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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.

Sunday 24 February 2019

Sunday Walk: Effingham to Westhumble

15.2km (9.4 miles) Difficulty 5/10
Hidden valleys pretty woodlands, and gentle pastures evoking echoes of a golden yesteryear. The estate of Polesden Lacey is a prominent feature.
Trains:  9:57 Hampton Court train from Waterloo. Change at Surbiton for the 10:32 Clandon train (platform 4) arriving Effingham Junction at 10:50. The first train stops at plenty of intermediate stations, inc. Vauxhall 10:01, Clapham Jct. 10:06, Wimbledon 10:13,
From "Box Hill & Westhumble" station, return to Waterloo at xx:10 or to Victoria at xx:19 and xx:49
Trains leave Dorking three minutes earlier, should you wish to finish there.
The walk's start and finish are on divergent train lines. Your best bet is a return to Effingham Junction plus a single for the short hop from Westhumble (or Dorking) to Leatherhead where the lines re-join.
Lunch: National Trust tea-room Polesden Lacey - accessible without paying the entrance fee. If you do want to visit, it's £13 60 (free for NT members). If you prefer a pub, there are directions to the Sir Douglas Haig 01372 456886. This adds a further 1.2 miles on to the walk.
Tea:  The Visitor centre at Denbies Vineyard does tea. They also have a gift shop and sell their wine. Denbies is open till 5 in winter. There's a caff in the Pilgrim Cycles shop at Box Hill & Westhumble station that closes at 4 and, nearby, you have the Stepping Stones pub.
Directions:  here.  (This online version recommended – many changes since the heady days of Book 2).
 T=2.14 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris,

Request for walk for Sunday 24th Feb

Could a Sussex/Berks/Hants walk be put on for the 24th that is a few miles longer than the current Effingham offering for that day, please? Thank you.

Chris L said...

It's not my turn to post walks for the 24th, but you'll see that another walk poster has promised a longer walk for that day, though not in the area you requested. It's fairly normal on Sundays to balance the walks on offer by having one to the south of London and one to the north.

Anonymous said...

I can't see any train ticket details in this walk's instructions. What's the best ticket to get please?

Anonymous said...

Buy a day return to Effingham Junction. Technically you also need a single from Box Hill to Leatherhead (one stop) on the way back, but it would be a hard-hearted ticket inspector who made an issue of this.

Mr M Tiger said...

I suspect you havent clicked on the post's heading to expand the text. There's quite a lot about trains & tickets there.
But in case you've got some sort of viewing problem, Ive re-pasted it here.
"9:57 Hampton Court train from Waterloo. Change at Surbiton for the 10:32 Clandon train (platform 4) arriving Effingham Junction at 10:50. The first train stops at plenty of intermediate stations, inc. Vauxhall 10:01, Clapham Jct. 10:06, Wimbledon 10:13,
From "Box Hill & Westhumble" station, return to Waterloo at xx:10 or to Victoria at xx:19 and xx:49
Trains leave Dorking three minutes earlier, should you wish to finish there.
The walk's start and finish are on divergent train lines. Your best bet is a return to Effingham Junction plus a single for the short hop from Westhumble (or Dorking) to Leatherhead where the lines re-join."

PeteB said...

15 off the train but we picked up another 2 at Polesden Lacey so n=17 in all. W=Perfect-warm-and-sunny-weather throughout. The off-route pub comes a little early in this walk so we all ambled to the NT teas-rooms at Polesden Lacey where a significant proportion of SE England had decided to make this their Sunday outing. A group of managed to commandeer an outside table on which the sun was just about to shine where we enjoyed our sandwich lunches whilst marvelling at children and families in summer t-shirts in February!
After lunch a group of about 8 of us set off with a number lingering to visit the hall and its grounds. We enjoyed the glorious viewing point just after lunch and then continued on the familiar route to Denbies where most of us opted to continue on the N Downs way to reach the Pilgrims Cycles shop for excellent tea and cakes and then the 15.10 train home.
This is a pleasant amble through some attractive woodland but with a fair bit of tarmac. Despite my dodgy knees this walk is over-rated at 5/10; 4 is more appropriate. A superb day out with the usual anaarchic chat including one strongly held view that Denbies white wines are not up to snuff. Discuss.........