Picnic Spot Barcombe Mills, East Suusex
Introduction
This is really just a small subsection of the Sussex Ouse trip but it is presented here as a separate entry as it is such an idyllic picnic spot. Perfect for young children for whom 6 hours in a boat can seem like an awfully long time.
Maps
Ordnance Survey Landranger 198 (1:50,000)
Access Points
The car park is at GR 435146.
The best place to put in as over the old masonary bridge 50 meters up the road at GR433148.
Journey
Barcombe Mills is at the Tidal limit of the Ouse. The Domesday book recorded a flour mill on the site and the last working mill was constructed in 1870. Unfortunately it burned down in 1939. The Ouse itself was once a mighty navigable river and an extrordinary amount of freight will have passed through Barcombe in times past. Nowadays the weir has a fish ladder bypass for the sea trout which come up river on summer evenings to spawn.
There is a huge lush meadow bounded by the Ouse, a small tributary and the raised embankment of Barcombe Reservoir. This is a perfect picnic spot with acres to run around and play. You can potter along the river slowly weaving around the bends and ducking under low footbridges. There are some large course fish in the river which you can startle if moving very gently. There are kestrel nesting boxes along the way where you can get very close to the birds. This habitat is ideal for small mammals so the kestrels are well fed. If you have the energy on a hot day then a little over a kilometer north is the fabulous Anchor Inn pub. It gets very busy on sunny summer days so it pays to arrive by boat.
Barcombe would have been a key crossing point of the Ouse for the German Army in the event that they had invaded England. The measure of importance is still evident today with at least 5 concrete bunkers guarding the crossing. In the event of an attack the weirs and locks would have been demolished to flood the surrounding meadows making the terrain impassable to vehicles.
Tides
The Ouse is non-tidal above Barcombe Mills.
Other
Barcombe reservoir is a stocked trout water.
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| We spent a scorching easter holiday mucking about on the river. |
