Barrows on the chalk
Treyford
A tiny South Downs settlement beneath the Devil's Jumps, with country pubs and historic days out in the surrounding countryside.
- Best for
- Bronze Age earthworks and chalk-downland walks
- Give it
- A half day, or combine it with a nearby heritage stop
- Don't miss
- The seven barrows of the Devil's Jumps
The Fox verdict
A quiet base beneath ancient barrows
Treyford rewards visitors who come for the chalk landscape and plan their food and transport around neighbouring places.
The compelling sight is above the settlement: the Devil's Jumps, a Scheduled Bronze Age cemetery beside the South Downs Way. Treyford itself has no pub or shop, but Elsted and Hooksway supply three characterful country pubs, while Midhurst, Uppark and Singleton broaden a visit into a rewarding South Downs day.
Where to go
Places in Treyford
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesThe Devil's Jumps
A Scheduled cemetery of five bell barrows and two bowl barrows in undulating chalk downland, with a local legend linking the mounds to the Devil and Thor.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Treyford Hill, beside the South Downs Way
Historic Midhurst Walk and Cowdray Ruins
An easy one-to-two-mile town walk anchored by Cowdray's ruins above the water meadows, a site associated with visits by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- Midhurst
Weald & Downland Living Museum
A hands-on museum of rural life with more than 50 rescued historic buildings, working demonstrations, traditional crafts and animals.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 150 minutes
- Locality
- Singleton
Food & drink
5 placesThe Three Horseshoes
A traditional country pub with gravity-poured cask ales and a garden looking over the Downs; dogs are welcome at tables and on leads in the garden.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Elsted
The Elsted Inn
A cosy Victorian pub with rooms, originally the Station Hotel for the former Petersfield–Midhurst railway and with a coach house once used by Ballard's Brewery.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Elsted Marsh
The Royal Oak
An independent free house in a 16th-century cottage, hidden in the Downs and strongly oriented to walkers, with cask beer and a large garden.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Hooksway
Cowdray Farm Shop
A farm shop, traditional butchery, deli and café selling Cowdray cheeses, in-house breads and pastries, and estate meat.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Midhurst
Durleighmarsh Farm Shop
A family-run farm shop and pick-your-own with seasonal fruit and vegetables from the farm alongside goods from local producers.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- near Petersfield
History & heritage
1 placeUppark House and Garden
A 17th-century house with gardens, a wildflower meadow, wildlife walks and broad views over the Downs towards the Solent.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 90 minutes
- Locality
- South Harting
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Three ways to explore Treyford
Signature outings
Meet the Devil's Jumps
Trace the group of seven Bronze Age barrows on Treyford Hill beside the South Downs Way.
Pause at the Three Horseshoes
Choose from the changing blackboard food and take a cask ale into the garden overlooking the Downs.
Explore Uppark
Pair a 17th-century house and wildflower meadow with broad views over the Downs towards the Solent.
The village story
Treyford Village Guide
Ancient mounds, vanished churches and country pubs shape the story of this small settlement beneath the Downs.
The Barrows and the Village
Seven Bronze Age barrows stand on Treyford Hill, the burial mounds known as the Devil's Jumps: five bell barrows run in a line roughly north-east to south-west, with two bowl barrows alongside them. Two of the bell barrows, partially excavated in the late nineteenth century, held simple cremations beneath the mounds. The group is an outstanding example of its class. Legend says the Devil sprang noisily from mound to mound until Thor, resting on the hill, threw a boulder and frightened him off. The South Downs Way runs past them.
Treyford has no pub or shop. The nearest country pubs are in Elsted and Hooksway.
Pubs Beyond Treyford
The Three Horseshoes in Elsted is a sixteenth-century pub with a blackboard menu. The south-facing garden has roses and free-range chickens, and cask ales are gravity-poured from behind the bar. Dogs are welcome at tables and on leads in the garden.
The Elsted Inn, over at Elsted Marsh, started life as the Station Hotel for a stop on the 1864 Petersfield–Midhurst branch line. The station is long gone; the Victorian pub has rooms, and the detached coach house once held Ballard's Brewery.
Hooksway and the Lost Churches
The Royal Oak at Hooksway is a free house in a sixteenth-century cottage, tucked into the Downs and set up for walkers. David Jeffrey and Sarah Warner have run it since 1990. The pub has roaring fires, good beer and food, and a resident spectre called William Shepherd. Local lore describes Shepherd as a sheep rustler shot after taking refuge there around 1680. The associated six-mile circuit starts at the pub, climbs through yew, fern and beech, then descends through Didling and Treyford.
The ruins of St Mary's church stand here, with a thirteenth-century nave and chancel. Three Early English lancets survive in the east wall, alongside faint traces of brown lozenge painting, consecration crosses cut into the stone, a blocked twelfth-century doorway and a broken altar slab of Sussex marble. A grander replacement followed: St Peter's was a stone church with a 120-foot spire, earning the name Cathedral of the Downs. The community was too small to keep it up. The replacement was demolished in 1951, and the spire was blown up.
Provisions, Trains and the Waypost
For stocking a kitchen, Cowdray Farm Shop in Midhurst has estate venison, grass-fed lamb and beef and its own Cowdray cheeses; Durleighmarsh, near Petersfield, is a pick-your-own for strawberries, raspberries and pumpkins grown on the farm. Petersfield, some six miles off as the crow flies, has the nearest station.
By the lane stands a small St Christopher waypost, put up in 1924 and refurbished a couple of years ago. The lettering beneath it still reads: "Who carried Christ speed thee today, And lift thy heart up all the way."
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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 Devil's Jumps — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Three Horseshoes — thethreehorseshoeselsted.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Elsted Inn — elstedinn.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- The Royal Oak — camra.org.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Cowdray Farm Shop — cowdray.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Durleighmarsh Farm Shop — visitpetersfield.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Historic Midhurst Walk and Cowdray Ruins — southdowns.gov.uk statutory register or public authority
- Uppark House and Garden — nationaltrust.org.uk national body or asset manager
- Weald & Downland Living Museum — wealddown.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation