The Low Weald of Kent and The Darling Buds of May
Length: Main walk: 11.7km (7.3 miles).
With shorter extension: 14.2km (9.3 miles)
With longer extension: 17.7km (11 miles)
Toughness: 1 out of 10 for the main walk rising to 3 out of 10 for the extensions.
This is a gentle walk in a low lying area of Kent, made famous by the writer H.E Bates, who lived in the village of Little Chart Forestal, passed on this walk. This is quiet country: there are no great landscape features, no grand houses, and yet this is a quintessentially English walk, with fields, orchards, a couple of ancient pubs (one allegedly the most haunted in England), and towards the end, a fine and unexpected view over the Kentish landscape.The walk is at its most perfect in late April or early May when the apple blossom is out, the lanes are lined with drifts of cow parsley,
Trains: Catch the 9.40 train from Charing Cross (London Bridge: 9.47)), arriving Pluckley 10:50.
Return from Pluckley xx.38 to Charing Cross.
There is a much more expensive train from St Pancras which requires you to change at Ashford to wait for a Pluckley train. It leaves St Pancras at 9:34 and the connecting train gets to Pluckley at 10:38. Return trains from Pluckley to St Pancras are at xx:50.
Lunch and Tea: The Swan Inn Little Chart, (01233 840011). Located 5.8km (3.6 miles) into the walk is now the only pub lunch option on the main walk (There are other choices on the longer versions of the walk outlined in the walk directions.
For map, directions and gpx files click here
T=2.21
13 comments:
Note for Freedom Pass holders (with or without senior railcard): Southeastern is not allowing tickets from Boundary Zone 6 to Pluckley, so you must either purchase a return ticket from London or, if you want to claim your right to free travel throughout London, you'll have to buy a return ticket from Knockholt to Pluckley and travel on the stopping train to Sevenoaks (dep. Charing Cross 9.04, Waterloo East 9.07, London Bridge 9.13), arriving Sevenoaks at 09.57, then change to the 10.13 Margate train, arriving Pluckley at 10.50.
Hi David,
Is that for both the CX train and the St. Pancras train?
I may be wrong, but I thought it only applied to their high speed trains which run from St. Pancras.
Daisy Roots is correct. A Boundary Zone 6 ticket is valid on any train, whether or not it stops inside boundary zone six, EXCEPT for high speed services out of St Pancras (and one or two other trains not relevant here). You can't use any boundary tickets on these: you have to pay the full whack (though you can use Senior cards etc of course).
Southeastern ticket machines are the only ones that don't seem to allow you to buy a ticket from Boundary Zone Six, in which case, yes, you have to buy one from Knockholt (I am not sure they let you do that either...). But the train does NOT have to stop at Knockholt. Definitely not.
This nonsense sometimes creeps in because people confuse the rules for split ticketing in the rest of the country with the rules for London boundary tickets. If you have a split ticket London to Didcot and then Didcot to Bristol (much cheaper with a Network Card!!), then the train you take has to stop at Didcot. But if you have a boundary zone 6 to Reading ticket, the train does not have to stop at West Drayton. No no no no no.
I am not sure when you say "Southeastern does not allow this" whether you mean their ticket machines (see above), their staff (stand your ground and cite the "National Rail Routing Guide": I don't know what it is either but it puts the fear of god into them), or their website (buy the ticket from the window at Charing Cross).
Because their ticket machines don't do boundary zone six, I regularly buy Southeastern tickets from the ticket window (how old fashioned!!) at Charing Cross, and not once has any of the staff ever said to me "Are you travelling on a train that stops at Knockholt?"
Btw, the easiest way around the Southeastern ticket machine problem is to get the train from Waterloo East. The ticket machines on the main concourse at Waterloo are sensible ones, with a boundary zone six option.
Lastly, but not leastly, if buying your ticket for the high speed train from the machines at St Pancras, do NOT use the ticket machines dotted temptingly all over the main concourse. These are for Midland Railways and they don't sell the full range of Southeastern tickets, eg the Super Off Peak Day Return, which is quite a bit cheaper to some places (not sure of Pluckley is one of them). For simplicity the Southeastern ticket machines are the ones up on the mezzanine level where the Southeastern trains depart from. The right-hand two of the four at the start of the passageway to the northern entrance to the underground are also Southeastern. (So the left-hand two do NOT sell Southeastern super off-peaks and the right-hand two do. You could not make this up...) Be aware that if you buy the wrong ticket from the Southeastern machines, or there is some error with them, like the tickets print all faint, the ticket office at St Pancras will advise you to take it up at London Bridge. (You could not make this up either...)
If anyone is still awake, thank you for reading.
I've never had a problem in the past, frequently buying tickets starting at Boundary Zone 6, from my local station (Lewisham). I intended to do exactly the same this afternoon, but when the ticket office clerk tried, the system wouldn't let him sell a Boundary Zone 6 to Pluckley return. Not only that, he was required to input the time of the outward and return journeys. That's something I'm used to to doing on long distance journeys to get the cheapest tickets, but it's never happened to me before on Southeastern. So I don't know what's going on here. You'd expect it on a route like London to Edinburgh, but not on Charing Cross to Margate. Anyway, I decided to ask for a Knockholt to Pluckley return as a way of getting round the problem, not wishing to give up my right to free travel. It means leaving home half an hour earlier, but I'll do that just to stop Southeastern profiteering at my expense. If others manage to buy that elusive return ticket from Boundary Zone 6, I'll be delighted to know, but I suspect this is a new income generating idea coming to some of Southeastern's main routes.
No no no no no.
You absolutely do NOT have to leave home earlier. Just get the specified train in the walk post. Your ticket from Knockholt is valid even if the train does not stop at Knockholt. I do this all the time. This is a Londonwide thing and Southeastern can't just arbitrarily change it - particularly since old style franchises have been replaced with management contracts and so I don't think Southeastern even have the power to change fare rules anymore. If your ticket seller told you that you have to be on a train that stops at Knockholt, he was incorrect. Railway staff, particularly at suburban stations, don't always understand the rules. If you doubt me, go to Charing Cross, go to the ticket window there and ask them.
And by the way, last Thursday, 28 April, I travelled to Wadhurst on Southeastern. I went to the ticket window at Charing Cross and said "a day return to Wadhurst from boundary zone six and with a senior card. The ticket was issued as specified. The guy at Lewisham just did not know where to find it on his system.
Thanks for advice on Boundary Zone 6
I think that Bletchley Park was used to write the rail ticketing system to see if anyone could crack it
I did this walk 2 weeks ago and the apple blossom was fantastic
I am at Victoria this morning. I selected Boundary Zone Six as the departure station and then Pluckley as my destination. Nil problemo.
Oh so confusing 😕 while we're on the subject can Walker kindly tell me where that 'select boundary zone six' option is on the ticket machine pls? i can never find it and tend to pay actually on the train..which prob.isnt wise..
I did as you suggested, Walker and asked at Charing Cross this morning. It turns out that everyone was right. There's no problem getting a senior day return from Boundary Zone 6 today, but the price quoted was £12.05. Yesterday, there were some cheaper tickets available (£7.20 return) but, to get that price, you have to travel on a specific train. That's easy for the outward journey (09.49 from London Bridge), but I had to guess a time for the return journey. I do like getting the best price possible, so I went for this super saver ticket (if that's what it's called). Anyway, I look forward to seeing everyone at 10.50 tomorrow.
Just in answer to anon: on most ticket machines (NOT Southeastern ones for some reason) in the bottom left corner of the start screen there is a “Tickets from other stations” button. Click that and it invites you to type in your origin station. On the right-hand side of this second screen is a row of Boundary Zone buttons.
#17 walkers alighted from the train at Pluckley station on a #part-cloudy-part-sunny-and-humid-day-with-a-gentle-breeze-and-intermittent-light-rain in the afternoon. The going underfoot was good in the morning and we arrived at the Swan Inn just after midday to discover that another group of walkers was expected presently. Nine of our group chose to eat outdoors in the pub garden, only to be caught in a brief, sharp shower. Two found a table indoors and the rest made other arrangements. The food was pleasant enough, though I heard talk of small portions. Progress after lunch was slightly slower, particularly when crossing fields whose surface was slippery from the lunchtime rain. All eleven walkers who set off together from the Swan Inn chose to do the main circular walk (without any extension). The large field adjacent to Honey Farm was not a problem to cross. It had recently been planted, but the farmer had left a very narrow strip unseeded. A few walkers chose to stop off at the Black Horse, perhaps hoping to see for themselves what a haunted pub looks like, and a few also went to the Dering Arms before catching the hourly train service back to London. Overall, it was a very pleasant, gentle stroll: a perfect introduction to SWC walks for the two walkers doing their very first walk.
It would be interesting to hear how the visit to the Black Horse went. We skirted Pluckley itself, now the ‘pub’ has decided it’s a restaurant and was closed anyway when we passed. Without that incentive to visit the village, the ghosts will miss us, if no one else. We got to the Dering Arms early enough for a quick snifter (we thought). We were just slipping into ‘relax’ mode when it was realised that the train we wanted was at 2.38, not 2:50. And it was 2.34!!! Lawks amercy!! Panic!! Poor Mr Tiger has never walked so fast. We just made it. Except maybe one.
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