Introduction
This is the journal I made in September 1973 documenting the journey that Anthony Taylor and I made along the length of the South Downs Way.
Anthony was one of my best friends at school (Aldenham School in Elstree, Hertfordshire). Very sadly, I heard that he had died in a car crash with his wife in Iceland around 2005.
We had left school and I had completed an Arts foundation course at St. Albans School of Art and was about to start my degree course in Coventry. Anthony called me and asked me to accompany him on the South Downs Way. He wanted to do it with the minimum of gear so we decided to do without a tent, but took a sheet of polythene each. We did not take a cooker but would rely (we hoped) on open fires. We also did not have decent hiking clothes. My waterproof for instance was a cagjack (which was a long plastic coat).
These are the guides and maps we used – I mention the Bartholomews map in the journal, which I believe Anthony had.
Abbreviations
AJT – Anthony’s initials
SDW – South downs Way
Click on the map below to see a large version of the map.
