The Cuckoo Trail

Cyclists on the Downs and Weald route follow the Cuckoo Trail for its full length of 10 miles. The Trail follows the line of a former railway, which in its heyday stretched from Eridge to Polegate, passing the Sussex towns of Heathfield, Horam, Hellingly and Hailsham. Railway workers nicknamed it the Cuckoo Line after the Sussex tradition that the first cuckoo of Spring was released at closeby Heathfield Fair.

The Cuckoo Line, first opened in 1849, was well used in the 1960's, carrying milk, livestock and animal feed as well as  passengers. Like many other rural railways, Dr Beeching's axe fell on the Cuckoo Line in 1965 and the very last passenger train ran from Eastbourne to Hailsham on 9th September 1968. 

In 1981, Wealden District Council and East Sussex County Council bought the line south of Heathfield for use as a public trail. But it wasn't until 1990 that it received a new lease of life when the Cuckoo Line opened as a traffic-free pathway for walkers, cyclists and - for part of its length - horses.

On the Cuckoo Trail you can enjoy six original sculptures placed as mileposts along its way. In May 1993, a dozen benches were positioned along the Trail, made from local oaks blown down in the Great Hurricane in October 1987. The benches are handcarved by a local sculptor and local people, and they are a useful resting place for saddle-sore cyclists.