Wandering: High Weald Landscape Trail – Horsham to Bolney

The High Weald Landscape Trail is a 90 mile route that runs from Horsham in West Sussex to Rye in East Sussex. The High Weald is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and according to the High Weald AONB website its key features are “its rolling hills, scattered farmsteads, small woodlands, irregular-shaped fields, open heaths and ancient routeways”.

The walk begins in the town of Horsham, West Sussex at the railway station in the north of the town. The first half a mile or so of the route is not very inspiring but it soon breaks free of the residential streets of Horsham and heads into woodland. Soon the tarmac gives way to dirt tracks and before long the dog walkers begin to thin out and the town becomes a distant memory.

The dominating feature of the first part of today’s walk was the woodland, ranging from the “small woodland” mentioned above, with narrow paths winding through the bluebells to a larger forest with stacks of recently felled timber alongside the wide tracks.

The dominant industry in this area was iron working, hence the need for timber and also water. There are several ponds/lakes which provided the water, the one below is Carterslodge Pond near Slaugham, West Sussex.

The route had been mainly heading in an easterly direction for about five miles, but it started heading in a more southerly direction as it emerged from the woodland and into a more open landscape and headed towards the village of Slaugham, West Sussex. I have never been to Slaugham before, expect in family history records, and this was one of the highlights of today’s walk.

Despite having several family connections in the village I didn’t really have any specific destination other than the parish church, even then it was just to have a general look around, rather than searching for any specific gravestones.

Both the church and village were beautiful in the sunshine. With the exception of the modern cars and a few other modern trappings it did look like the village could be stuck in a time warp, and I began to wonder whether I had walked onto the set of a period drama.

The route continued southwards another three or four miles through similar landscape, another lake and a few smaller patches of woodland before hitting a quiet country road between Warninglid and Bolney. Not long after a glimpse of a trig point, a separate road branches off to the east and then another footpath heading off south again winds its way onward to the village of Bolney.

The Eight Bells pub (pictured above) provided some welcome refreshment and a chance to take the weight off our feet, whilst we waited for the rather infrequent bus back to Horsham.

Just across the road was Bolney church, which looked glorious in the sunshine and to my surprise and delight it was unlocked. So for the first time I was able to set foot in the church that has been such a prominent feature in the lives of my ancestors and in my own research.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Postcard Album: Interior, Bolney Church, Sussex

It may not be Westminster Abbey, but this is more typical of the sort of place where my ancestors were married (sorry I just had to get in a reference to the Royal Wedding).

As the caption says this is the interior of Bolney Church. The church of St. Mary Magdalene in the village of Bolney, West Sussex has more family associations than just the usual baptisms, marriages and burials. Many of the individuals in my family tree passed through the doors to this church, including GASSON, WALDER, HARMES and LEWRY families.

Both of the other family associations relate to the church bells. Several generations of the WALDER family and at least one GASSON have served as bellringers in the church and are remembered on boards in the church tower.

Secondly it seems that one of my probable ancestors, Michael HARMES, paid for four of the eight bells in the church tower. That is one branch of my family tree I would really like to investigate and prove that I am related.

The reason for choosing this postcard today is because hopefully tomorrow I will be walking to Bolney, not strictly speaking for genealogy purposes, but I might “accidentally” end up wandering into the churchyard.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Wandering home from work

It was the first time this year that I walked home from work, although it wasn’t all the way from work because that would take me too long now (maybe later in the year when I have found a decent route and we have lighter evenings).

To make up for the fact that I was starting later and because I would be starting from the wrong side of town I altered my route slightly, although I may have over compensated because it didn’t seem quite so far.

It did seem to take me a bit longer than usual, despite a slightly shorter route, but I wasn’t really pushing myself this evening. It was more about unwinding, perhaps not physically but mentally. It was great not to have to think about anything in particular or make conversation.

The route, along a disused railway line (again) makes it very easy to just forget about maps and which path to take. All you have to do is make sure you start facing in the right direction and remember to stop when you get to where you want to go.

It probably took almost an hour before my brain was purged of thoughts of work and other day-to-day worries and began to fill up with all sorts of other bizarre thoughts, ideas and memories. I would be quite happy in my own little world and then something would catch my eye or a sound would make me stop and listen and bring me back down to earth.

It is not a particularly exciting route, I have walked it many times, but every time it is slightly different. Sometimes it is the weather, sometimes it is the time of day or the season or sometimes it is just the mood I am in, but every time it is different. Today will be memorable for the brief appearance of the sun, in what had otherwise been a pretty overcast day. It is only a shame the pylons and power lines ruined the scene.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Putting Sussex Postcards on the map

It was a couple of years ago that I first mentioned the excellent Sussex Postcards website and it is the first place I look when trying to find out who published the postcards in my collection.

The information on the site has continued to grow over the last couple of years and a new feature has been added which will probably be of more interest to the casual visitor. With the use of Google Maps it is now possible to view the postcards in their geographical context.

Selecting the “Search using map” option on the homepage will take you to a Google map of Sussex and initially the postcard markers are grouped together but once you start to zoom in on your selected area the colour-coded individual markers start to appear. Selecting one of these pins brings up a thumbnail image of the postcard, the name of the publisher and a link to view a larger version of image.

This is probably of more interest to the casual visitor rather than those seriously interested in postcard publishers, although it may be possible to identify the publisher of a particular postcard if they were prolific in a particular area. This is however a really great way to view historic images of Sussex, making it very easy to go on a postcard tour across the county.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

400 year old John Speed maps of Great Britain digitised by Cambridge University Library

Cambridge University Library have digitised one of five surviving sets of proof maps created by John Speed for his publication Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, and made them available to view online or alternatively printed copies can be purchased.

These maps may not be as accurate or detailed as the Ordnance Survey maps that followed them a couple of hundred years, but the quality and craftmanship really comes through in these digital images. I have seen copies of these maps before (in particular the Sussex one), but I don’t think I have seen them in such high quality and in such vibrant colour.

English and Welsh counties are well covered, but Scotland and Ireland less so. Each map contains local coats of arms and a plan of the county town as well as other details. It is wonderful to see that the waters surrounding Great Britain were inhabited by sea monsters 400 years ago (this probably explains why none of my ancestors seem to have become fishermen).

So go ahead and lose yourself in 400 year old map, you never know what you might discover? Be sure to come back and tell us what you find.

Copyright © 2011 John Gasson.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.