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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.

Saturday 15 April 2017

Saturday Walk – Bluebells along the Greensands Way

Book 2 Walk 16:  Hurst Green to Chiddingstone Causeway T=2.16

Distance:  13 Miles or 21 km for those more metrically minded
Difficulty:  7 out of 10

Train:  Take the 10:08 AM Uckfield train from London Bridge, arriving at Hurst Green at 10:40.  Return trains from Penshurst are at 17:27; 18:27; 19:27; 20:27; 21:21 and 22:21. Buy a day return to Penshurst. 
This classic bluebell walk has not been posted on a Saturday for a while – so, with the bluebells starting to emerge thought it was the perfect time to give it an outing.  It is a very enjoyable walk through light woodland largely following the Greensands Way with lovely views off to the south. You also pass by Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill now owned by the National Trust.  You can find more information about the walk and download the walk instructions here.

The recommended lunch spot is the Fox & Hounds (01732 750 328) at Toys Hill (7 miles/11 km into the walk) which serves food until 3:00pm and a few kilometers further on is the Cock Inn (01732 750 310) at Ide Hill (8 miles/13 km) which serves food all day. Large groups should call ahead and/or disperse between the two options.  Tea and other late afternoon refreshments can be had at the Little Brown Jug conveniently positioned within a stone’s throw of Penshurst Station.

Enjoy the walk!

7 comments:

Thomas G said...

bluebells explained: http://theconversation.com/bloomageddon-seven-clever-ways-bluebells-win-the-woodland-turf-war-74086

David said...

Is it certain that the appropriate ticket to buy is a day return to Penshurst? Both trains are Southern, but the two lines are quite different and diverge soon after East Croydon. Does anyone have any idea about this?

Anonymous said...

According to traintimes.org.uk, you can travel to Penshurst via Hurst Green

David said...

Thanks. I can see that now. The stop after Hurst Green is Edenbridge Town. From there it's just under a mile to Edenbridge, which is on the same line as Penshurst.

Walker said...

N=19 on this walk including three who missed the train and materialised later. The weather was w=mainly-sunny after a somewhat cloudy start: a lovely spring day. Oodles of bluebell woods, some full out, others less so. Also some fields covered in dandelions and, in the later stages, some bright yellow fields of oilseed rape.

The always rather snooty Fox & Hounds declined to take orders from those of us at the back of the group so we pressed on to the Cock Inn in Ide Hill, where we secured a nice table outside in the sun. We were told food would take an hour to come but it took half that time. My lasagne was only visible under a microscope, but otherwise the portion sizes looked good. I supplemented my diminutive rations, indeed, by finishing off the meals of everyone else.

The last third of the walk was a dreamy descent into lovely countryside. I went a bit off piste in search of more oilseed and found tea at the Bough Beech Visitor Centre, later rejoining the group at The Little Brown Jug.

Not much more to say except that it was a perfect day out at one of spring's perfect moments with lots of nice chat about this and that. Happy days.

Anonymous said...

To be fair to the Fox & Hounds, it was Easter Saturday and they were very busy. I many be wrong but I don't think we had called them in advance.

Anonymous said...

I did this walk on Sunday, instead. I noticed a number of minor differences between the walk directions and the actual walk. One amendment that needs to be made, just after the approach to Bushy Wood Place, in the paragraph starting "[!] In 200 metres (and 80 metres before a white house ahead), turn right along a car-wide track..." The paragraph continues "In 25 metres go over a stile to the right of a metal fieldgate". It should be amended to "In 25 metres go through a gate to the left of a metal fieldgate".