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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 27 May 2017

East Grinstead Circular - new morning + longer afternoon

SWC walk 40 - East Grinstead Circular (Weir Reservoir Circular option)
Length: 20.6km (12.8 miles) - short walk visiting Standen also possible: see below
Toughness: 5 out of 10

9.53 train from Victoria (9.59 Clapham Junction, 10.10 East Croydon) to East Grinstead, arriving 10.48

For walk directions click here.

Back in 2015 I created a new morning route for this walk - rehashing some old elements, introducing some new ones - hoping it would be less muddy in winter. It was tried in January 2016 and proved just as muddy as the old route.

Since then it has languished in obscurity, so it now gets its first spring/summer outing. Mud will be no problem at this time of year and the route takes you past Standen, the National Trust property, mid morning. If you fancy doing a proper visit to this (after all, it is bank holiday weekend) see the Tourist option below.

The walk document contains two interlocking East Grinstead circulars, and in the morning we will be doing is the Anticlockwise walk - page 4 of the directions. This gets you to lunch in Forest Row in 9km (5.6 miles). The Chequers Inn is the obvious choice here: last time some of us tried the Swan but I don't remember being that impressed: there is also the Brambletye Hotel and the Java and Jazz Pizzeria, so you won't starve.

After lunch I propose switching to the clockwise walk - see paragraph 37 on page 13. This is the former "longer afternoon" of the East Grinstead walk, which takes you around the Weir Wood Reservoir, with some nice views, and then back to Standen, which you might just get to in time for tea. There is some slight overlap with the morning route, but only for a short section. Other tea options are the Old Dunnings Mill pub, or - less romantically - the Starbucks in the Sainsbury's by the station. Instructions are also included to take you up into the old centre of East Grinstead for more tea options.

Trains back from East Grinstead are at 07 and 37 past until late

Tourist options

If you want to make a proper visit to Standen, several options are outlined on page 3 of the walk document. Option i) uses the out and back routes of the anticlockwise and clockwise walk to make a 7.2km (4.5 mile) circular walk and ii) simply involves doing the anticlockwise morning, with a Standen visit in the middle: this is 9.3km (5.8 miles). You then take one of the very regular buses from Forest Row back to East Grinstead: eg at 16.27, 17.04, 17.26, 18.04, 18.35, 18.57, 19.49, 21.14.

You could also do the Standen visit, have tea in Forest Row, then carry on to finish the anticlockwise walk, which is 18.1km (11.2 miles)
T=3.040c

1 comment:

Walker said...

n=15 on this walk: more possibly set out for it and got stymied by the closure of Victoria tube station due to "passenger action" in the half hour before the train was due to leave. As it was, two managed to catch up the original 13, having been forced onto later trains.

It was not quite the blazing hot sunny day forecast, but actually the w=bright-cloud-with-some-sun, combined with fresher temperatures than of late, was perfectly pleasant. At Standen four peeled off to make a detailed visit to the National Trust house and gardens. I got separated from the rest at this point when I stopped to wait for one of those who had missed the train, so I hope the others enjoyed the rest of the walk (feel free to file your own report). The two of us had a lovely day, with beautiful buttercup meadows, pleasant sits to enjoy views, and one or two butterflies.

While most lunched at the Chequer's Inn, we tried the Java and Jazz Pizzeria which did very nice pasta, served quickly. We just arrived at Standen too late for tea but this also had the good effect that we went up into Old East Grinstead where CJ's Cafe Bar - which has been recommended to me before but which I have never tried - proved an excellent tea stop. It has a good cake selection and an upstairs terrace with a direct view out over the churchyard.

It seemed too nice an evening (and time of year) to rush home, so we walked up the old railway line to the west of East Grinstead station for a short walk to listen to the evening birdsong. Then the 9.07 home.