Hastings Cliffs and High Weald

A 654 km loop

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Why this ride

A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. A 654 km loop that starts and ends near Balcombe, about 11 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Hastings, near West Mersea, Scenic stretch in Maldon and Kettering.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop in Balcombe fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. Hastings food

   The battle of 1066 did not actually take place in Hastings. William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, moved east to Hastings, and fought King Harold on a ridge about ten kilometres inland, at the place now called Battle, where the abbey he built to atone for the bloodshed still stands. But Hastings gave its name to the battle and the date, and the town has embraced the connection, with the ruins of William's first castle on the West Hill above the old town.

   The old town itself is wonderfully atmospheric, squeezed into a narrow valley between two sandstone hills, with timber-framed houses, narrow alleys and steep steps. Down on the beach, called the Stade, the fishing fleet is still launched straight off the shingle, the largest beach-launched fleet in Europe, and the tall black wooden huts used for drying nets are a unique sight. The East Hill Cliff Railway, a funicular climbing almost vertically up the cliff, is one of the steepest in Britain, and the view from the top over the old town and the sea is excellent.

   Fish is the thing to eat here. The fishermen sell their catch from huts on the beach, and the fish and chip shops along the seafront serve some of the freshest fish in England. The old town also has good cafés, pubs and restaurants, and a lively arts scene.

   East of the town, Hastings Country Park protects a stretch of wild sandstone cliffs, heath and wooded glens running towards Fairlight, with paths along the clifftops. Inland, the High Weald is a landscape of steep, wooded hills, small fields and narrow, twisting lanes, with excellent riding if you do not mind a bit of mud and the occasional tractor. Hastings has plenty of fuel and services, though the town's roads can be congested, and the seafront is busy on summer weekends.

3. High point near West Mersea photo
4. Scenic stretch in Maldon photo

   Scenic stretch in Maldon, about halfway.

5. Near Kettering, on the way back swim

   Geddington, a stone village a few kilometres north-east of Kettering, owns one of the most moving monuments in England. In the middle of the village stands the Eleanor Cross, a tall, slender, triangular stone spire, put up in the 1290s by Edward I in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile. When she died in Lincolnshire, her body was carried to London, and at each place where the procession rested overnight the king raised a cross. Twelve were built; only three survive, and Geddington's is the best preserved of them.

   Close by, the River Ise slides under a medieval stone bridge beside a shallow ford, and on a warm afternoon children paddle there while riders sit on the wall. That, honestly, is the extent of the water: the Ise is a small river, not a swimming spot, and the lakes in the area are fishing or nature reserves rather than places to swim. Come here for shade and stone rather than a plunge.

   The landscape is the old Rockingham Forest, once a royal hunting ground stretching across this corner of Northamptonshire, now a patchwork of woods, rolling fields and villages built in golden-brown ironstone. Brigstock, a few kilometres north, has a Saxon church tower and a country park in old quarries. Just outside Geddington, Boughton House, the seat of the Dukes of Buccleuch, is often called the English Versailles, with its long French-style front and avenues of trees.

   The roads are pleasant rather than thrilling. The lanes between villages rise and fall over gentle ridges, with long straights and the occasional tight bend at a church or a bridge, and the traffic is light outside the main roads. The A43 and A6116 are faster and busier, used by lorries heading to the industrial estates around Corby and Kettering. Watch for farm traffic and for mud on the lanes in autumn, and for deer in the woods at dusk.

   Kettering, about six kilometres away, is the nearest big town, with fuel, supermarkets and everything else, and Geddington itself has a pub and a small shop. It is a lovely, quiet place to pause, and the sight of that thin grey cross in the sunlight, more than seven centuries after a king's grief put it there, stays with you on the road home.

6. Photo stop near Bicester photo

   Photo stop near Bicester comes up 488 km in.

7. Near Woodford Green finish

   On fine weekends half the bikers of north-east London seem to end up at the same tea hut in the middle of Epping Forest, at High Beach, drinking from paper cups among the hornbeams. This finish lies just south of the forest's tip, between Walthamstow, Highams Park and Woodford Green, and the forest is the last green thing you see before the city closes around you again.

   Epping Forest is an ancient royal hunting ground, saved from enclosure in the nineteenth century and run ever since by the City of London. Its pollarded hornbeams and beeches, cut for firewood for centuries, have grown into strange, many-armed shapes, and in autumn the colours are wonderful. At Chingford, Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge is a timber-framed Tudor building from which the court once watched the chase.

   Woodford Green has a statue of Winston Churchill, who was the local MP for decades. Walthamstow, to the south-west, was the birthplace of William Morris, the designer, poet and socialist, and his childhood home is now a gallery of his work. The Walthamstow Wetlands, a series of old reservoirs turned nature reserve, is full of herons, cormorants and wildfowl, a surprising wilderness in the middle of the city.

   Coming back from the Weald or the Test Valley, the M25 and M11 deliver you to the edge of the forest, and the A104 runs through it towards Woodford. The forest roads are lovely but heavily policed, with speed limits and cameras. Watch for deer, cyclists and horses.

   Fuel is easy on the main roads around Woodford. And if you still have energy, the detour to High Beach is short: one last tea among the trees with a hundred other riders comparing notes on the day.

8. Back to Hastings Cliffs finish

   The land here rolls in long ridges of sandstone, with deep ghylls, the local word for a wooded stream valley, cut between them. It is pretty, in an unshowy way: small fields, oak woods, white-painted weatherboard on the farm buildings, and every junction signed for somewhere with an unlikely name.

   The thing that most people notice is the Ouse Valley Viaduct near Balcombe, which carries the London to Brighton railway across the river on thirty-seven arches of pale brick. It was opened in the early 1840s, and its stone balustrades and pavilions were designed to make it look less like an industrial thing and more like a feature in a park. You can see it from a footpath and a couple of lanes, and it is worth a minute even if you do not care about railways. Nearby, Nymans garden at Handcross is a National Trust property with a ruined house and a very good collection of plants, and it makes a decent excuse for a stop if the rain starts.

   The riding is fun in the old, unsophisticated way. The B2036 and the lanes between Balcombe, Staplefield and Cuckfield offer tight bends, patchy surfaces and a lot of mud after rain, so keep your speed honest and watch for horse riders. The A23 runs close to the east and carries the main London to Brighton traffic, which is a reminder of how near the capital is, and on a Sunday afternoon its southbound lanes can be solid. The nearest big shops and fuel stations are at Maidenbower and Crawley a few miles north, and Handcross has a village pub and a garage within reach. If you plan to run low, do not trust a village.

   As a place on a route home, this is a good one to have at the end: gentle, wooded, close to the motorway but far enough from it to keep a sense of the countryside for a little longer.

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