The South Downs Way
Gumber Corner and Glatting Beacon

When you get towards the top of Burton Hill it's fairly easy to get a little confused, especially if you are travelling from east to west, where there are simply too many choices of route as you leave the car park to make it obvious which way to go.

There are several footpaths and bridleways which traverse and encircle the top of Glatting Beacon and you need to pay attention otherwise you may have to retrace your steps.

You could find yourself heading off along the Monarch's Way or perhaps turn onto Stane Street - the Roman Road from Chichester to London - or Noviomagus and Londinium as the signpost would have you believe.

Gumber Corner is an especially lovely spot up here - there's a bench where you can look towards Slindon, Eartham and the coastal plain beyond. It's tempting to stay there.

Hilaire Belloc, MP, walker, writer about the best things in Sussex and sometime resident of Slindon village and later Shipley where he owned the mill, loved this part of the South Downs.

Belloc, who knew a thing or two about walking in Sussex, went so far as to claim that, if pushed to choose, the walk from Eartham to Hardham by the River Arun and the section of Stane Street across Gumber would be his favourite of all.

This spot crops in his work time and again.

He wonders what ancient engineer's eye picked out the straight line of the Roman Road from Gumber to Chichester. Belloc's Sonnets and Verse (1923) contains the phrase "lift up your hearts in Gumber". and in his essay The Slant of the Land Belloc writes that the he would remember the windblown scent of the first flowers in North Wood or Gumber and be reminded of home.

On 27 July 2003 the fiftieth anniversary of Belloc's death was marked here by the unveiling of a plaque near the bothy which the National Trust at the Slindon Estate maintains for the benefit of walkers needing overnight shelter.

If you're walking with a friend you're fully entitled to point southwards and say "Great Bottom" to them without fear of them taking offence - for Great Bottom is the name of the wooded valley below Gumber Corner.

<< Go West | South Downs Way Home | Go East >>

• B&B Midhurst
• Hotels Midhurst
• B&B Chichester
• Hotels Chichester
• Hotels Petworth
• B&B Arundel
• Hotels Arundel
• B&B Worthing
• Hotels Worthing
• B&B Haywards Heath
• Hotels Burgess Hill

• Butser Hill to Harting Down
• Harting to Cocking
• Cocking to Upwaltham
• Upwaltham to Amberley
• Burton Down
• Gumber Corner
• Westburton Hill
• Bury Hill
• The Arun Valley
• River Arun crossing
• Amberley to Washington
• Washington to Upper Beeding
• Upper Beeding to Devil's Dyke
• Devil's Dyke to Ditchling Beacon
• South Downs Way Tips

• Cycling in Sussex
• Bike repairs
• Bicycle hire
• Mountain Biking
• Sussex Walking
• The Ramblers
• Other trails
• Horse riding

• Arundel
• Bognor Regis
• Burgess Hill
• Chichester
• Crawley
• East Grinstead
• Haywards Heath
• Horsham
• Littlehampton
• Midhurst
• Petworth
• Shoreham-by-Sea
• Steyning
• Worthing

• Full details of sports clubs in West Sussex
• West Sussex bed and breakfast guide

Wednesday February 08