Length: 13.2 miles (22km)
T=swc.19
This walk is posted with the aim of visiting the Spa Valley Railway Beer. I'd originally thought of starting at Eridge, but that involves getting two single tickets. For beer enthusiasts, directions for including Eridge are provided. You do the route to Tunbridge Wells, diverting to Tunbridge Wells West near the end, (at para 70 carry on along the main road, rather than turning up through the common) for the main part of the beer festival.Trains: Get the 1008 Hastings train from Charing Cross (London Bridge 1017) arriving Frant 1107. Return trains from Tunbridge Wells at xx34 and xx00. Buy a return to Frant.
Walk including Eridge Summary
This is easier than it reads if you look at the respective routes on a map
Do the Frant to Tunbridge Wells as far as Eridge Green. At paragraph E 30, pick up the afternoon leg of the Eridge Circular at para L 66 to get to Eridge Station and the first stop on the beer festival trail.
Leaving Eridge, either take the standard route to Groombridge, or for a short cut, instead of turning off Forge Lane, carry on until a right turn to Forge Farm and then rejoin the Frant route at para J 48 (on the "long" extension) to Groombridge. It might be tricky getting onto the route under Harrison's Rocks (which is more interesting) and you can just follow the path alongside the railway. Groombridge Station is the second beer festival stop.
A note on beer festivals: you buy a glass at the start, usually a pint (marked in pint, half & third) or a half pint. Also a sheet of tokens for getting beer. You can buy pints, halves or thirds. So plan for rucksack space to carry your glass.
Lunch: Eridge or Groombridge
Tea: Tunbridge Wells
3 comments:
I’m new to this but I notice they sell rail passes for the days of the festival. Am I right in thinking that for many non-SWC attendees it’s like a pub crawl but you’re taking the train between pubs?
I think that's the general idea. I can't imagine crowds of walkers!
What if they posted a beer festival walk and nobody came? DID anyone else come? Did anyone decide to dispense with the walk and go directly to the festival?
Whatever, only n=2 of us got off the specified train. We looked around eagerly for the others, but there were no others. Doors hissed (shut). Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came on the bare platform. What we saw was Frant, only the name.
Maybe the weather forecast had put them off. It had changed since I last looked at it, certainly. W=It-rained-frequently. But not unkindly rain: instead lively showers with generous dry patches in between and some intense patches of bright sunshine; the streams (and some paths) gurgling with happy torrents of water (on their way to the sea!!); temperatures mild.
Neither of us were interested in beer festivals, so we simply did the 9.4 mile standard Frant to Tunbridge Wells walk. We eschewed Eridge, cold-shouldered Groombridge, and instead had a nice veggie lunch (albeit that the vegan option was a bit small and dry, apparently) on the covered terrace of the Nevil Crest and Gun, the usual lunch stop on this walk. Strangely it was busy - so few pubs have been recently, so this place in the middle of nowhere must be doing something right.
After lunch we crossed Broadwater Warren, seeing some interesting fungi (including three stinkhorns, picked and laid by the path - why?) and having more pointed out to us. Leaving the RSPB reserve we came to a locked gate with a very decisive No Public Right of Way sign on it. There being no viable alternative - and reasoning that no one patrols woods in the rain - we ignored it, and hopped the gate. We encountered no more barriers, though a few more signs.
Approaching Tunbridge Wells there was a really impressive locomotive sound. I am no steam train geek, but this one sounded like a big main line engine giving it some welly. We glimpsed it atmospherically through the trees, its big plume of smoke pulsing upwards.
Passing Tunbridge Wells West, we yielded to curiosity. What is a beer festival like then? There was a big room full of portly men (a very few women): a big pub basically. We fled instead to the Pantiles for a leisurely tea and got the 6pm train home.
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