Nature walks near Brighton

Brighton is a busy city.  But just a short bus ride and you can find yourself in beautiful scenic open countryside.  One of the most popular places for our students to visit is the Seven Sisters, which forms part of the South Downs, this always has the most numbers of students sign up as part of the social programme we offer.  The Downs are chalk cliffs which cover 260 miles of the English coastline. The name Downs is from the old English word Dun, meaning hill. The South Downs became a National park in 2009 and contains a number of nature reserves.   An alternative destination is Devils Dyke, again a short bus journey to what John Constable ( one of the greatest English landscape painters)  called “The greatest view in the World” At nearly a mile long, The Dyke valley is the longest and deepest in the UK. Legend has it that the Devil dug the chasm to drown the parishioners of the Weald. (Although scientists believed it was formed 10,000 years ago in the last ice age).

One of my favourite places after the cliffs to visit is near Patcham where you can find Jack and Jill, one black and one white windmill standing side by side, you will also be able to walk to the Chattri Memorialwhich marks the spot where the bodies of Indian soldiers were cremated. During the First World War, (1914-18) over one and a half million Indian army soldiers saw active service alongside British troops. Twelve thousand Indian soldiers who were wounded on the Western Front were hospitalised at sites around Brighton. These included York Place School, the Dome, the Corn Exchange and the Royal Pavilion.

The fifty-three Hindu and Sikh soldiers who died in Brighton were taken to a peaceful resting place on the Sussex Downs near Patcham for cremation, after which their ashes were scattered in the sea, in accordance with their religious rites. The nineteen Muslim soldiers who died were buried in a purpose built burial ground near to the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking. Built in 1889, the mosque is the oldest of its kind in north-west Europe. 

Written by David Burgess, Principal, Stafford House Brighton