Length: 12½ km (7.8 miles). Toughness: 3/10
10:25 Hastings service from Charing Cross (Waterloo East 10:28, London Bridge 10:34, Orpington 10:50, Sevenoaks 11:00), changing at Tonbridge (arr 11:08, dep 11:26) for the Redhill train, arriving Penshurst at 11:34.
Alternatively you can travel out via East Croydon, eg. on the Thameslink service (St Pancras 10:10, London Bridge 10:25, East Croydon 10:42, etc), changing at Redhill (arr 11:00, dep 11:09; don't dawdle as you need to change platforms) for the Tonbridge train which gets to Penshurst at 11:31. Cross the footbridge and wait a few minutes for the train from the other direction.
If you have any "Any Permitted" route ticket you can travel back from Penshurst on the hourly trains in either direction, although both services leave at about the same time: eastbound via Tonbridge at xx:31 and westbound via Redhill at xx:34. If you travel out on a cheaper "via Redhill" ticket you'll need to return the same way.
This is one of the shorter variations of a group of walks around the attractive Kent villages of Chiddingstone and Penshurst, although this one only visits the former. The suggested lunch stop is the rural Rock Inn at Hoath Corner, but if this can't oblige it's not much further to the Castle Inn ("open for light lunches and drinks") in Chiddingstone. The village also has the Tulip Tree tearoom and another in Chiddingstone Castle, while the Little Brown Jug provides a useful watering-hole if you have to wait for a train at Penshurst station.
You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.92.c page. To reduce the amount of paper printed, you can click on Option c (or "Alt." in the heading to include directions for all the walk options starting from Penshurst, which would allow you to switch to a longer ending via Penshurst village to Leigh station).
9 comments:
10.25 Hastings from Charing X is cancelled
Going to London Bridge instead😊
Going to London Bridge instead😊
big delays, I give up! Train blocking the line apparently 😐
There's an 11.23 from East Croydon. I'm catching that so will be an hour behind the group.
Given the train disruptions at both ends of the Medway Valley line (no power between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge: perhaps their energy supplier had gone bust?) it was a miracle that 4 made it to Penshurst on time, joined by 1 other just after the lunchtime stop, making n=5 on this pleasant and undemanding stroll through the High Weald.
The weather, overcast at first, very quickly became w=sunny-under-blue-skies-with-a-short-but-heavy-shower-in-the-afternoon giving long vistas over bucolic views, including the back of some derelict farm buildings at Wat Stock which have been painted to resemble a manor house. We couldn't come up with an English equivalent for trompe l'oeil but weren't sure if we could use that expression, post-Brexit.
One o'clock saw us arriving at the lunchtime pub, the Rock Inn at Hoath Corner, only to be told that food was available solely for those who had booked. Which, of course, we hadn't. One of our number did manage to cajole the staff into providing a couple of plates of chips (another receiving a telling-off for eating his own sandwiches, despite being told there was no food available) and shortly afterwards we were joined by the fifth, very determined, walker (see previous comments) who had made good time from Penshurst, fuelled in part by fury at her treatment by Southern Rail, which is a whole other story.
The tea room at Chiddingstone Castle made a useful refuelling stop, all the more so as it provided shelter during an extremely heavy but short lived downpour. Two walkers elected to divert to Leigh shortly afterwards, leaving three to continue to Penshurst, partly along the road as the planned cross country route was completely impassable at one point, yesterday's heavy rain providing a water obstacle which would have required waders, let alone Wellington boots.
You forgot to mention that we popped into the church in Chiddingstone to see the Vinegar Bible (yes it is a 650-year-old typo) and we heard a piece of Beethoven played by one of the female walkers.
Lovely day
Well chsoen poster
Seven took the 10.49 train from London Bridge which should have stopped in Tonbridge allowing two minutes to catch the Redhill train to Penshurst. Instead, it stopped at Chislehurst where it was announced that it would instead be going to Maidstone via Otford. We got off at Otford and did the strenuous stretch of the Otford circular via Romney Street and Shoreham where five took the 16.08 train back to London after an extended lunch. For the benefit of anyone planning to lunch at Romney Street in future, the pub there has closed despite a mushrooming residential park which might have provided some custom.
Frances
A late report that six of us, who share a preference for being a decent way through the route before the daylight is half gone at this time of year, started this walk an hour ahead of the appointed time. Not that it did us much good, since the rains of the previous day flooded the Sevenoaks to Tonbridge tunnel and had some of us turfed off onto rail replacement buses, leaving others coming from the other direction to wait for us to complete the journey in a surprisingly pricey taxi.
The Rock Inn reported that bookings were always essential for anyone who wanted feeding, "as we are such a small pub", leaving us no choice but to continue to the Castle Inn in Chiddingstone. The service from what appears to be a team under new management was warm and attentive. If they can bring similar quality to the food this place will be worth a detour.
Quite heavy rain started just as the 15:31 train appeared, the disruption by now cleared.
Post a Comment