In loco Stargazeris…
10.05 train from Victoria* (10.29 Orpington, 10.34 Sevenoaks) to Paddock Wood, arriving 10.56, changing there (cross platform...) to the 11.03 train to Yalding, arriving 11.10
* Due to engineering works: normally would leave from Charing Cross
Train ticket:
- For the standard walk, buy a day return to Headcorn. Paddock Wood to Yalding is technically not covered by this but it would be a hard-hearted train manager who made an issue of it.
- For the extended walk, get a day return to Yalding and then a single from Harrietsham to Maidstone East on the way back. A day return to Yalding should then be accepted for return via Maidstone.
If you are not sure which walk you want to do, a day return to Ashford International is a slightly expensive way to cover all eventualities
For walk directions, GPX and map click here
Apple blossom tends to coincide with bluebell time, so the latter usually takes priority. But this year bluebells have ended early, whereas (at time of writing on 26/4) apple blossom is still at its peak. This walk passes through a number of commercial orchards - sadly fewer than when this walk was written, but still a fair number (last time I checked, which was a year ago...)
Otherwise this is a gorgeous walk along the Greensand Ridge, with fine views, and passing several ancient churches. Lunch is in the Bull in Linton, whose terrace garden is perched right on the escarpment, with awesome vistas.
The standard walk ends in Sutton Valence, a very attractive village, though you have to get off the main road to see this (most SWC walkers never bother...). There are two pubs for tea: the King's Head and the Queen's Head. The latter has (or used to have) a secret garden up the hill (not the smoker's patio, but further up), with fine views, but otherwise the King's Head is perfectly good, and has its own small garden (not scenic, but adequate).
Just in front of the King's Head is where the Number 12 bus stops at 15.42, 16.42, 18.02, 18.57, 20.18 (etc). You need to take this for 10 minutes down to Headcorn to get the train.
If a bus is imminent when you get to to the stop, Headcorn itself is also a perfectly pleasant village and has various tea options - a pub, a microbrewery, a Costa Coffee open to 6pm, a Sainsbury's supermarket for buying "supplies": get off at the village stop for this: otherwise stay on the bus one more stop for the station.
Trains back from Headcorn are at 13 and 43 past (to Victoria today, due to engineering works). If you get to the station a bit early, cross the footbridge to descend to the fields on the far side, and follow the path into the wood to the left. Here you can find the old bay platform for the Kent & East Sussex Railway lying derelict under the trees...
Extending the walk
An 9km (5.6 mile) extension from Sutton Valence takes you through more mouthwatering Greensand Ridge scenery to a lovely rural pub, the Pepperbox, though sadly this does not open till 6pm. (Gorgeous food...). From there it is 2.3 miles down through coppiced woodland and arable fields to Harrietsham, where the only refreshment option is a Co-op supermarket.
Trains back from Harrietsham are at 13 past the hour to Victoria
1 comment:
How brief is the apple blossom, flowering for but a few days before the wind casts it aside… Or so it seems, because in the week since I wrote the walk post it had mostly disappeared. The good news is that this walk has not lost any more apple orchards in the past year. One that had been grubbed up on my last visit has mysteriously been left fallow, with some new apple trees (now free of their commercial shackles…) springing hopefully up. In a couple of places fresh planting looked to be imminent.
But in general we have moved decisively from April to May: from blossom to sighing fields of seeding grasses and intense areas of buttercups. This is pretty territory which was all at is springtime best. There were grand views and w=sunshine-till-4pm.
13 assembled at the station, but two had got an earlier train, and it later transpired that two had been so engrossed in conversation that they missed their stop. They got a train back the other way and started the walk only half an hour late.
All n=17 met up at lunch, when almost the entire group seemed to be eating under the gazebo on the back terrace of the pub with its African Rift Valley views. Or maybe some had had sandwiches and just had drinks. One of us was having a birthday and we sang happy birthday to him.
After lunch some of us popped into Linton church, which I confess I had never visited before, despite being the walk author. It turned out to have a fascinating side chapel where lay the Earls of Cornwallis (though not the one who lost us America) in elaborate marble tombs. A mile later at Boughton Monchelsea some of us found a peacock roaming the churchyard. There were also close-up views of fallow deer (in a deer park) from the back terrace.
I discovered early in the afternoon that I had left a water bottle in the pub and so went back for it. I thus fell in with two backmarkers. Despite the lowering skies to the south west, we were in no hurry to get the 16.42 bus, but as we approached Sutton Valence it seemed we might just make it after all. At the bus stop we met all the rest of the group, who had had drinks in the Kings Arms. It took quite a while for all of us to get on the bus. As we travelled down to Headcorn some rain fell.
Not having had tea, I got off the bus in Headcorn village. To my surprise several others followed. Two came with me to an otherwise deserted Costa (not a promising sign for its future). The others went I know not where. But I think all but the three of us got the 17.13 train, while we got the 17.43.
Oh and just for the record, two said they would have done the extension to Harrietsham were it not for the rain.
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