Merston: Discover the Canal Path and St Giles' Church

Merston appeals to travellers who want to get to know a place through its paths, architectural history and visible traces of past use. Here, the Sussex Hospices Trail passes St Giles' Church and connects the walk with the route of the former Portsmouth and Arundel Canal. This creates a travel experience in which outdoor activity and historical discovery go hand in hand. For families, this can provide a varied basis for the day: one part is devoted to the trail, another to the unusual details in the churchyard and along the old canal bed.

Walking along the old canal route

Near Merston, the Sussex Hospices Trail reaches a signposted junction of public footpaths. It then meets the route of the old canal and passes the brick remains of a canal bridge. This sequence provides recognisable points of orientation, so you do not have to view the walk merely as a route through the landscape. Those travelling with children can use the brick remains and the canal route as an opportunity to talk along the way about former transport routes and traces of their use.

The Portsmouth and Arundel Canal was built between 1818 and 1823. The footpath near Merston follows its route. The former canal bed is now covered with grass and wildflowers. As a result, the historic route is visible not only in the surviving brick remains but also as part of today's landscape. The combination of a signposted footpath, former canal route and overgrown canal bed is particularly suitable for visitors who want to experience both nature and local history during a walk.

St Giles' Church and its medieval form

In Merston, the Sussex Hospices Trail passes St Giles' Church. The church is a Grade I listed building and a small medieval church dating from the 13th century. Its form includes a chancel and an undivided nave, a north aisle, a south porch and a bellcote at the west end of the nave. This clearly identifiable architectural form makes the site especially interesting to travellers who want to discover architectural details while walking.

There is also a single-storey building from the early 19th century at the north-west corner of the churchyard. It is made of rubble stone and red brick. Its original function cannot be assigned unequivocally to a single use: the building may have served as a stable for parishioners who came to the church for services, or as a parish room. This cautious attribution is itself part of the character of this small group of buildings. It raises another question about local architectural and community history without defining the building's past more firmly than the surviving description allows.

Merston as a base for planning your trip

When looking for a holiday apartment or holiday house in Merston, you can first decide which of these local features you want to make the focus of your trip. If you want to explore the Sussex Hospices Trail and the historic canal route, planning your walks will be central. If you are more interested in church architecture and smaller historic buildings, St Giles' Church provides its own cultural point of interest. This allows your choice of location to be adapted to your preferred daily rhythm, without deriving unsupported distances or access conditions from individual attractions.

Merston is therefore particularly interesting for travellers looking for a tangible landscape history: the path follows the route of a canal built between 1818 and 1823, passes the brick remains of a canal bridge and leads past a small 13th-century church.

More destinations to compare

If you would like to compare other destinations for your trip planning alongside Merston, you can view Angmering, Lower Beeding, Crawley, Steyning, Pulborough, Chichester, Findon and Albourne.

For the overarching travel overview: West Sussex.