Walking the South Downs way

Daniel Neilson goes in search of rural England and some splendid ales on the south coast.

You may imagine the South Downs Way is all about blisters, stinging nettles and traipsing through amusingly named villages (Cocking, Winding Bottom) and, well, it is.

But it also offers great opportunity to sample a range of local brews across the south coast while resting weary legs in historical taverns.

Meandering 100 miles from the ancient former capital of Winchester to the charming seaside town of Eastbourne, the South Downs Way national trail crosses some of the loveliest Turner-esque countryside in the British Isles and past the kind of pubs that inspired Sir John Betjeman to write: ‘The village inn/the dear old inn/So ancient, clean and free from sin/True centre of our rural life.’ It took a week to complete the hike, and it would leave my wife and I variously soggy, tired, elated and mildly drunk at generally unacceptable times of the day.

Yep, this was the ultimate pub crawl. We would endeavour to take a snaking snapshot of rural life and gauge the health of small breweries across the old counties of Hampshire, West and East Sussex.

There were several beer-related disappointments and despite being the height of summer, it rained an awful lot, but as we trotted (ok, we stumbled) over the white chalk Seven Sisters into Eastbourne we reflected happily on the survival, nay, flourishing of (mostly) excellent beers, the modest landlords and ladies content to retell legends of the ancient pubs in their tenure, and the men and women at the bar who share tall tales and .....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Beers of the World to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Daniel Neilson

Section : Beer Journeys

Page number : 72