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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Sunday Walk – Steam trains in the High Weald

Extra Walk 120 – Eridge Circular
Length: 15 km (9.3 miles). Toughness: 4/10

09:53 East Grinstead train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 09:59), changing at East Croydon (arr 10:09, dep 10:15) for the Uckfield train (usually from the same Platform 6), arriving Eridge at 11:03.

Better still, take the first fast train to East Croydon when you get to Victoria or CJ – Sunday trains are always prone to delays. If you do miss the connection you'll have to take the next East Grinstead train and change at Oxted. You'll be starting an hour late but if you do the shorter outward route you'll only be 20-30 minutes behind the main group at lunchtime.

Trains back from Eridge are hourly at 50 minutes past and go to Oxted, where you change for Victoria.

The long-running industrial dispute on Southern trains still isn't resolved but I'll take a chance on this High Weald walk in their territory. You should get to see (and hear) steam trains on the Spa Valley Railway at Eridge station and also at the lunchtime village of Groombridge, where Groombridge Place always puts on a good show of daffodils and other spring flowers. The afternoon is across the RSPB's Broadwater Warren reserve and past the imposing Eridge Rocks (or you could take the shorter return route via the even more impressive Harrison's Rocks). At the end of the walk you can unwind in the Huntsman pub, a stone's throw from Eridge station.

You'll need to print the directions from the Eridge Circular Walk page.
T=swc.120

1 comment:

PeteB said...

n=15 on this walk on a perfect spring day, w=sunny-and-warm-some-cloud-in-the-afternoon. Two excellent pubs and various spring flowers on display. The Broadwater Warren section is a tad disappointing because of mnajor woodland clearance which has obviously disrupted the wild life although there should be some good displays of heather in the late summer.
We timed the walk perfectly to just miss the 3.50 train thereby forcing the group to have a final drink at the Huntsman whilst waiting for the one an hour later. A lovely day out