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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 4 February 2017

Saturday walk - Box Hill from the back

SWC walk 139 - Tadworth via Headley Heath and Box Hill
Length: 8.8 miles (14km) or 11.9 miles (19 km)
Toughness: 6 out 10: "mainly gentle inclines", but some not so gentle, presumably

9.50 train from London Bridge (10.07 East Croydon) to Tadworth, arriving 10.36.

If for any reason this train is cancelled, get the 10.20.

Tadworth is in London Transport Zone 6 so you can use Oyster or Freedom Passes

For walk directions click here.

I have had a special request for this walk, which approaches Box Hill from an unusual angle - basically from behind, crossing heaths and woodland until it gets to the famous viewpoint. Some of this territory may already be familiar to regular walkers, but some will hopefully not be

There is a shorter option - the 8.8 mile version - or a more strenuous 11.9 mile main walk. Depending on which you do, it is 4.6 miles or 7.7 miles to the suggested lunch pub in the village of Box Hill (not to be confused with the summit of Box Hill, which is a different place entirely, though that is also visited on the main walk).

On the 11.9 mile version the National Trust cafes near the summit of Box Hill are also a light lunch option. So, as far as I can see, is the Smith and Western restaurant ("Classic American food served in a venue decorated with hay bales, saddles and a sheriff's jail") midway between the cafes and the pub, though as the walk directions do not mention this it may require a short diversion off the route.

For the tiger-types there is even a possible 1.7 mile extension to the main walk in the afternoon.

Tea is at the Bell on Walton Hill, 10 minutes from Tadworth station.

Trains back are at 22 and 52 past.






2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Smith & Western is a rather "nice" place:- very family orientated and almost certainly "walking boots off".
There's an interesting place just beside the Cock Inn pub at Headley; it's the Headley Village Stores. Loads of hot and cold drinks and snacks,plus they'll make a sandwich to your taste

Walker said...

n=30 on this walk, on yet another w=mainly-sunny Saturday (after early cloud cleared). So many people did so many different things that a unified narrative of the day is impossible, but I think all options were done - short, main, both extensions. At least some did the full 14.3 miles possible.

It was a lovely day, lots of song thrushes were singing for the first time this year and it was fascinating to discover that the vast expanses of Headley Heath were so accessible from Tadworth station. Quite a lot of people seem to have had lunch in The Tree and at least five of us had tea at the mobile kiosk on Headley Heath, which was towed away by its owner after we had finished with it.

I personally think the directions are wrong to suggest The Bell as the tea pub - a very basic old style boozer, despite its romantic location. The Blue Ball slightly earlier would have been better. But a convenience store just beyond Tadworth station saved the day and provided my second cuppa.

Thanks to J&J for the evening's entertainment....