Distance:
Short, Medium and Long on offer:
Short: 9.2 miles/15 km
Medium:
12 miles/ 19 km
Long:
15.1 miles/ 24 km
Difficulty: 3, 5 or 7 out of 10 – depending on distance
Train: Take the 9:51 AM East Grinstead train from London Victoria and change at Oxted (arrive 10:33; depart 10:38), arriving at Ashurst at 10:59. Return trains from Ashurst are at 58 minutes past the hour. Buy a day return to Ashurst (Kent).
This is a lovely walk with options for all. It begins along the Medway Valley and visits the charming village of Withyham for an early lunch. After lunch, there is a choice of three routes to the next village. On the medium and long routes you pass across Pooh Bridge where you can have riveting Pooh stick races and on the long walk you venture out for a lovely circuit around the Ashdown Forest with fine views to the South Downs. You can find more information about the walk and the instructions here
The lunch spot is The Dorest Arms in Withyham (01892 770 424) about 4 miles/6 km into the walk. Tea options include: Piglet’s Tea Room or the Anchor Inn, both in Hartfield. Please note that there are no amenities at Ashurst Station – so you will need to time your departure from Hartfield carefully – it is 4 miles/6 km to the station…..
Enjoy the walk!
3 comments:
You could skip the last four miles by taking the 291 bus from Hartfield to East Grinstead. They're every two hours on a Sunday, last one at 17:08 (there's a link to the timetable in the walk notes). In my experience the station staff at East Grinstead will let you through the ticket barrier if you ask nicely.
#7 on the walk with two catching up the earlier group. The weather was #warm_with_some_sunshine. Three opted for the shorter walk with two having succeeded in reserving a table at the Anchor Inn in Hartfield. The remaining four picnicked on the benches outside Withyham church before continuing on the main walk. The Dorset Arm's was fully booked. The benefit of the recent rain was evident with the fields now back to green and plenty of fungi to be seen. Playing pooh sticks was a highlight as was the sighting of two deer. The late afternoon sunshine brought a happy end to the day with two stopping off in Hartfield for a beer before three eventually caught the 1658 back to London.
The Anchor Inn couldn't trace a booking from the short walkers but it didn't matter as they had plenty of space in the garden. We opted for a mix of starters which took a while to arrive but were worth waiting for. In the end the timing worked perfectly as we got back to Ashurst with 5 minutes to spare for the 4pm train. The last 15 minutes were a bit of a struggle as the huge meadow beside the Medway had recently been ploughed up and the grassy verge was overgrown, but hopefully this was only a temporary aberration.
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