News

May w/e 2025

LWG May weekend 2025.

Base Hotel
The Flackley Ash, Main St, Peasmarsh, Rye TN31 6YH

Walk Leaders: Sophie Baker 07904 409662, Martin 07836 739271 and Judy 07342 883334 Parsley

Travel: CAR: Two and a half hours from West London toward A3 and the M25. Leave M25 for the A21 towards Sevenoaks. Pass by Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells towards Hastings. At Flimwell turn left - A268 to Hawkhurst which follows through all the way to Peasmarsh towards RYE.

TRAIN: Either 35 minutes St Pancras International to Ashford International - change over towards Eastbourne to RYE. Taxi Service (and local bus to Peasmarsh) to Flackley Ash. Alternatively take train towards Hastings from Charing Cross or London Bridge (tickets from boundary six) - change at St Leonards Warrior Square and pick up train on the same platform to RYE.

Map: OS Explorer numbers: 124 &125 (Landranger 189 & 199)

Walks:

Friday 16th Walk: A river and countryside walk from Oxenbridge to Flackley Ash car park. Leaders Martin 07836 739271 and Judy 07342 883334

Meeting time and place : 2.45pm in the Flackley Ash car park for a briefing and car sharing.

To get to the Start of Walk: Taking care turn left out of the hotel car park and immediately left along the A268 towards Rye, after a mile at Rye Foreign turn left into Coldharbour Lane towards Iden. In Iden turn left and follow the signs to Wittersham via Oxenbridge. As you reach the river the car parking area is on the left just before the bridge. Please park considerately. (If you miss the Coldharbour turning continue for under a mile forking hard left onto the B2082 to Iden and Wittersham).
Distance: 4.5 miles
A linear amble along the River Rother north of the Flackley Ash Hotel on the East Sussex / Kent border. 5 stiles. Slow walkers who don’t wish to climb stiles may at this point (where the river reaches the road) return to the car parking area along the river with a driver after consulting the walk leader. Poles recommended as the terrain is rough underfoot.
Upon completion of the walk at Flackley Ash car park car drivers to assemble at approx.5.30pm and meet Kevin and his 8 seater taxi to take them back to collect their cars.

Dinner: Tillingham Winery in the Pizza Barn 7.30pm - 1 and a half miles from The Flackley Ash
Address: Tillingham Farm, Dew Lane Peasmarsh East Sussex, TN31 6XD
Meet: in the FA bar at 7pm for a briefing and a review of car sharing arrangements.

How to get there:

Car sharing required.
Taking care, turn left out of the hotel car park and immediately left onto the busy A268. Take the first turn right past JEMPSONS Superstore on your left and go straight on after the mini roundabout (Dew Lane). Drive past Peasmarsh Place on your left. Continue straight ahead – shortly afterwards as Starvecrow Lane forks to the right, continue straight on to Tillingham (clearly signed) on Dew Lane. Ignore the first left fork to Tillingham Farm but turn the next left at the red Slow Children and Animals sign and follow signs to the Tillingham Car Park.
Please dress for the weather as the barn is open sided.
It is a five minute drive from The Flackley Ash - and forty five minutes on foot.

Saturday 17th Main Walk: A lovely peaceful walk of undulating countryside with a few gradients from Flackley Ash to Rye taking in part of the historic Winchelsea and three very old churches en route.

Leader Martin Parsley

Bring bus pass.
Meeting time: 9.20 for a start at 9.30
Meeting place: Flackley Ash
Distance for main walk: 10 miles
Lunch for main walk: The Queen’s Head in Icklesham
Meeting time for Main Walkers: As above

We will walk South through fields and woods to Udimore then South to Icklesham for lunch at the Queen’s Head. We are due there at around 1.15pm.

After lunch the main group will turn left out of the Queens Head and carefully cross over the A259 into Workhouse Lane for a short distance thence left continuing on the 1066 way marked route to the Churchyard walking East continuing on the 1066 route to Winchelsea and then on to Rye Station. A bus at Rye station will take walkers directly back to the Flackley Ash. Bus times being 5pm and 6.05 pm (there is also a 7.05 pm) getting off at Mill Lane.
The hotel has a Health Club and swimming pool.
BUSES ARE AT 5PM AND 6.05PM (STAND C) Rye Station Approach.
(Taxi service also available details will be provided).

Slow walk
Leader : Sophie B

Meeting time: 10 am
Meeting Place: Flackley Ash
Distance for Slow Walkers: 7 Miles
Lunch for Slow Walk: The Plough, Cock Marling

This group loop around at Udimore and don’t continue to Icklesham. After lunch at the excellent Plough at Cock Marling close to Udimore they then walk directly across the fields and meadows past the Tillingham winery back to the hotel. Sophie B will be leading this section.

Dinner: The Flackley Ash 7.30pm
Meet in the bar at: 6-7pm
Menus: Will be sent out well in advance for early submission of menu choices.

Sunday 18th Main walk : A seaside cliff top walk from Fairlight. Leader Judy P

Bring bus pass.
Pre-arranged car sharing required.
Meeting point for main walk: Bus stop A, Station Approach, Rye
Park: Rye Cattle Market Car Park. £3.00 per day, preferably cash although ticket machine 5 beside the cafe takes cards.
Time: 10.15 for a 10.34 am bus
Distance: 5 miles
Lunch: Fish & Chips in Old Hastings

The walk starts with a Bus Ride from Rye Station to Fairlight and walking up to the cliff top walk through the Fire Hills (so named after the bright yellow gorse) and descending into Old Hastings where an abundance of splendid fish and chip shops are available to choose from. Hilly so poles required. Hourly trains take walkers back to Rye Station. Should the train service be closed there is a bus replacement service.

Meeting point for Slow Walk: Rye Station - leader Sophie B

Time:10.15
Distance: Approx two and a half miles
Slow walkers take the marsh walk (marked Royal Military Canal) past Camber Castle (dating back to Henry VIII) from Rye to Winchelsea Beach Road where they catch a bus to Hastings Old Town for a fish and chips lunch. Hourly trains take walkers back to Rye Station. Should the train service be closed there is a bus replacement service. Alternatively Slow Walk participants can lunch at SUTTONS on Winchelsea Beach Road (fresh crab-and other local delicacies available) and pick up the bus to return to Rye for local sight seeing in the town.

Death of Prue Skene

On March 5th the death of Prue Skene was announced and we were all dismayed to lose such a valuable member.
Although a comparatively new member she arrived with charm and grace, her smile and encouragement brightening many a walk. Her unassuming manner hid many talents some of which I would like to share with you all

Prue was an arts administrator who ran Ballet Rambert and oversaw the use of lottery funding for the redevelopment of theatres. Also chair of Arts Council of England (ACE) dance panel between 1992 and 1995 and in 1994 she became the first chair of the ACE lottery panel. This gave her responsibility for the distribution of a considerable amount of ACE funds in the 1990s, making her a key player in the development and rebuilding of theatres including the Royal Opera House and the Royal Court in London, and the Lowry in Manchester.

She was the author of Capital Gains: How the National Lottery Transformed England’s Arts (2017) and in 2007 she became governance associate for Clore Leadership, part of the Clore Duffield Foundation, initiating a board development programme and providing awaydays, training days and governance sessions on short courses to myriad cultural organisations.
A full obituary can be obtained by following this link https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2025/apr/02/prudence-skene-obituary?...

I will miss you Prue. Bronwen

Annuual Subscription

The annual subscription for 2025 is now due and remains at £15 per person (not household). But if you are leading a walk in 2025 the fee is waived.

2024 winter party

WINTER PARTY Friday 29th November
Date Friday 29th November
Time 6.45 p.m.
Venue chez Follett and Libby, 24 Binden Road. W12 9RJ

Tel No 0208 749 4279

Email follettandlibby@thebalches .netCharge £35.00 per person to cover food and wine.

Travel Nearest tube is Stamford Brook on the District Line. On exiting station turn left up Goldhawk Road. When you reach Duchess pub, continue straight across pedestrian crossing. Turn right then immediately left up Rylett Road. Binden Road is second left. Takes 8 minutes.
If you come via Shepherd’s Bush on Central Line, you can cross the road in front of you and take a 237 bus down Goldhawk Road to Askew Road stop. Cross Goldhawk Road and walk up Ashchurch Park Villas to the end, turn left into Ashchurch Terrace, which shortly becomes Binden Road.
Alternatively, from Shepherd’s Bush tube, you can cross the Goldhawk Road and take a 94 bus to the same stop. They are more frequent.
Parking in Binden Road is easy and free after 5 pmchez Follett and Libby, 24 Binden Road. W12 9RJ

Tel No 0208 749 4279

Email RSVP follettandlibby@thebalches .net,and please let Frances knowfrancesburbeck@icloud.com

May weekend 2025 friday 16th /saturday17th

Sophie Baker is kindly organising the 2025 May weekend. Friday 16 - Saturday 17 May in Rye and Winchelsea.
Accommodation: The main Hotel will be The Flackley Ash Hotel in Peasmarsh near Rye, East Sussex. plenty of accommodation plus swimming pool and health centre. Rooms are reserved for us until 2nd January so please book now if you think you will join us. And please let Sophie and me (Margaret M) know.
here is plenty of alternative accommodation.
Walks: Friday afternoon a walk along the river Rother by Romney Marsh, Evening meal at The Tillingham Vineyards. Saturday walk Udimore lunch at Icklesham. Shorter and longer walks. Dinner at Flackley Ash. Sunday morning a cliff walk towards Hastings, culminating in fish and chip lunch in Hastings.
There are plenty of golf courses so golfers will be provided for.
Looking forward, Sophie B and Margaret M
_._,_._,_

Flackley Ash tel:+441797230651

Informal general LWG Saturday 20 May. Informal general meeting held at Saturday dinner at Haddon House on the May weekend.

hanks. Margaret M thanked Jane Cook; right hand person, Bronwen; website, Frances B; membership secretary and treasurer, Andy Duguid; google group master and of course Deborah Dawe; weekend organiser. We presented Deborah with a framed photo (by Andy) of last years weekenders as a small thank you for her tireless work.
There did not seem to be any enthusiasm for new people taking over these posts.

Changes. The above group had met in the spring and decided we needed to make a few changes. As you have all seen prices everywhere are going up so we have decided we need to
- increase the annual sub from £12 to £15, payable for each individual not by household. We feel this would be fairer to the many singletons in the group.
- the costs of doing a recce for the May weekend have also gone up. Hotel and travel. So we propose to charge a £10 booking fee for the May weekend to help with recce expenses.
These changes were supported by the LWG members present at the weekend.

May weekend. Deborah Dawe and I (Margaret M) have enjoyed organising the May weekends for the last few years but we feel it is time for us to move upstairs to a consultant position. Deborah now lives in Exeter and I am mainly in France so coordinating recces is not easy. And we are not the youngest members of the group.
So we propose finding volunteers for organising the weekend. Deborah and I would be available to advise, consult and even help with recces.
Moving the weekend from weekend to mid week was discussed, there did not seem to be any strong opinion either way.

The Friday walks started out as no leader, democratic orienteering. Kind Bronwen has been organising them recently, and is happy to do so if she is available, and I am happy to suggest walks from France. But if anyone has a good walk that they could suggest we would be delighted! Contact me, Margaret M, or Bronwen with details and we can circulate the group.
We have been considering the ICE (In Case of Emergency) situation. Although we have everyone’s contact details we do not have the details of anyone who should be contacted in case of illness or an accident on a walk. We are still considering supplying fobs. Meanwhile we do strongly advise you all to have either a card or a fob in your bag or have your ICE contact and any medical details accessible to the emergency services (or the walk leader) on your phone. If you do not know how to put these on your phone please contact one of us and we can advise you.

Communications. We still have a problem with people putting messages on Google group email that are not relevant to the whole group. The people not involved find it irritating and are beginning to miss relavant messages.
- lift shares. Once accepted please use personal emails for details of meeting point, timing etc.
- menu choices. Please send direct to walk leader..
- thanks for walks could be sent direct to leader. I (MargaretM) will try to set an example!
But photos remain welcome.
And could I remind people if they have lost the email or do not know walk details they are all on the website.

Future plans - apart from walks! We hope to have an AGM, separately from the annual dinner, in the autumn, when I am in London. We also plan our winter party, date and time to be arranged, but probably early December.

AGM 2023 minutes

First heartfelt thanks to Judy and Martin Parsley for kindly hosting the delicious dinner.

And to
- Jane cook, right hand person,
- Andy Duguid , group email manager,
- Bronwen McCarthy, web master,
- Frances Burbeck, membership secretary and treasurer,
- Deborah Dawe, away weekend organiser,
- and all our walk leaders,
Nobody seemed interested in taking on these roles so we will continue as before!

This list threw up a few comments:
The group is asked to remember to use the Google group email for items that are of interest to the whole group. Please remember to use « reply to sender » or the person’s personal email address for travel arrangements etc. Please send menu choices to the walk leader rather than the whole group. Please use the website: Bronwen works hard to keep it up to date and there is a lot of interesting information on it; walk reports, dates of upcoming walks and events. In future if asked for walk details I shall refer people immediately to the website!

I am attaching the walking group « Directory » with the contact details of all the LWG members. Please check your entry is correct and put it somewhere you can find it as in future if asked for phone numbers etc I shall refer you to the directory.

Agenda:

Saturday vs Sunday for weekend walks. A show of hands favoured continuing the present arrangement, January to June Saturdays (avoiding Mother’s Day etc) and July to December Sundays. We will keep this under review as travel is slightly better on Saturdays, no end-of-weekend traffic jams on return to London. Also it is easier for the leaders to book the pubs on a Saturday, as it is becoming increasingly popular to have a pub family Sunday lunch making it hard to get a booking for a walking group.

Walks template - there is on the website under « Useful Info » a walks check list which details the information I need to circulate the walk. I will forward it to the leader a few weeks before the walk as a gentle reminder and it will help me to have all the details.

ICE details. I am a little concerned that although we have in the directory your personal details we do not have your ICE (in case of emergency) details which would be necessary should someone keel over on a walk. I noticed an article in The Ramblers Magazine suggesting we should have fobs attached to our backpacks. We will look into obtaining these for the group.

Date of next meeting was not fixed, presumably at the next winter party.

Fancy Free Walks

THis is a very good web site if you want to find a new walk and it is FREE

useful web sites for walkers/ holiday planning etc

Recommended as a useful web site for walkers
www.onfootholidays.co.uk

May weekends 2009 - 2013

Bronwen has encouraged us to produce essays for the website. Each year I have planned to write something about the weekend and not got round to it so this year here are some memories of past weekends.

The first weekend Deborah and I organised was in Southwold (2009). We planned to do one walk south and one north of the town: the south walk to Walberswick was delightful the walk north was a disaster. We started on a board walk through a marsh but it was inadequate and we both filled our boots with muddy water. We soldiered on across featureless industrial agricultural fields to the grimmest pub we have seen. So back to the drawing board. We decided to drive a little further south and we found a great walk including Minsmere bird reserve and Dunwich Forest. In the event poor Deborah had an operation and having done the recce missed the weekend. The weather was variable, I have a vivid memory of us all scurrying from Minsmere to the pub under the shelter of a high hedge in a sharp shower. Apart from that and a rather small base hotel so we were all scattered the weekend went well.

2010 found us in Llangollen. We originally planned to be based in Chirk, on the railway line but the hotel we selected was closed when Deborah arrived for the recce. We had to relocate to a fine hotel in Llangollen which accommodated most of the group. Walks were on Offa’s Dyke and the Llangollen canal - including going through a tunnel and the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct, beautiful but high and scary, which we all managed to cross. This was the first time we introduced a Friday evening walk, along the canal past the Eisteddfod venue to the source of the canal.

We try to alternate inland and sea locations so 2011 we went to Hastings - genteel East Hastings - in a very good large B & B, where we able to have our annual dinner.
The weather and accommodation were good, the walks successful – from Winchelsea into Hastings and on the Sunday around Battle . This was the first time we managed to finish at a site of historical interest, leaving the group to explore the Abbey and the battle ground on Sunday afternoon. As far as I can remember this was the smoothest to organise, with no disasters.

2012 we went to Bruton, again in a large B & B which accommodated most of the group. The weather was good – we walked to Castle Cary on day one and went over to Stourhead and Castle Hill iron age fort on Sunday. Apart from poor Norma falling into a large bed of nettles all went smoothly .

So 2013, just back from Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast. A great weekend despite probably the worst, coldest weather we have had (Since Deborah and I took over – who remembers Dorset? and the Malvern Hills?) although it was dry apart from the Friday evening. A record turnout – 26 for the Saturday walk, 22 on Sunday and 34 for the dinner.

Deborah and I had more panics and headaches than usual. We first arrived for the recce having carefully selected a B&B as suitable for our base to see a “Sold” sign on the property. The only consolation was that it wouldn’t have been suitable anyway. All the locals directed us to the Burlington Hotel , and once we had braved its rather forbidding façade it was clearly the place for us. Just after we had circulated details and asked people to book the hotel closed for its annual holiday, which led to some confusion. We then could get no response from The Lobster where we had booked for the Saturday dinner, we rang the Burlington who said” Oh, that Graham . . . “ and offered to send someone round to sort it out. This was a good indication of the kindness and friendliness we found throughout the weekend.
On arrival Deborah found that 1 ½ miles of the coast path on our planned Saturday walk was closed for sea defence repairs, so again back to the drawing board. Deborah very cleverly found a delightful walk through the Bayford wood nature reserve, and we finished in the birdwatchers paradise of Blakeney Marshes.
It rained steadily through the Friday evening walk through Sheringham Park. Happily the wind was behind us as we walked back into Sheringham along the cliffs. Saturday was grey, Sunday was really quite good weather! We walked to Felbrigg Hall, NT property and back, only occasionally getting lost. All the walks were of variable length, on Saturday there was an optional coffee stop that cut 3 miles off the morning!

So Deborah and I will now start organising next year’s weekend – put the 3rd weekend of May in your diaries and lets hope to see even more of you next year. Margaret and Deborah