This interesting classic walk takes you through woods and fields and through Petworth Park and back. Lots of views. Enjoy a picnic in the park unless you are an NT member and can go to the café by the house. The walk was submitted by Guildford Rambling Club (see guildfordramblingclub.org.uk).
1. With your back to the Noah’s Ark pub, cross the road by the Mill Lane/High Hampstead Lane junction to enter a field at the left-hand corner of the green. Follow a footpath along the right-hand side of the field. Leave at the first corner to drop down a little and cross a footbridge into a wood. Climb up into a wood and go out into a field. Walk along the right-hand side to the first corner and, here, jink right a couple of yards to go left and through a gap into trees. Dip down and up, ignore a path right and continue straight on. Go straight across a field and out into a lane.
2. Turn right and walk a little way to find a signpost, left, at the side of a house and through a tall, wooden-slatted gate into the extended Petworth Estate. Now follow the tarmac lane for some 2 miles, at first through woods and then, with expansive views, between fields, crossing a number of cattle grids, passing a few houses down to the right and on the left and eventually reaching the side of a pretty lake – a possible rest stop. Continue on for another 300 yards to reach a cross track and turn left. Walk about ¼ mile to exit the estate at the A283, a very busy road. Turn right and walk about 600 yards along the wide verge to turn right into a car park inside Petworth Estate.
3. Exit from the back left-hand corner and walk along the wide grassy track heading out to the left across the park. Pass a lake, on your left-hand side, and, as you do so, fork a little right to climb up a hill. At the top continue forward but then swing down to the right to reach the edge of another lake. At the closest point to this second lake, swing left and walk around the bottom of the hill towards Petworth House. If you are an NT member, there is a gate into the grounds and there is a café and there are toilets in the courtyard. If you are not and you are picnicking, do so outside the grounds, perhaps on the steps at the back of the house.
4. After lunch, with your back to the house, walk to the left. Ignore a quick fork left which heads towards a wall. Instead continue on, at first parallel to the wall, but, when you see a large fancy metalwork gate to your left, swinging a little right. Reach a stony track which takes you right to pass the left-hand end of a lake. Fork right and, now, follow the track for about ½ mile, climbing gently. Start to drop down with views and a smaller lake to the right. The track runs alongside a mesh fence for a while and, where that fence swings away to the left, follow it and walk across the grass along the flank of the slope. Follow the fence up the slope, swing more to the left and reach a corner by a stone wall and a gate out of the park. Go through and left up a few steps to a road.
5. Turn right and walk through a few houses in Upperton until reaching a phone box. Here, turn left down a dead end road which quickly becomes a track. Continue forward and, after 20 yards, fork right and immediately turn right. Walk along a corridor between fences and then between a fence and trees. At its end, continue forward along a wide grassy track. Reach a T-junction at a vineyard fence. Turn right and walk a few yards to take a gate, left, into the vineyard. Walk, at the top of the slope, to the far side. Go straight across a road and continue forward on a grassy track in a hedge/hedge corridor. See an impressive large white house ahead and reach a fence where you turn right and walk, again in a hedge/hedge corridor. At a 3-way signpost, go left. Ignore a right. Immediately take a wide track left and, again immediately, turn right by an entrance gate.
6. Follow the track, with a fence on your left and a wood on your right and, after a while, woods on both sides and a steepening slope dropping away on the right-hand side. Be careful if the narrow path is slippery! Continue straight past a 3-way signpost and on until you reach a 4-way signpost in a dip. Here, turn right. Climb a few feet up and then drop down steps to the side of a house and a road. Follow the road to the right. Cross a river bridge. Reach, on your right, Salmonsbridge Farm. Immediately beyond it take a footpath right, through a few trees and into a field. Walk anticlockwise around the field. Past the first corner, find a footpath right and enter trees again. Immediately turn left, ignoring an arrow pointing forward. Continue until, just before power lines, turning right at a signpost. Ignore a left and enter a field. Walk along the left-hand side to exit at the first corner.
7. Go over a stile into another field and again walk along the left-hand side. Reach a horse trough and turn left to go over a stile and onto a wide track. Turn right. Pass a house and a lake on your left and cross a small ford. Immediately thereafter, take a footpath right and into a field. Turn left and walk along the side of this and the next field. At a 3-way signpost, jink left into another field and immediately turn right to follow its side. Walk anticlockwise around the edge to reach the barns of River Bridge Farm and, beyond them, a road. Turn right and walk along the road, passing a lake on your left-hand side. Immediately before a T-junction with another road, turn left through a gap in the hedge to follow a path up and along the side of a field.
8. Continue forward along the field edge and along the edge of further fields until reaching a signpost right. Ignore it. Instead turn right though gap a couple of yards beyond it and into the narrow end of another field. Move over to the hedge on the other side and follow it left and up a slight slope until you pass a wide gap on your right and, 20 yards beyond it, find an exit down onto a road. Turn left and walk up to pass Lurgashall Village Hall and reach the green.
DISTANCE: 10 miles
OS MAPS: Explorer 133 Haslemere & Petersfield
STARTING POINT: Park by the green in Lurgashall (GU28 9ET) or by the Village Hall which is just around the corner in Mill Lane (GU28 9ES).
