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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 8 December 2018

Saturday Walk - Milford to Godalming

Length: from 18.6 km (11.6 mi) to 21.9 km (13.6 mi)
Ascent/Descent: from 273/288m to 415/430m; Net Walking Time: 4 to 5 hours
Toughness: 5/10 to 6/10

Take the 09.15 Haslemere train from Waterloo (09.22 Clapham J, 09.43 Woking), arrives Milford 10.05.
Return trains are on xx.25  and xx.53, journey time 48 mins. Buy a Milford return.

This walk is that rare beast, a Book 1 walk that is extendable!

From Milford Station, you come to the lakes and the magnificent timber-framed Enton Mill – one of the many houses on this walk that have 17th or 18th-century galleting – black pebbles lining the mortar of the walls, a method much used in those days in Kent and the South. Near a pub and church in Hambledon, you join the Greensand Way, a sandy bridleway through The Hurtwood.
Lunch is at the White Horse pub in Hascombe, a village with a remarkable church, described by Betjeman as "a Tractarian work of art", and covered in wall decoration, so that it looks almost Moorish.
In the afternoon, the walk follows public rights of way through the National Trust's Winkworth Arboretum  and its lakes. You leave along the fringes of its woods to a horse training course and the rich outskirts of Godalming, with its many imposing buildings.
The final approach to the town is along the River Wey and Godalming Navigation‘s path, to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul and the ancient High Street.
Optional Extensions:
Hydon's Ball (hill), a map-led diversion to the summit; adds 1.3 km and 64m ascent.
Hascombe Hill, map-led out-and-back from the lunch pub in Hascombe to the summit; adds 2.0 km and 78m ascent.

Lunch: The White Horse in Hascombe (8.4 or 9.7 or 10.4 or 11.7 km, depending on if and when you walk any of the two optional diversions; food to 14.30 [last orders]).
Tea: Hector’s on the Wey on the River Wey, plus lots of options on and just off the High Street, good ratings are getting: Café Mila, Changing Perceptions, The Branch Café and Arbor Tea Room. There are also some pubs…

For summary, walk directions, route map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=1.20.a

1 comment:

David Colver said...

The Brighton-bound walkers would have been better off pursuing Milford to Godalming, at least as far as weather was concerned: w=sunny_periods_in_the_morning_yielding_to_grey_but_no_actual_rain.

There gathered n=8 on the station platform. The disappointment that flowed from the realisation that our fearless walk poster had not himself appeared was enough to cause one of the number to feel unwell and elect to head straight back home.

The weather may have been good, but luck was not on our side so far as concerned lunch. The White Horse at Hascombe was grappling with both a group about to attend a wedding in the nearby church, and a smaller group celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, and was completely full as early as noon. Only one of our number was quick thinking and assertive enough to grab a tiny corner table and order any food. Sandwiches or nothing for the rest of us.

Two stopped by Hector's on the Wey, which has the advantage of avoiding the need to seek tea in the depressing high street of Godalming and greatly improves the end of the walk. Those two and one other made the 1525 train.