Wading Through Mud on Thorney Island

Country: England
Place: Thorney Island, Chichester Harbour
Visited in: February 2007

Faced with two armed soldiers, we knew, we had gone too far and quickly turned the car around. The majority of our 7 mile walk that day would be on land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and while you do need to ask for permission to walk around Thorney Island, the checkpoint was not the right place to negotiate access.

Thorney Island, which was named after the Hawthorn bushes that grow on the island, is no longer an island, but a peninsula. The island was joined to the mainland in 1870 by 72 hectares of reclaimed tidal mudflats.

The peninsula has been home to soldiers since before the second world war, but is also visited by a great number of birds such as Curlew, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Shelduck, Brent Goose, Red-Breasted Merganser, Sandwich Tern and Little Tern.

The area is not short of mud either - at least it wasn’t, when we visited at the end of February. So once we had parked the car near Emsworth, we soon found ourselves wading through so much mud that we nearly postponed our 7 mile walk around Thorney island.

However giving in to the mud was no real option, as the walk marked the beginning of our attempt to conquer the 256 km (160 miles) long Sussex Border Path from Thorney Island to Rye (see update at the bottom of the page).

After a few near misses with boots getting stuck in the mud, we made it on to the sea wall that runs along Emsworth Channel.

With reed beds to our left and a strong wind blowing from our right we enjoyed watching the many birds looking for food in the mud. As was the case on a previous walk at Chichester harbour we could see boats resting on the mud, as the tide was out.

When we reached the MoD Western Security Gate, we had to provide our name and telephone number via the intercom, before we were buzzed through the gate. Along the route we were warned by several signs not to stray from the path, as public access to Thorney Island is limited to the footpath.

The risk of accidentally leaving the footpath, though, is virtually non-existent as the path is very well signposted and straightforward to follow. But you do need to watch out for the tide, as parts of the path may flood at high tide.

As we were following the Emsworth Channel, we did not see much life other than the birds and the odd rabbit. But the island almost sprung to life, even if it were for a brief moment only, after we had turned Longmere point and reached the St Nicholas’ Church.

The buzz of life did not spring from the church* itself, but from the nearby Thorney Island Sailing Club. One man was mowing a fairly big lawn, people were getting into their wetsuits and in the background you could hear people working on their boats. As we turned the corner still enjoying the smell of freshly cut grass, we saw a group of people walking their boats down a pier.

As quickly as all the activity had appeared, it disappeared again as we walked through a small archway formed by the branches of an old tree and continued along the Thorney Channel.

Apart from a couple walking their dog on the disused airfield, we did not see or hear people again, until we checked out of the MoD area via the intercom at the Eastern Security Gate.

Approaching a boatyard we were welcomed by what at first sounded like hundreds of wind chimes, but turned out to be the ringing of rigging against masts. Straight after the boatyard we were treated to the sight and sounds of a big flock of geese mingling on the water, before they flew off with a swoosh to a nearby patch of grass.

On the last stretch we walked past a herd of alpacas (I believe), a couple of horses and a goat, before we reached our car and could change our muddy boots for trainers and walk to the nearest pub for a drink.

Note

The MoD website says that public access is not permitted to the St Nicholas’ Church, but the Chichester Harbour Conservancy website says public access is now permitted. We chose to play it safe and did not visit the church.

The Sussex Border Path

The Sussex Border Path runs from Thorney Island in West Sussex to Rye in East Sussex. The path, which was created by Ramblers Ben Perkins and Aeneas Mackintosh, is 256km (160 miles) long and uses the borders of the two counties as its guideline.

Update - 16 May 2007: We only managed to complete 3 walks before the instigator of the attempt pulled out. The remaining two of us have decided not to continue on the Sussex Border Path, but to go back to circular walks instead. See What’s in a name? for more information about our Sussex Walks series, which replaces the Sussex Border Path series.

External Links

For further information about access to Thorney Island, please visit the MoD website.

You can find a table of tide times on the Chichester Harbour Conservancy website.

Technorati Tags: travel, walk, hiking, Thorney Island, Chichester Harbour, West Sussex, Sussex Border Path

2 Responses to “Wading Through Mud on Thorney Island”

1. Padre Nick Todd:

   Hi,
   You are very welcome to visit the church! It is normally open. If you happen to be there on a Sunday there is a service each week at 10:30am.

   15 May, 2008 at 10:47
2. Anni Poulsen:

   Thank you very much for clearing that up!

   15 May, 2008 at 14:52

Leave a Reply