Iping and Stedham Commons
Midhurst
On this walk, children will enjoy hunting for wildlife at the ponds, the play area at the tearoom or resting on the dragonfly bench.
The beautifully designed dragonfly bench on Stedham Common
The Basics
Time: The Iping Common walk will take 1hr and 10mins, and the Iping and Stedham Common walk will take 1hr 45mins.
Distance: The Iping Common walk is 3.5km and the Iping and Stedham Common walk is 5.6 km.
Terrain: Mostly flat with only gentle inclines, soft sandy paths and some boggier paths that can be muddy in winter.
Pushchair: Not ideal - in winter the paths are muddy and in summer the sandy paths would be a struggle.
Dogs: Yes, under close control due to wildlife and on leads March - September to protect ground nesting birds
Refreshments: Aylings Garden Centre Tea Room
Toilets: None (unless visiting the garden centre)
Public Transport: Stagecoach service 91 between Petersfield and Midhurst stops at Stedham Common on Elsted Road.
Parking: Free car park on Elsted Road off the A272 (Postcode: GU29 0PB - W3W - drizzly/work/volcano)
Iping Common is a great place to enjoy heather in late summer
The special heathland habitats of Iping and Stedham Commons are rich with wildlife including dragonflies and swathes of purple heather in late summer. There are miles and miles of paths to explore and you can combine both the commons into one walk or visit each one separately if you prefer something shorter. For refreshments, it is easy to link a walk on Iping Common to the garden centre which has a tea room and children’s play area.
The Route
The car park is on the Iping Common side, so our walk will start from there. You will notice three gates exiting the car park. With your back to the road, you should start the walk by leaving via the gate to your left, where there is also an information board. Almost immediately, you should spot the post with the serpent trail badge on and should fork right here. Continue along this path, keeping straight ahead when you pass a red and white gas pipeline on your left (there is a bench with a view at this point).
When you see a blue arrow on a wooden post to your right, you should follow the path if you want to visit the garden centre with it’s tea-room, indoor and outdoor seating and children’s play area (if you do not want to go to the garden centre, continue straight until the gate mentioned in section 3 below). The path will take you down to the A272, where you should cross with care to reach Aylings on the other side. To return, you can cross the road again and then go right for a few metres along the verge, passing your previous exit point, and re-enter the common via a bridlepath on your left.
Go through the gate and walk up the hill with a fence on your right. Go through a second gate (usually chained open) and continue straight to the next gate. If you continued straight ahead above and did not turn right to the garden centre, you will also reach this gate (number 6) and you should go through it and turn left. Those coming from the garden centre, should continue straight.
Spot green ‘private woodland’ signs pinned up to your right and a blue arrow marker on a wooden post. Follow the blue arrow and walk with the private woodland to your right and the common to your left behind a fence. At a meeting of four bridleway arrows at gate number 5, continue straight on, down the sandy hill. Go down until you reach a T-junction at a fence with a pony paddock. Go left.
Fork left where the serpent trail tail route goes off to the right. Fork right at the next junction where straight on would go uphill, but right goes around gate number 4. Curve left at the big pine tree at the bottom. Pass a post where you can take photos with your phone and upload to West Sussex Wildlife Trust. Shortly after, merge with the serpent trail as it comes down from your left. Continue straight on and go over a little wooden bridge over a particularly boggy area. After the bridge, go straight ahead, ignoring any paths to the left or right to return to the car park.
For a longer route which includes both Iping Common and Stedham Common:
Follow the route as above for Iping Common. After you curve left at the big pine tree as mentioned in stage 5, look out for the bridlepath on your right. This will be before the photo post. Go through the woods and go straight across as a crosspath. Keep forwards towards a gate and the road. Cross the road and join the path directly opposite, going between rhododendron hedges.
Go left when you reach the junction at the top of the hill, following the public bridleway signs and now going downhill. Hit the tarmac drive with the gates to Fitzhall on your right. Cross the drive and take the public bridleway (also marked to the cottage). Then, almost immediately turn left and follow the path parallel to the drive. Turn right at the end.
Very soon, turn left and then go right, following the bridleway. You will walk quite narrowly between bushes and then road will come into view to your left before the rhododendrons give way to pine trees. Just before you reach a gate, you will see a blue public bridleway badge on a post and you should veer right here.
Walk with a barbed wire fence to your right and glimpses of a quarry through the trees. Go through a gate and continue straight on, following the black and yellow public footpath marker. Walk down an avenue lined with more rhododendrons until you reach the gate onto the road at the end. Turn left here and go over a little wooden footbridge.
The thin and unofficial path will snake its way across the bottom of the common until you hit a T-junction with the more formal looking path of the serpent trail. Turn left here and follow this all the way back to Elsted Road, which you should cross to find yourself back at the car park. Look out for the dragonfly bench on your way, part of the Heathland Sculpture Trail by South Downs National Park.
Did you know?
Over 80% of lowland heath has been lost from the UK in the last couple of centuries. The UK has 20% of the world’s lowland heath making the total area rarer than tropical rainforests.
If you enjoyed this walk…
…try this one at Midhurst Common, which is a similar landscape
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