Crockham Hill, Boxing Day 1999.

4.8km (3 miles)

Map: OS Explorer 147

The Route:

From the post office in Crockham Hill, walk uphill a few metres and turn right into School Lane.

Pass the school on your left, and where the lane bends left to the church, continue ahead to a kissing gate. Go through the gate and then go left, keeping the church wall on your left.

Soon you come to a wooden fence with a gap in it. Pass through, and then head half right to the right corner of the field. Cross the stile there onto a tiny lane and follow the lane to your left.

Continue along the lane, passing properties called Brookfields and Orchard House on your right.

At the end of the lane by Acremead cottage, head right, up the drive to Chandlers. At the top of the drive turn left before the white gates to pass through an enclosed path between ornamental gardens.

Turn right at the end and follow the path downhill to a bit of a stile which you cross over.

Next head fractionally left downhill to a leafless "sitty tree", so called because crows and pigeons love sitting in it's dead branches.

At the bottom of the hill, go through a stile in the left-hand corner of the fence.

In the field, turn left, following the course of the tiny stream. Cross over a stile in the left of the metal gate and continue ahead.

Just before another metal gate, a raised slope reveals a pond on your right, have a look by all means, but then go through the stile to the left of the metal gate.

Continue ahead to a solitary oak about 30 metres into the field and then turn right to a stile by a wooden gate.

Cross the stile onto a lane. Turn left and walk slightly uphill along the lane.

After 100 metres, turn right into Puddledock Lane, sign-posted to Toys Hill. The lane goes uphill, then downhill, before bending sharply to the left and then to the right.

Between the bend and a pair of cottages, take a footpath to your left. Keep to this long enclosed path until you reach a property with a stone Oast house before you. Just before that, to your right in a field, you can glimpse a statue of Winston and Clementine Churchill reclining on a seat. You are in the grounds of Chartwell House, the Churchill's former home, now National Trust owned.

Pass to the left of the Oast houses and follow the drive uphill. When you reach the road, cross over and turn left, going slightly downhill.

To the left of the cottage with the Victorian post box in the wall, pass through a kissing gate into the drive.

Follow this drive cum lane past houses to another kissing gate. Pass through and continue along the lane. This takes you through the hamlet of Frogpool with distant views to the left.

Just when the lane eventually bends sharply to the right, leave it and head for the footpath ahead sign-posted to Crockham Hill church. This takes you down a flight of stone steps past beautiful homes and gardens.

Cross the stile at the bottom and continue ahead in the meadow. Cross the footbridge over a stream and then the kissing gate. Keep walking ahead until you pass through the wooden fence to the left of Crockham Hill churchyard.

After the kissing gate, follow School Lane back to the village post office.