Surrey and Sussex Well being Weekend 2026

NORMALLY THE well being weekend takes place in May, but this year it was pushed forward to June.   Personally, I was hoping the weather would be really nice, like one of those summer weekends you remember from your youth.   But whatever the weather decides it never dampens our spirits.   For the first time I didn't need to worry about what I was working over the weekend, or when I came back or any of that old malarkey!   I could just go and enjoy it.

The weekend is spent at Hay-on-Wye with it's unique position on the border of England and Wales, it is ideal for visitors to enjoy and explore the border country.   Hay is known for it's books and bookshops and is the first book town in the world, with a yearly festival, which lasts for a week, attended by thousands of people.

Karl sorted the accommodation out, giving us a good base to work from and come back to relax at the end of the day.   The activity weekend is great for both your mental and physical well being, going off grid a little and just being with other people makes a big difference, especially when the groups come together as they are so relaxed, friendly, and inclusive.

Day 1 - Formation

[EUTIERRIA (yoo-TEE-air-ee-ah):   Eutierria is a positive emotional state defined as a powerful, deep sense of oneness with the Earth and its life forces.   It describes a harmonious feeling where the boundary between yourself and the natural world softens or evaporates replacing alienation with a profound sense of connection and belonging.] 

Everybody was arriving at different times on the Friday, depending on what time they got off work, and the journey time.   I arrived at 10:00 to find Karl and Forrest at the accommodation and we set out for a coffee at the local gardens.

The plan then was to set off for the first activity, walking around Cussop and into the forest we found a river with water running from the mountains.    This fed into a natural plunge pool, which looked cold!   But we decided to give it a go and got ready, Forest was the first one in, jumping from the bank into the icy water.   Karl and I both climbed down the bank and "gingerly" got into the water.   I was not disappointed by the coldness of the water, which took your breath away (on a previous gorge walking activity we were shown how to acclimatize to cold water before getting in).   Great way to wake yourself up and start the weekend, officially we had begun.

We went back to the accommodation to see if anybody else had arrived and in the evening walked down to "Burger Me", for food at The Globe.   The Globe is interesting because we don't know what you are going to get.    Last time it was an open mic night that was dire!    Very dark, very depressing and that night they had another open mic night!    Hold on a minute though, this one was was really good, lots of amateurs, singing, and reciting poetry but a great night out.

By the time we got to The Globe everybody had arrived and the weekend was just starting, good friends, beer, and entertainment.

Karl: "We kicked off with a cold water plunge that woke everyone up fast.   Bracing, but the banter made it worth every second."

Day 2 - Connect

[Anima Mundi (an-th-mah moon-dee):   The soul of the world ... an ancient understanding that all of life is connected through a shared living presence. The idea that beneath the diversity of nature exists a deeper unity, linking all living things as part of the greater whole.]

The following morning there was no messing about on the next activity a 9 mile hike from Capel Y Ffin to Llanthony Priory.   Very close to the beginning was the walk was a mountain that needed to be climbed with an ascent of 465 meters!    On a hot sunny day this required some dedication to the cause!   Its not all about endurance, you have to have the right mindset to power through and get the the top.

The reward was waiting at the top where you reach the height of the Brecon Beacons looking down long valleys where you can see how the ancient glaciers from the ice age has formed and shaped the landscape.   It's breath taking and makes you realise how small you are in the large scheme of the Universe.   The next stage was taking us across the top to the downward paths to Llanthony Priory, what a walk that was.

It was great to get back and hit the showers to get rid of the dirt and dust of the walk.   In the evening we went to the Red Indigo Indian restaurant for the evening.   Curry and a beer is always welcome, especially after the romp that we had.

Karl: "From there it was boots-on hiking through stunning country, with the views from Capel Y Ffin reminding us why we do this.   The trails, the wind, the quiet moments - all of it built that easy comradeship that comes from shared effort."

Day 3 - Team

[Mugda (moog-dha):   A sanskrit word describing a state of wonder inspired by beauty.   The feeling of becoming completely captivated by a moment, standing in quiet awe as time seems to slow and the ordinary reveals something extraordinary.]

After the hard work on the Saturday and the team disbanding for 2026 we needed an activity to enjoy and relax, working together before the journeys home.

This was a two hour canoe session down the river Wye.   Setting off from Glasbury we had four canoes in the water and started the journey following the river, feeling at one with nature, no rush, taking it easy.

There were high river banks with house martins nesting in holes along the way.   The house martins flew around the canoes, trying to catch the flying insects on the river before diving back into their nests.   There were a few kingfishers, looking for small fish in the river.

At the end of the trip there was a trip into Hay, looking at the many bookshops.   Then departure for everybody ending an amazing and productive weekend.

Was the weekend like that long lost summer weekend from my youth?    Absolutely it was, loved every moment of it, taking away a lot of memories.

I will leave the last words to Karl: "One day you will be walking down the street and see someone from this weekend, you won't need to say anything, just smile because you know you were here and have this shared experience." 

Rediscovering trails: Home to Burgess Hill Town Football Club

WITH RETIREMENT I started doing things I don't normally do.   Breaking out of some of the old routines, making new ones, meeting up with old friends and just getting out there and enjoying life.   I used to work with two people Chris Neal and Keith Morris and we got together at Burgess Hill Town Football Club to catch up and watch some football.   I have not seen Chris for over eight years.

It was a great moment to get together after starting work at the factory at the same time, going through training and taking it right through to retirement!   Three old geezers at the football, that's a great story.

I went to three matches and we hit the end of the season, it's worth noting that Burgess Hill Town won every match that I attended!    But afterwards I had a thought between me and BHTFC ground is fields and a wood, there must be a trails run in there somewhere, so I mapped it out on my "footpaths" app and ran it today as a test.

On paper the run looked quite good, but I wasn't sure what the trails would look like and needed to keep on track, so I used GPS on "footpaths" to make sure.    Leg one was through the estate that I live on heading out on some trails to the main Lewes Road, quick run up the road and enter the trails again at Colwell Lane.

Colwell is a long straight run taking you down to Hurstwood Lane, not my favourite place to run, as there are no pavements and I don't think it's that safe, but the distance from Colwell Lane to Fox Hill isn't too far, so I just kept left as close as possible to the side of the road.

Crossing the main road I turned down Cape Road and it wasn't long before I reached the trails run that takes me to Theobalds Lane in Burgess Hill.   This was the step beyond the pale into unknown territory, which I was looking forward to.

The route was not what I expected, it was a really nice, well marked out path taking you right down to Theobalds.   There were some really nice bridges that looked pretty new that helped to keep you on track.    There was also a chicken coup that seemed a little out of place, but made me smile.   Checking "footpaths" I could see I was on track all the way across.

It was sunny and hot, so I took my freetrain vest with me.    Head cover, water (with a hydration sachet in it), one gel, my phone and a bank card, just in case.    Always have fall back plans, things sometimes just do not go the way you plan them and you don't want to get lost on a hot sunny day without any water.

At the end of the trails I reached Theobalds Lane and started down the private road towards Leylands Road, this isn't far from Wivelsfield Railway station and BHTFC is just a six minute walk from there.

Made it in plenty of time and had a quick rest with some water before thinking about heading back.    My neighbour plays football for Balcombe II and they are playing Crawley in a semi-final match at BHTFC ground on Wednesday.   I was thinking about going over to see him play.

I now know I have a great route over to the ground to see him play.   That will save me £7.50 for parking at the railway station and £4.50 for the train fare.   Good times! 

 Update: Two days later I went over to see Ash play in the Mid Sussex Junior Charity Cup playing against AS Crawley.

AS Crawley 1 - 3 Balcombe II.   Great match and a good win.

 

 

 

OS Benchmarking - Reigate and Redhill

YOU WILL NEED to read the blog on OS Benchmarking to understand what this is all about.    Look to the right hand filters and click on "OS Benchmarking" to find the first blog which will give an explanation.   You can then break this down to areas (as I go and manage to build this up a bit more).

When I learned about Ordnance Survey benchmarking I was about to go off for a weekend in Reigate, Surrey.   I was explaining it to my friend, Mark Davison, and he had not heard of them.   During the weekend we did a 14km trails walk, on the way back we arrived on Redhill Common, and back into Reigate.   Here, we started the search and found four.

Rivet Stone
Location: Redhill Top Common j/w High Trees Road.
Height: 144.555m 

You can see the symbol embossed into the stone on the top.

Embossed wall
Location: High Trees Road (middle)
Height: 137.081m

Difficult to locate as it was quite well hidden.

 
Embossed wall
Location: Cronks Hill j/w High Trees Road.
Height: 126.009m

This is on the back of an old letter box, brick built.

 

Embossed wall
Location: Footpath j/w Cockshot Road
Height: 113.828m

Just on the beginning of the footpath. 

 

OS Benchmarking - Distances Above Sea Level

RECENTLY I DISCOVERED Ordnance Survey Benchmarking and for some reason it has got me really interested in these historic markings that can be found all over the place.   If you live in the UK, you have passed these symbols thousands of times and never noticed them.   They are called benchmarks and nobody knows exactly how many there are.   It doesn't matter how remote you live you will have these hidden around you in plain sight.

They were installed by Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency starting in the 19th Century.   If you wanted to know the difference in elevation between your town and the next one, there were very sophisticated tools that would allow you measure it, but you would have to go out and work it out yourself because no one else had done it for you.

As we started to build things like railways, it was becoming more important to know the difference in elevation across the country.   Ordnance survey went out and spent two decades mapping out lines across Great Britain and Ireland, measuring the differences in elevation along the way.  At ever point they measured, they left a bench mark embossed into brickwork.

Once that was done, each of these benchmarks became a new reference point that could be used to fill in the rest of the country.   If you look at ordnance survey maps from the 19th you will see these bench marks everywhere.   This means that if you want to know the height of a particular point, all you had to do was measure it relative to the nearest benchmark.   This would give you its height relative to every other part of the country.

These days with GPS, there's not much use for benchmarks and they were decommissioned 30 years ago.    But there is still one small part of the network that's still in use today.    They are called "fundamental benchmarks", and there are about 200 of them.    They were built more than a century ago to serve as a solid bedrock for the rest of the network.   They will go almost two metres underground.

These days they contain passive GPS stations.   Since we know the exact position of these benchmarks, we can use them to correct and enhance the data we receive from GPS satellites.   And using this, modern surveyors can pinpoint their location anywhere in the country to an accuracy of about a centimeter.

The benchmarks live on but more of them are being lost each year due to redevelopment.

I was stopped in Reigate by a local man asking what I was looking for, so I explained it to him.   He understood exactly what I was talking about and told me there are two types, the ones with the line above the arrow which is ordnance survey and ones without the line above which is military.    Some of them are brass plates.

When I go out on my runs, I will be keeping an eye out of these, looking them up and seeing what the height is that has been recorded for them.    I know I am looking for public buildings and walls over 30 years old.

The hunt begins .... 

 

Rediscoving Trails: Haywards Heath to Ardingly Resevouir

THIS RUN IS a continuation of a run I did in November "Rediscovering Trails: A muddy autumn run through Lindfield".   The run went as far as the top of Haywards Heath golf course, but the aim was to run it again and take it to Ardingly Resevouir.

It has taken quite a while to get back to this run due to the amount of rain we had, so today was also a test to see if it was possible and how much of the route was a problem?

The road part was straight forward and as I got to the top of Finches Lane I could see the trails stretching out before me.   Parts have been changed in layout, as there has been a lot of tree loss and new saplings have been planted in their place.   This has changed the paths, but there are still quite a few trees down that you need to navigate.

The ground was soft in a lot of places, but not a problem and any boggy bits you could navigate around without any problems.   This was great to choose for the run as the skies were blue with lots of sunshine, which just aided the run, but there was also a cool wind.

It was great to see the bluebells coming out and carpeting the woodland floor in a lot of places.   Plants and leaves are now coming back and the trails feel, and smell, really fresh again.   With the sunshine, sights, smells, and sound of twigs snapping under your feet, it was good to get out again. 

Green Space Action Team: Return to Beech Hurst Gardens

I HAVE HAD to miss a few sessions with the Green Space Team, due to training for the London Winter 10km and some of the locations being a little out of my area.   But today was a return to Beech Hurst Gardens, which is a place that I look forward to working on.

We meet up in the car park next to the Harvester Restaurant for the morning briefing.   Today was defining the border and weeding out the large area of garden by the side of the tennis courts.

I am not a great one for weeding, so picked up a shovel and started to redefine the border, once that was done I moved across to do some weeding and clearing out some the rubbish thrown into the bushes.

Working in Victoria Park quite a few weeks ago I was interested in the Hebes.   Not realising that the part had the largest selection of them in the UK, but the stock had deminished due to the large amount of brambles that had taken over.    After freeing the hebes I managed to get two, from the local garden centre, which are now in my garden (one of them about the flower).

The plant of the day was the Toadflax.   A beautiful and common plant of waste ground, grassland, roadside verges and hedgerows.

One of the aims of getting involved with the Green Space Team was improve my knowledge and practical skills.

My next stop of the morning was coffee and lunch with friends at Orange Square.

Community engagement is very rewarding and I would recommend it as a way to meet new people, get involved in local projects and enjoy being outside.

If you are interested in volunteering to help the Green Space Team, it's once a week on a Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00 (two hours).   You can emil them direct for more information and they will send out dates, times, and locations.   You only need to attend the ones you can, there is no pressure.

Email: rangers.midsussex@glendale-services.co.uk 

WSFRL: Chicken Run - Run 5

AS THE FIFTH run in the West Sussex Fun Run League got under way Haywards Heath Harriers were joint 1st on the leader board.   For this run there was a massive turn out of 50 athletes taking part from the club, once again aiming for maximum points trying to create a significant lead before the Harriers host their own run in the event, which they cannot get any points for.

Burgess Hill Runners usually have their run in Hassocks, just beneath the South Downs, but this year they arranged a change of venue, which prompted a change in name for the run along with it!

On the 19th April at Macs Organic Chicken Farm in Ditchling the run took place.   The route was across many of the fields on the farm and in some places the marshalls were trying to hold the chickens back, so that nobody could cry foul!

The route was quite complex and difficult to orientate with a few overlapping points on it.   Marshals were there to ensure the run was smooth and problem free as possible, especially as this was a new route for them, which means everybody gets a PB on the day.

Due to the number of people and routes being used by the athletes there was some confusion with runners going the wrong way.   I went past one marshal who was shouting, "I've sent them in the wrong direction".   This is a new route and there are bound to be some teething problems (they are rare like hens' teeth).   Also because of the complex nature of the course, nobody could leave until the last runner was across the finish line.   This gave everybody space to enjoy the day, find a drink, some cake and have a chat.   This was a great run and social event in the calendar as well.

There are a number of runs that I look forward to on the WSFRL calendar and this is going to be one of them.   I hope that Burgess Hill Runners use the venue again next year.   They will have sorted the teething problems out by then as well.

The big question now is where does this leave Haywards Heath Harriers in the leader board?