Forest Way Country Park

Trains stopped running along this stretch in the 1960s, and rather than let the cutting scrub over, it became a country park instead, a fairly early example of a disused railway turned into a walking trail. After a day on the Weald’s endless little hills, a route with barely a gradient is its own reward here, and the old cuttings and embankments have grown into decent habitat for butterflies and wildflowers along the way.

The line used to stop at Hartfield, and the trail still passes close by, so anyone heading for Ashdown Forest and its Winnie-the-Pooh associations can tack this on without much of a detour. Hartfield Motte, the old castle mound, and Ashdown Forest itself are both a short way off. East Grinstead has the nearest working station, right at the trail’s northern end; from the Groombridge end it’s Ashurst instead, a couple of miles off, so factor that walk in if you’re coming by train. Crowborough, the High Weald’s high point, is within reach too, for anyone continuing further.