RST Route 11 Village Hall To Five Bells PH

1.0 mile mainly flat route heading due west on pavements / roads and bridleway also suited to cyclists and horse riding.

The route starts from Abingworth. “Abbyngewerth” is a recorded Anglo-Saxon given name meaning “Abba’s people’s small holding”. On leaving the Village Hall take Abingworth Crescent with the football pitches on the right to the B2139. Off to the right are new houses on Massey Close, named after the actress Anna Massey (1937 – 2011) who was born in Thakeham, and the mushroom factory, the largest employer in the parish. Turn left and then cross the road into High Bar Lane. Halfway along the road on the right is the main children’s playground in the parish with new equipment and a refurbishment programme completed in 2020. Continue along High Bar Lane which, 50 yards after Linfield Copse leads off to the left, ends in a cul-de-sac. During 2020/21 a new footpath is due to be built which will provide a quieter route from the B2139 through to High Bar Lane adjacent to the playground. To access it turn right at the Abingworth Crescent junction and cross the road at the crossing point.

To the north of High Bar Lane occurred an armed and violent confrontation between the rectors of Thakeham and West Chiltington probably in 1279 during King Edward I’s reign on “Rush Field” an area covered in rush grass. To quote from Prof. Lower, a Victorian researcher, “… it is averred that John le Suche (Zouche) rector of West Chiltington came armed with his neighbours and dependents into a certain field where Martin, rector of Thakeham came with his men and a cart to collect tithes of the same field and when Suche saw the aforesaid Martin he assaulted him with an iron fork, and a tenant shot the said Martin in the right breast with an arrow. Another tenant attempted to kill the poor rector as he lay on the ground with a hatchet; whereupon the latter’s servant struck the assailant with a bundle of wood and slew him. A coroner’s inquest followed but with no result.” Thakeham residents are warned to take care in West Chiltington!

At the end of High Bar Lane a tarmac surface bridleway leads between fields straight to the west. After a few hundred yards Highbar Copse is joined on the north while an open field continues to the south. This is the parish boundary with West Chiltington. The path now has a newly prepared surface which should make it functional throughout the year. After an easy route of four hundred yards through woodland the bridleway emerges at the junction of Threal’s Lane and Roundabout Lane. Turn right and join Smock Alley. The Five Bells PH is 300 yards along the road on the left.

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