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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 13 July 2019

Short Saturday Walk [New] – Edenbridge Figure-of-8

New Walk – Edenbridge Figure-of-8
Length: 13¾ km (8.6 miles). Toughness: 1/10

10:07 Uckfield train from London Bridge (East Croydon 10:22), arriving Edenbridge Town at 10:45. Buy a return to Edenbridge Stations.

Return trains from Edenbridge Town are hourly at xx:09.

Engineering works have scuppered my plans to post this new walk on several of my allotted weekends, so I'm grateful to Mike A for ceding his ‘Short Walk’ slot this Saturday. Several SWC regulars told me last weekend that they valued the option of a short and easy walk and this one should suit anyone wanting a leisurely stroll.

The walk incorporates the first part of the Eden Valley Walk (which continues through Hever and Penshurst to Tonbridge) and if there's sufficient demand someone might post other sections of it in future weeks, but for now I'm only proposing to do the Figure-of-8 (option b) from this new walk. It consists of two short loops through the low-lying fields and water meadows around Edenbridge, whose pubs and coffee shops provide both the lunch and tea stops for people who want them. The Old Eden's stated food serving time is from 12:30pm so there's no need to rush round the course. At the end of the walk a Costa Coffee stays open until 6pm.

You'll need to print the directions from this New Walk page. The aim is to check the written directions so there's no GPS track.

2 comments:

Mike A said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike A said...

n=8 turned up for this inaugural outing of Sean's latest walk. Sean was keen to ensure the walk instructions worked before committing the walk to the SWC repository and I'm pleased to say they did with just a few minor corrections suggested. There was some disappointment at the lack of motorway noise, but this was partially offset by aircraft on finals to Gatwick (just kidding!)
The figure of eight configuration meant that the lunch time stop was back in Edenbridge making the walk route ideal for anyone who just wanted to walk either the morning or afternoon leg.
Despite the plethora of fast food shops and eateries, Edenbridge High Street has managed to retain most of it's old world small town charm and after leaving the town at its famous Stone Bridge the walk was soon in countryside. With the uplands around Sevenoaks to the northeast as a backdrop (I'm guessing here) and plenty of variety including woodland, fields of wheat and oats ready to be harvested, the walk returned to Edenbridge through the grounds of St. Peter and St. Paul's Church (ideal for those with packed lunches).
Those without food took lunch at The Old Eden with a nicely lawned back garden. Not a gastro pub by any standard and not awfully fast with the food, but a very relaxed and pleasant venue nonetheless.
Like the morning leg, the afternoon section was soon in open countryside initially through water meadows before passing a huge field of chicory. The grass airfield further on comprised of 5 runway/taxiways and walkers are advised to look skywards before crossing any of them (or walk along the edge where necessary). We were treated to the arrival of a light aircraft on the far eastern runway, before the final section back to Edenbridge. Once back in Edenbridge, walkers took tea at Costa's who had set up in an old pub but who had preserved the interior exposed timbers and flagstones. All caught the 17:09 back to London

All in all a great addition to the SWC walks and oh, the weather w=muggy_and_warm_with_light_cloud_and_some_sunshine