England Coast Path: 4. Bognor Regis to Selsey

I caught the train into Bognor and took a short walk back down to the pier where I’d finished the Worthing to Bognor section of the England Coast Path a few weeks back. I was planning to head west towards the Witterings but wasn’t feeling full of the joys of life so unsure I’d get that far.

The west side of the pier at Bognor Regis on a grey April morning

Interesting fact: apparently Bognor only added Regis to its name in 1929 after King George V spent three months recuperating from an illness there – you learn something new every day. This day, however, Bognor was not looking very regal. The weather had been putting me off doing any more sections of the path recently but I’d finally found a day that claimed it would just be a bit grey rather than really awful so I figured I had no more excuses.

It may not have been really awful, but it was drizzling a bit and there was a fierce headwind. Yay. I had a brief chat with a 70-year-old chap whose job it was to clear the stones off the prom, agreeing we were tougher than most to be out on a day like this, then off I trotted.

The promenade at Bognor Regis scattered with stones from the beach

One of the groynes at Bognor Regis looking down towards the sea from the stony beach

At first the path passed alongside the sea, as expected being a coastal path. Then it veered behind a row of beach huts and off inland through a fancy village called Aldwick, another place on my south coast wanderings containing private neighbourhoods. Once past a walled-off area of housing and heading back in a seawards direction, I passed a place called Dark Lane, which ominously led to Strange Garden. Thankfully I didn’t need to go that way.

A line of beach huts at Bognor Regis with the stony beach and sea in front on the keft

"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside" written on the back of a Bognor Regis beach hut next to a picture of a red and white striped lighthouse

Eventually I found a sign directing me back down between some houses and out onto the wild, stony dunes of the coastline. There was another section of super posh houses to my right, but the path ahead was filled with energy-draining stones. I dropped down towards the waves, finding a harder-packed area of beach right next to the sea. The local dog walkers were all down here too, so it must have been a good plan. The headwind was vicious, but I ploughed on towards a big run-off pipe which handily emerged from the beach just where a nice man told me the coastal path veered back inland.

On the beach looking back towards Bognor Regis on a grey cloudy day in April

The coast path takes you through a really cute neighbourhood of smaller seaside houses at this point to reach Pagham Harbour. Not the mega houses of the affluent this time, more like what the Kiwis would call a “bach”. I could really see myself living in some of these.

Pagham Harbour is a large nature reserve and site of special scientific interest made up of areas of saltmarsh, tidal mudflats, reeds, wetlands and shallow lagoons, and home to lots of wildlife, particularly birds. The England Coast Path takes what I found to be a very muddy inland route around the harbour; not very coastal at all.

Looking back on Pagham Harbour from the North Wall path

I hopped up onto what was also labelled the North Wall Trail which eventually took me to Sidlesham, from where you pick up the old Selsey Tram Way. A couple more signs or post markers would have been useful along this bit as when I reached some junctions I had to guess that the England Coast Path was probably just straight on. My presumptions were right, but I wouldn’t have wanted to backtrack if they hadn’t been.

Looking eastwards from the North Wall path over Pagham Harbour

Looking across Pagham Harbour to Sidlesham

In the late 1800s Pagham Harbour was actually sealed to provide agricultural land for the local people and a tram way was installed alongside, running from Chichester to Selsey. The sea, however, cannot be held back for long and eventually it broke through and flooded the area. Finally closing in 1935, the tram way now forms a public footpath and this section has been purloined as part of the England Coast Path.

A direction post with signs for the Selsey Tram Way and England Coast Path

The muddy Selsey Tram Way footpath in April

The trail eventually dropped back down into the harbour with a warning about not attempting the route at high tide. It looked pretty far out so I followed what looked like a new wooden path back onto more stony dunes and then the prom at Selsey. Note, I didn’t see any public toilets on this route until I reached the RNLI station at Selsey.

The view along the beach from Selsey back towards Bognor Regis

It felt like it was getting colder and the headwind was super strong. As the Witterings still seemed a long way off, I decided to save them for another day. I had walked for 18 km more than I’d really wanted to at the start of the day, so there was no point pushing on and getting grumpy. I caught a bus for £2 from outside the RNLI station up to Chichester, grateful to finally be out of the bloody wind, where I then hopped on an onward train home.