BOAT: Hornslodge Lane

• Overall Rating: 3
• Location: Five Ashes, East Sussex.
• OS Explorer Map 135, 'Ashdown Forest'.
• Starting OS Grid Reference: TQ561239
• Starting GPS Co-ordinates: N51 99' 40" E000 22' 30"
• Finishing OS Grid Reference: TQ556234
• Finishing GPS Co-ordinates: N50 98' 90" E000 21' 60"
• To see: not much.  
• ALWAYS follow the Greenlane Code!

It's ridiculously rutted.

I have christened this otherwise un-named byway as Hornslodge Lane due to the ghyll of the same name that runs along the north of the lane, but if anybody knows of the 'real' name please comment below.

This green lane is seriously rutted, and therefore great care must be taken if you choose to drive it. Our Defender 110', which does not have a suspension lift, repeatedly grounded out, and we gave up when we reached the gate as it got a lot worse afterwards. It's our advice to steer clear of this lane and await a program of repair to be carried out on the surface before driving it.

Starting, then, on Frog Hole Lane, the byway heads south-west on a very rutted surface of earth, and even in dry weather the surface remains soft. Heading uphill, a metal gate is soon encountered which is easily bypassed, but through the gate the lane becomes so rutted as to be impassable without further damage to the lane and quite possibly your vehicle for anything without a suspension lift.

Through the gate the byway continues to climb uphill and begins a gentle curve to the left around a small pond. Here the surface changes to builders rubble that has be strewn everywhere to provide an easier surface as the ruts end. After another very short distance the hill is crested and the byway comes out into a gravel drive serving the barns in Badgers Mead Farm yard. the right-of-way is through this yard and onto the (obvious) track leading up to the A267 where the byway ends just south of Five Ashes.

Approaching the southern end.

View Hornslodge Lane in a larger map