11.5 miles, 18.5 km. Difficulty: 6/10.
The Greensand Way, a fishy-friezed church, an autumn arboretum, a historic waterway, and, finally, Godalming's ancient High Street.
Trains: Get the 10:00 Haslemere train from Waterloo (Clapham Junction 10:09) arriving 10:55
Return from Godalming at xx:56.and 27. Get a return to Milford.
Lunch: The White Horse, Hascombe (01483 208258). Large groups should phone to book. The Merry Harriers in Hambledon (01483 682883) is an earlier possibility. (Don’t leave Hascombe without admiring the lavishly decorated
interior of St Peter's church. Just don't, OK?).
Tea: Hector's on the Wey, at Farncombe Boat House.
In Godalming itself, Caffè Nero is open till 5:30 and Costa Coffee open to 5, both on the High Street. (Café Mila closes at 3). The Star on Church Street has been personally recommended to Mr Tiger as an establishment purveying real ale.
Directions: here.You can cut 1 km off the end of the walk by diverting to Farncombe Station from the Boat House. You’d need a map or app to find it, its not in the directions. Trains leave Farncombe at xx:59.
We go through Winkworth Arboretum on a public footpath. To stray from the path you’d need to buy a ticket or have NT membership. (You may also be able to blag free access under the National Trust’s “Autumn Free Visit” offer. Passes are limited and you need to register in advance). T=1.20
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| St Peters Church |
1 comment:
With no connecting trains available to him the SWC Walks Inspector decided on a car-based walk around Hydon's Ball and Winkworth Arboretum, plotting to intercept the Sunday walkers at Hambledon on a w=partly-sunny-then-cloudy day. Of the n=8 starters the main group were a few minutes ahead of schedule but he was able to join the back marker for the rest of the morning leg. However, there was no chance of us catching the others as we were distracted by masses of interesting (and mostly unidentifiable) fungi, so this walk clearly merits some more autumn outings.
At the White Horse we discovered that the main group had already polished off the pub's supply of Shere Drop but fortunately we were able to refresh ourselves with Aspall's cider before they turned their attention to that. Apart from this interruption to the beer supply we were fed and watered pretty efficiently. After lunch all of us visited the local church as instructed and admired its splendid wall decoration. A little further on the inspector and two or three others broke off to wander around the (rather crowded) Arboretum; there was plenty of autumn colour but it looked a bit subdued in the overcast conditions.
The directions have been tweaked to reflect a few changes on the ground since its last walk check.
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