sea.
Continuing round the Ring and looking east, the Brighton Marina can be seen with the cliffs of the Seven Sisters striding out into the English Channel beyond.
Closer inland are the hills of Steepdown and Lancing Clump another Romano-British temple site. There is a noticeable huge white scar on the landscape, square in shape. This is the Upper Beeding cement works. On the skyline to the left are the radio masts of Truleigh Hill with Wolstonbury Hill just beyond and the weald is spread out like a sheet below.
At the foot of Cissbury Ring the faint outline of markings on the ground indicate the old field systems especially in the evening when the sun is low in the sky. These are shadows of an earlier time when each man had his own strip to work and their efforts have left a patchwork carpet to view from the summit of Cissbury.
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The "Lone Tree", May 1999. |
The circular walk of the ramparts is nearly over. Early in the morning, the horizon disappears in the mist and the old banks of the ramparts underfoot are alive with scurrying rabbits. The path passes a convenient seat beneath a lone stunted tree
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and the historic walk of the Ring is complete.
