Walk from Bedhampton to Chichester.
🚶️

Parametric data

Route name:

Bedhampton to Chichester.

This route on OS maps:

https://explore.osmaps.com/route/16367593/ ...

Distance:

9.7 miles walked, 9.5 miles flown.^[1]

Duration
4^th Apr 2023 :

  
3.1 hours.^[2]

Topology:

Point to point (Eastward).

Ascent:

24 metres.

Stiles:

0 (zero).

Landmark of note:

Not right on top of the route, but near enough: the Palace at Fishbourne.

Feasible excursion:

There's a footpath round the Palace, if you fancy taking that in. You follow the rail line, too, so can shorten the walk at almost any point.

Waypoints:

Havant, Warblington, Emsworth, Hermitage Bridge, Southbourne, Nutbourne, Bosham, Fishbourne.

Weather:

8°C,^[3] ☀️ all the way.

Avoiding roads:

But watch out for those chariots 🐴

Footpath construction:

Only the best.

Footpath condition:

Tiny bits with a covering of (dry) mud. Gaius has been a little lax with road maintenance over the last millenium.

Refreshments:

Cake from 19 Fourteas. Sarnie at Chichester.

Vistas:

This is a sea-level walk.

Blackberries:

It's an A-road walk.^[4]

Route map.

Walk notes.

Well, here we are at the start of my first walk in two weeks. Although the beginning of this Spring has been conventionally Chaucerian, yesterday and today have been perfect for pedestrian pilgrimage. After an interminably long, dank winter the sun decides to say "Hello 2023". That soggy Sussex may require further dehydration before I plant a walking boot on its out-of-town footpaths is confirmed by the view from the train as it glides past still submerged fields along the Arun valley.

The A259 provides a complete remedy for the water-weary walker. Not a blade of grass to be trod along its ten mile progress towards Chichester. You can put away the sat nav, too, because the right direction is always the same: east. The downside to any A-road walk is an earful of heavy goods vehicle. I havant checked Wikipedia, but I would imagine that the chariot jam was a feature of this route nigh two thousand years ago. We may perhaps imagine an imperial Eddie Stobart on his way from, say, Portus Adurni to Fishbourne where he collects edibles for the sustenance of limitanei back in Portchester. Too big a job for Deliveroman.

"Watch out Brighton", thinks I, standing by the station at the junction of the imaginatively named Bedhampton Road, New Road and West Street; "zany Bedhampton wants a slice of your action". No, well at least there is no doubt upon which of the aformentioned viae principales I need take my first step. The journey by rail being longer than usual, I feel the need for coffee at the first opportunity; the WW2 themed 19 Fourteas TeaRoom obliges.

Tuesday is a market day in Havant, and I picture Len the Legionary yearning for hot-dogs and kebabs as he marches through. I yearn, having been advised, on medical grounds, to march more and consume less. My sympathy with Len grows, knowing that he can no longer take the train to Hayling because it was chopped by Beeching. However, if our military mate approaches retirement then this stretch of coast could be just the Phoulkon. The residents of Nutbourne are out hurling plumbatae at the incoming Pictish property developer.

Only 2PM, yet here we are in Chichester. I recall having driven through many years ago, but I think this must be my first actual visit since 1973 when a school trip to see Chekhov's The Seagull at the Festival Theatre was inflicted on me. I doubt that I could follow a word of it, even today; never mind as a sixteen year old. If it was an attempt to instill a love for the art form then, it might fairly be said, the trick has not quite come off. In fact, taking English to 'A' level likely dissuaded me from having read a line of fiction in the 45 years since.^[5] Geoff Chaucer? I walked with him to school and no further.