Mar 2020 – Christ’s Hospital, West Sussex

For many years, walkers and cyclists travelling along the Downs Link from Guildford towards Shoreham-by-Sea have had to leave the old LBSCR trackbed near Itchingfield and take a road-based diversion to reach the trail’s continuation beyond Christ’s Hospital station. We are pleased to report that, after years of negotiation with landowners, the Downs Link now follows the trackbed into the station’s old Guildford platform, which has been cleared completely, and the new route is shown on the Ordnance Survey’s latest definitive maps. There will be a public opening event and celebration walk at 12:45 on Friday 24th April, starting from the disused platform at the station. All that is needed now is for the Surrey local authorities to improve their end of the trail, which in places over the last six months has been indistinguishable from a bog. We recognise that Surrey CC’s parlous financial situation is the result of past government policies, but hopefully the situation will improve now that the country has a government in office which is not totally obsessed with austerity. For further details of West Sussex’s recent good works on this trail, click here. (Paul Hamlin, Graham Lambert and Jeff Vinter)