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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 20 July 2019

Saturday Walk - Milford to Godalming - Stress-free Surrey

Length: 17.9km (11 miles) - with extensions possible
Toughness: 6 out of 10

10.15 train from Waterloo (10.22 Clapham Junction) to Milford, arriving 11.05.

Buy a day return to Milford.

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here. For map click here. T=1.20

This popular walk has varied scenery, some hilly bits and a pretty village or two. In short it is a classic English summer walk. There is a choice of an early or mid-walk lunch pub, and the latter - the White Horse in Hascombe - now does food all afternoon at weekends according to its website, so no need to stress about getting there in time.

In the afternoon you pass through the National Trust-run Winkworth Arboretum, which you cross on a public footpath, defying all requests from NT staff to pay or provide your name, address and shoe size. Don’t misuse this by wandering off the right of way into the gardens, however - unless you are a National Trust member or have paid the admissions charge. There is a cafe at the start of the gardens (just before the ticket gate) if you want to sneak an early tea.

Otherwise the best tea stop is Hector’s on the Wey at Farncombe Boat House, an idyllic spot, which as far as I can ascertain is open to 5pm. The last bit of the walk is a very pleasant riverside walk into Godalming, which has more tea options (including a Costa Coffee open to 7.30pm)

If you wanted to extend the walk, the Walk Options for this walk give some suggestions for climbing hills to views (or in one case, quixotically, no views: a hill climb just for the sake of it?). I add a suggestion of my own: going north along the Wey from Farncombe Boat House (rather than south to Godalming) brings you to Guildford in about three miles. This section of the Wey is festooned with interesting wildflowers at this time of year and there is a riverside pub garden at Farncombe fairly early in the route. I have also seen people swimming in the river, but I am not sure I recommend it (slow moving river water can carry Weil’s Disease: aka I was tempted to join them but chickened out...)

Trains back from Godalming are at 11, 25, 41 and 54 past: turn up and go, basically. All
These trains also call at Guildford. 

4 comments:

Greenfield1 said...

Hi what time at Milford station to join the walk please?

Walker said...

To quote from the walk post “...to Milton, arriving....”

Greenfield1 said...

Thanks for confirming 11.05 am

Anonymous said...

Never trust the weather man - gloomy forecast turned out to be w=Mostly_sunny_no_rain. Nine met on the platform, another showed up at the lunch pub, we met one more in the afternoon at the National Trust cafe, so n=11. The walk was so lovely that has exceeded the blurb ‘advertised’ on the website. It was a hot and humid day but we had a lot of shades in the woods. Cool! All stopped at the Hascombe for lunch, 4 ate at White Horse, gourmet menu with the price to match and small portions. Best to stick to the pub classics for a more hearty affair. In the afternoon, six decided to stop at the NT outdoor cafe for tea/ice cream. Lucky we did as the last lost soul (the 11th walker) finally reunited with the group at the cafe. Winkworth Arboretum was especially beautiful. The lakeside wooden cabin is now equipped with a large table and chairs and even a pair of sofas overlooking the lake. I would have been a couch potato for the rest of the afternoon if it was not for the peer pressure..... We got to Farncombe Boat House just after 5pm but the cafe was closed. Pity but not despair. At Godalming, the group disintegrated, some went to the pub, some to catch the train, two decided to try Godalming Delights - a local cafe/ice cream/candy shop with outdoor seating for refreshment. They close at 7pm so could be a tea place in the summer months in future. It is a nice day out in good company. A top mark for this hard to beat book 1 classics. NB - the walk appeared to be longer than the stated 11 miles, my GPS registered more than 13 miles - it certainly felt that way as well.