SWC walk 40 - East Grinstead Circular with alternative afternoon
Length: 11.2 miles (18.1 km)
Toughness: 4 out of 10
9.53 train from Victoria (9.59 Clapham Junction, 10.11 East Croydon) to East Grinstead, arriving 10.48
For walk directions click here.
The standard East Grinstead Circular is a very pleasant walk which has suffered in walkers' perceptions in recent years because of several outings in winter when its initial descent across fields has proved very muddy**. But the fields are dry as a bone at this time of year, and even if we do have some heavy rain this week it should quickly soak in/evapourate (it takes a couple of months for the Wealden fields to build up their characteristic winter squelch).
So this is an attempt to rescue this walk's reputation - long overdue as it has many delights, including a mansion which has been lying in ruins since the 17th century. Those who have done this route previously will also be pleased to hear that the Chequers Inn in Forest Row, the usual lunch pub, has recovered from its deep funk and now seems to be offering a large and varied menu. There are in any case oodles of other options nearby.
This is also a chance to do the longer afternoon route (the 11.2 mile version of the walk: though if anyone wants to do the shorter main route instead I won't tell the teacher). The alternative afternoon takes you to around the Weir Wood Reservoir (though with distant views of it rather than close encounters) and up to Standen, a National Trust property. If you can get here before it closes at 5pm you can have tea in its tea room. If not, the walk offers lots of other options.
Trains back from East Grinstead are at 07 and 37 past till late.
** Out of interest, a completely new winter start to the walk has been researched and will be trialled later in the year. This will also allow one to make a morning visit to Standen in the summer months.
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1 comment:
n=12 w=sunny_warm
I'm not entirely sure how to add meta data to this comment! Anyway, on the East Grinstead Circular there were 12 people. The walk poster had promised it would be dry underfoot, however, it was actually quite muddy in parts. This was the first time I had done this walk and was presently surprised how pretty it was. The reservoir looked particularly attractive in the sun. One walker asked, with impeccably good manners, whether we could have tea and cakes in the National Trust property and they thankfully said yes. All in all an enjoyable walk with good company. Thank you 'Walker' for posting it before the mud builds up to such an extent, to make it, shall we say, challenging!
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