The secluded valley
Milland
A dispersed West Sussex village of wooded greensand ridges, old hammer ponds, community landmarks and narrow country lanes.
- Best for
- Woodland walking, village history and an unhurried pub lunch
- Give it
- A relaxed half day, or longer with Hollycombe
- Don't miss
- The contrast between Tuxlith Chapel and St Luke's
The Fox verdict
A lived-in valley with deep historical layers
Milland rewards visitors who prefer community places, wooded trails and small discoveries to a conventional sightseeing circuit.
Begin at the village crossroads, then follow the valley's story through the adjoining old chapel and Victorian church, the ponds and woods shaped by former industry, and a local stretch of the Serpent Trail. Hollycombe adds a substantial steam-heritage outing nearby.
Where to go
Places in Milland
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Rising Sun
A smart country pub with three bars, three open fires, a one-acre garden and a kitchen focused on fresh, local and seasonal dishes.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 90 minutes
- Locality
- at the Milland crossroads
- Access
- Dogs are generally welcome but are excluded from the dining room on some days; check the pub's current guidance.
Milland Stores and Café
A purpose-built, community-owned shop and café run by staff and volunteers, selling everyday basics and local products alongside coffee, cake and light lunches.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- in the modern village centre
Serpent Trail
A local section of the official 65-mile waymarked route through greensand heathland, woodland, acid grassland and bog, with manageable stages crossing the parish.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 120 minutes
- Locality
- across Milland parish
- Access
- Choose a manageable local stage before setting out.
History & heritage
2 placesChurch of St Luke
A Grade II church built in 1879–80, with six 1886 Taylor bells, two Christopher Whall stained-glass windows and a circular font thought to be Saxon.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- beside Tuxlith Chapel
Milland Old Church
The Grade II old church contains late-11th-century fabric, including herringbone masonry and a blocked round-headed window, and has been cared for by the Friends of Friendless Churches since 1974.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 45 minutes
- Locality
- on a wooded hilltop
- Access
- Reached from the valley by 76 old stone steps.
Things to do
3 placesMilland Recreation Field
A large recreation field with a football pitch, a fenced play area for younger children and an activity trail for older children.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- beside Milland Valley Memorial Hall
Milland Tennis Club
Two hard courts operated by an LTA-affiliated village club, with pay-and-play access available to non-members by prior arrangement.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 60 minutes
- Locality
- behind Milland Valley Memorial Hall
- Access
- Non-members should arrange pay-and-play access through Milland Stores before visiting.
Hollycombe Steam in the Country
A traditional fairground and working steam attraction with railways, Golden Gallopers, steam swing boats, a farm, woodland gardens and a children's play area.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: around 180 minutes
- Locality
- at Iron Hill in the wider Milland area
- Access
- Limited seasonal opening—check the official calendar before travel.
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Three ways to explore Milland
Signature outings
The Old Church on the Hill
Take the 76 old stone steps to Tuxlith Chapel and trace its herringbone masonry and blocked Norman window.
A Crossroads Pub with a Twist
Pause at the Rising Sun for local, seasonal cooking in the brick roadhouse built for a main road that never arrived.
Hollycombe in Motion
Make a seasonal outing to the working railways, steam swing boats and Golden Gallopers at Hollycombe.
The village story
Milland Village Guide
Community landmarks, old industries and wooded ridges in a secluded corner of the South Downs.
A Pub and a Road That Never Came
The Rising Sun stands at the Milland crossroads with three bars, three open fires and a garden that runs to an acre, plus a heated lodge in the grounds that is dressed up as a ski lodge each winter. The kitchen leans local and seasonal: crispy squid with Himalayan salt, Szechuan pepper and chilli jam; a warm bacon, maple and mustard Scotch egg; slow-roast pork belly with cider gravy and burnt-apple ketchup; a handmade beef-shin, Guinness and chestnut-mushroom pie. Fuller's Chiswick Bitter and London Pride are the regular cask ales. The landlord, Ben Burston, has twice won Fuller's Griffin Trophy for the brewery's best village pub. Dogs are welcome, though not in the dining room from Monday to Saturday.
The building is brick rather than the stone you might expect. The older stone pub was pulled down and rebuilt in the 1930s in anticipation of the London-Portsmouth road being diverted through the valley. The road went elsewhere.
Community at the Heart of the Valley
In the village is Milland Stores, a purpose-built community shop and café that the actor Hugh Bonneville opened in December 2011, after the village had gone about thirty years without a shop of any kind. It was built from scratch, not rescued: an oak-framed building with a ground-source heat pump and, since 2022, solar panels on the roof. It carries everyday basics and local produce, will order in bread, vegetables, fruit and meat, and serves coffee, cake and light lunches. Staff and volunteers run it between them.
Milland sits in a broad, secluded clay vale the locals simply call the Valley, almost ringed by wooded greensand ridges: Milland Hill to the north, Iron Hill to the east, the Telegraph, Titty and Stubb hills to the south. Springs feed a scatter of ponds — Folly Pond, Cooks Pond, Durrants Pond — several left over from old hammer or mill workings, draining into Hammer Stream and on to the River Rother. The lanes are narrow and hedged, opening onto changing views of fields, woods and the enclosing hangers.
Trails Through a Secluded Vale
For walking, the Serpent Trail crosses the parish on its way over the greensand heaths and can be taken in manageable stretches, from Combe Hill through Rondle Wood, or from Borden over Titty Hill to Woolbeding. A longer loop of about seven and a quarter miles from Liphook station takes in Milland Place, the Hammer Stream and the village centre, mostly on forest paths that can be muddy.
Liphook, roughly three kilometres north, is the nearest station, on South Western Railway. The bus is Stagecoach's route 93 between Midhurst and Petersfield, now down to a single journey each way from Monday to Saturday, so it is worth checking the timetable before you plan around it.
Old Faith and Working Water
The church of St Luke, built in 1879-80 in a plain Perpendicular style, holds two stained-glass windows by Christopher Whall, six Taylor bells cast in 1886, and a circular font thought to be Saxon that was found buried in the churchyard. Beside it stands the older building it replaced, Tuxlith Chapel, whose rubble walls, herringbone masonry and blocked round-headed window belong to late-eleventh-century fabric, later altered. It fell into disrepair in the 1930s, passed to the Friends of Friendless Churches in 1974, and was refitted in 1993. It sits on a wooded hilltop reached from the valley by seventy-six old stone steps. Pevsner set the two side by side and called the pairing "a very telling contrast between true piety and 19th-century religious advertisement."
The valley has been worked for a long time. A Roman road between Chichester and Silchester ran through it, and from the sixteenth century the streams powered an iron industry whose hammer ponds still shape the wet ground. Brick and tile came later, the Booker family's Cartersland brickworks near Pennels Bridge smoking away until the late 1930s.
Steam, Gardens and Open-Air Play
For days out, Hollycombe Steam in the Country is close by at Iron Hill, a traditional fairground with Golden Gallopers, steam swing boats and working steam railways, open on a limited seasonal calendar. Midhurst and the Cowdray ruins make a natural drive, and Woolbeding Gardens can be visited by advance booking and a minibus from the town.
Behind the memorial hall there is a recreation field with a football pitch, a fenced play area for younger children and an activity trail for older ones, and two hard tennis courts, available pay-and-play with access arranged through the village shop.
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A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- The Rising Sun — risingsunmilland.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Milland Stores and Café — millandstores.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Church of St Luke — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Milland Old Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Serpent Trail — southdowns.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Milland Recreation Field — register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Milland Tennis Club — milland-wsx-pc.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Hollycombe Steam in the Country — hollycombe.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation