Nothing is more delightful than stumbling upon a little pocket of tranquillity with a little touch of magic about it. Sandgate Park, just outside Storrington, with its Moon Bridge (AKA The Fairy Bridge) is such a place.
Logistics and parking
Sandgate Park is close to Sullington Warren, just to the east of Storrington. Take the Washington Road (the A283) and turn up Water Lane. The best place to park is in the Sullington Warren car park, which you will quickly come to on your left. At peak time, this may be full, but please beware, no parking is permitted on Water Lane. From the car park, carry on walking up Water Lane past the entrance to the quarry. If the car park is full, park in Storrington and walk back. It is just under 2 km from the town centre.
In less than half a kilometre, you will come to the entrance to Sandgate Park on your right. The path immediately splits, but stick left and follow it along. To your right is open grassland and views across the quarry to the South Downs. To your left is woodland.
After about 1 km, the path comes to a fence but just before that is a turning to the left. Take this and follow the path into the wood, over the bridge, past the pond and round to your left. After a short distance, you will see the Moon Bridge over the water.
If you are struggling to find it, the bridge is at What3Words///bronzes.care.beginning.
You can then either retrace your steps or carry on to the next little bridge and wiggle and wind your way back to the park entrance through the woodlands. This isn’t a large wood, so even if you get a little lost, you’ll soon find your way back. We walked around the northern end of the woods, and there was a large area of heather and huge rhododendrons. Then we took the winding path across a boardwalk and ended up right at the back of the gate. The whole walk from the car park was less than 3 km.
Sandgate Park and the Moon Bridge
Sandgate Park in West Sussex is a 30-acre park. It was rescued from industrial development in the late 1960s by local residents. It was once part of the Sandgate Estate that had a large house built in 1868 and some 4,00 acres with parkland, ornamental treesand shrubs. Gradually the estate was sold off and what remained was transferred to the council and established as a nature reserve in 1974. The Moon Bridge is actually part of a series of little bridges in the woods, described as whimiscal but serving a useful purpose and very pretty.
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