#jevington

Start at Eastbourne Station.

From the train you can see the Long Man. How many see it from the train everyday? Loads, but not as many as see it from the road. You might wonder, then, why bother with all that walking. Walking is useless. But that's up to you. From the station go to Georgio's cafe. Then to St Mary’s Church in Old Town with its half-hidden Celtic cross. Hidden perhaps for shame: a small metal plaque says REMOVED FROM CORNWALL IN MDCCCXVII. As though the benighted Cornish couldn't be trusted with their own culture.

However it got there, his means The South Downs Way starts with a true Celtic artefact and ends with another, fabulous Celtic artefact; Edward III's Arthurian Round Table in Winchester.

From the church,  take the side streets through Downside. You can see the wooded ridge of the Downs. It's not just a backdrop to a pleasant suburbia: they're real. You get there after passing two schools and some allotments. Lovely. Head for the Dew Pond, then follow the South Downs Way to Jevington. Stop in the church, St Andrew's and ask for a blessing, if you can, from the enigmatic stone Christ on the north wall of the nave. There’s a water point there, too. From Jevington rejoin The South Downs Way.

As you near the Long Man you'll need to veer off, slightly east of north, away from the brow of Windover Hill with its round barrows and the long mound. There’re a lot of tracks. Don't worry if you think you've got lost. You’ve been thrown by stumbling into an ancient and and hallowed landscape.The well-trodden track you want is known as the Giant’s Causeway. You'll find a stile that'll lead you to the head of The Long Man.

You’ve made it.  

photo: (top) Christ, Anglo-Saxon, Jevington; (below) The Long Man, Wilmington from The Giant’s Causeway. 

Excellent Open Access (free to read) articles: Excavations at Dun Cuier, Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides http://bit.ly/YRSFUR The Pottery of Gergovia in relation to that of other sites in Central and South-Western France http://bit.ly/158sgWA Fieldwalking at Duttle's Brow near Jevington, East Sussex: Prehistoric to Romano-British Downland occupation and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery. http://bit.ly/XjJM6C [SOUTHEAST ASIAN PREHISTORY] Excavation of An Son: a Neolithic mound site in the middle Vam Co Dong valley, southern Vietnam http://bit.ly/18kYwTJ Folk-lore in London Archaeology http://bit.ly/16zWpOu