Church Norton
Children will love a huge, and mostly empty, beach on this walk.
The Basics
Time: Each walk takes about 40 minutes, but for the walk from RSPB Pagham Harbour, you will need to double that to include the return leg.
Distance: 2.6 km between RSPB Pagham Harbour and Church Norton and 2.5 km to loop around Church Norton
Terrain: If you are walking between the RSPB visitor centre and Church Norton you will encounter one road crossing, a short pavement section by a busy road and then flat coastal paths, narrow in places and a small section of narrow boardwalk. If you are walking the loop around Church Norton and East Beach, you will encounter firm shingly paths, flat grassy field, farm tracks and quiet country lanes.
Pushchair: Only for the Church Norton and East Beach loop, not between the RSPB visitor centre and Church Norton.
Dogs: Dogs are welcome under close control.
Refreshments: Basic light refreshments are available from the RSPB visitor centre and there is also a picnic area with tables.
Toilets: There are no toilets at Church Norton, but there are toilets during opening hours at the RSPB visitor centre.
Parking: Parking is in a small car park at Church Norton for the beach loop, £2 up to four hours, £3 for over, PayByPhone (Postcode: PO20 9DT - W3W: caveman/nowadays/agency). There is a larger car park at the RSPB nature reserve with the same charges (Postcode: PO20 7NE - W3W: mirroring/starch/commoners)
Pagham Harbour is a nature reserve on one of the few undeveloped stretches of the Sussex coastline. It is a wildlife haven and contains important habitats for birds, and even seals can sometimes be spotted lying on the shingle beaches. Church Norton sits on the edge of the harbour where you will find St Wilfred’s, a small rural chapel. You can walk between Church Norton and the RSPB visitor centre, taking in the harbour’s scenery, or you can walk a short loop around the hamlet, taking in a large, quiet shingle beach close to the eastern end of Selsey.
The Route
The car park at Church Norton is small and can often be full at weekends. Therefore our first route suggestion is to park at the RSPB visitor centre and walk to Church Norton. This route has beautiful harbour views, lots of birdlife to spot, refreshments, toilets, picnic area at the visitor centre, wildlife cameras at the visitor centre, bird hides, raised wooden boardwalk and can include East Beach and St Wilfred’s Chapel.
Exit the visitor centre by crossing the road and then turning left. There is a pavement on the opposite side. Go over the bridge and look for the footpath on your left leading away from the road along the ferry channel. For the rest of the walk, you just need to stick with this path! Just before the boardwalk, you will spot the bird hide and just after the boardwalk, you can turn right to go and see the chapel or go straight on to go to the beach. Return the way you came for this walk. This route is not pushchair friendly.
If you want a shorter route that a decent pushchair can handle, then the following is a loop around the hamlet of Church Norton. You will see views, birdlife, possibly seals if you are super lucky, the shingle beach and as a random extra, a farm that has some old vehicles parked up that some children might like to see, including two fire engines and a crane!
Park at Church Norton car park, where you can also visit the chapel. Then follow the straight path down towards the harbour. Turn right when you arrive.
This path will take you out of the harbour to the large shingle beach. The water quality here has been rated as excellent. The path continues along the top of the beach and is framed by wild plants on either side. When you reach a footpath finger post, turn right away from the beach.
This path will soon take you along the right hand side of a field. At the end of the field, turn right towards Greenlease Farm. It is here that you will spot an intriguing vehicle graveyard including a fire engine parked in front of the farmhouse. Continue straight along the farm track, passing other properties until you get to the road.
At the road, turn right. This is the quiet country lane that you will have driven down to get to the car park. Walk down it to return to your car.
One further option for a walk in Pagham Harbour is the easy ‘discovery trail’ from the visitor centre to Sidlesham Quay that we have previously walked.
Did you know?
Selsey translates from the old Anglo-Saxon as ‘seal island’.
Look out for tern island, a man made raft used as a suitable nesting site for terns. You will hear them as they feed around the harbour and can catch up with their nests on live-web cams.
The chapel was once a full sized church, until part of it was demolished and rebuilt at the centre of the village. The chancel is the only part still standing in its original location.
No buildings over a certain height are allowed to be built on Manhood Peninsula so as to preserve the views of Chichester Cathedral - the only cathedral in England that you can see from the sea!
If you liked this walk…
Try this one at Climping Beach, beween Bognor Regis and Littlehampton. It also has an undeveloped section of coastline.
