A couple of weeks back I went to Plumpton Agricultural College where the Principle, Des Lambert, gave members of BHBPA a guided tour of the facility. It was a really interesting evening, which started by him driving us up onto the Downs in a LandRover to show us the college from above. Once up there he gave us a fascinating history lesson of the area, which included pointing out where there had been a Bronze Age settlement. He also regaled us with tales of a couple of the interesting characters who are often to be found walking up on the Downs.
So my task today, after the second ‘no-run’ Sunday in a month last weekend (more about that later), was to find said settlement starting from my folks place.
I had envisaged it as a fairly straightforward run with a diversion, but when I reached the top of Woodingdean I decided to try running along the new path that follows the Falmer Road to, er… Falmer.
Once over the A27 bridge and through the other half of the village I passed Cliff’s old place (the house, incidentally used to be old and full of character/s, but now sadly has the appearance of a new-build) and then noticed a path opposite, which I followed up to the Uni sports pavilion. From here I took the path towards Blackcap, but dropped off to the left at the top of Waterpit Hill. [Yes, Cliff, I’m looking at the map!] This goes down and then up steeply to my goal.
There’s not much to see (the people are all long gone, for starters), but it’s a beautiful tract of land with a wooded valley winding down the hill. And amazingly, one of the people that Des mentioned, Michael, who was out for a walk. He was the kind of charming and interesting gentlemen, like Des himself, whom one could have happily chatted to all day, so I at least paused to chat for a short time… while he gallantly prevented one of his dogs from eating me!
The land eventually rejoins the South Downs Way but not where I expected it to, so I’m glad I didn’t stick to my original plan! From there I took a wander up to the next wood to see if I could see the remnants of an old house Des had mentioned… alas no joy though.
Then I struck for home again, this time running down towards Balmer Farm. In the midst of the farm was a lone signpost propped up against the wall and though I was fairly certain that it was pointing in the wrong direction, I followed it across towards Falmer to save myself having to run alongside the busy A27. The downside was that it crossed a deep valley and by the time I reached the top of the other side, near the sports pavilion, I was pooped. And on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence… so the sign was definitely not correct.
I ate some jelly babies and made my way down into Falmer before retracing my steps back along the Falmer Road path, returning to my folks’ place in 2.17. Allowing for maybe 10 minutes split between talking to Michael and searching for an absent house, I covered the 10.9 miles at an average pace of 5.15mph. Pitiful pace, but a really wonderful run!
I mentioned that there was a reason for my absence from these pages last weekend. You can find it at www.EnglandGardenGang.org. It may sound a bit crazy, but it’s worth a thought! Enjoy!