After weeks and weeks of incessant rain the weather changed last week for the better, in fact last Sunday was like a warm Summers's day, so Mrs C and I took Little dog for a walk along the banks of the River Ouse near Southease. We then shared a light lunch at the Courtyard Cafe which is part of the recently opened Youth Hostel next to Southease Station. The food was excellent and was very reasonably priced and the views across the valley towards the south Downs were spectacular.
Little dog is getting old, moth eaten and a little grumpy, so yesterday I treated her to a nice walk up on the Forest. We set off from Millwood car park and made our way across country to the Folly bridge at the bottom of Chelwood Vachery. I had an ulterior motive in that I wanted to explore the area around the bridge in some depth and hopefully take some interesting photographs. Little dog and I made a whistle stop visit to the Folly bridge last year in the pouring rain, so did not spend too long exploring. Since then I have read that just down from the bridge is a series of ponds, part of an ornamental garden that had been allowed to run wild.
The name Chelwood Vachery derives from the Norman as a shelter in the woods for cattle, Vache being the French for cow. The ornamental gardens were constructed in about 1910 by the MP Sir Stuart Samuel on ground adjoining his house and consists of a series of ponds controlled by weirs and sluices. There is also a small gorge with a stream running down the hillside which was designed and built by a famous landscape gardener of the nineteen-twenties called Colonel Gavin Jones. It was constructed using limestone boulders from Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.
The Forest garden was acquired by the Conservators of the Ashdown Forest in 1994 and thanks to private donations work began on clearing away the invasive plants, dredging the ponds and restoring the garden in 2008. Volunteers have also worked tirelessly to clear away invasive rhododendron plants to open up the views through the valley. I think that they have done a fantastic job in restoring the valley which is now a light and breezy oak and beech wood.
We spent quite some time taking pictures of the ponds and bridge before Little dog became really grumpy and insisted very vocally that we should continue out per-amble through the Forest. Our route took us in a northerly direction up onto the site of the Emergency Landing Ground near Wych cross with its expansive views back towards the South Downs several miles away. Once past the covered reservoirs (where Little dog disgraced herself by trying to pick a fight with another dog) we turned left and made our way via a circuitous route to the small village of Chelwood gate.
Once through the village we came across two other ponds called Braberry ponds which were just inside the Forest boundary, from here we walked along some very muddy tracks back to the Folly bridge and Forest garden where we stopped for a brew up and lunch. Although it was quite overcast and there was a stiff breeze blowing along the valley bottom I really felt that we were sitting in an enchanted place, one of many such places on the Forest.
After fighting little dog over my Cornish pastie and putting up with her sulks whilst I tried to enjoy my mug of tea in these (now less than) tranquil surroundings we took a brisk walk back up hill and across the heath to my car. Twenty minutes later and Little dog was snoring loudly in her bed.
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