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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.

Wednesday 22 July 2020

Wednesday walk Balcombe Circular - the gardens of Nymans and the ruins of Slaugham

Book 1, Walk 16 - Balcombe Circular

Length: 17.6 km (10.9 miles)
Toughness: 5 out of 10


Meeting place: the Balcombe railway station car park at 11 am.

We will do a socially-distanced meet up there and split into groups of no more than six. You must be prepared to swop contact details with others in your group for contact tracing purposes


If you travel by train out of hours and are comfortable doing so, you have a choice of trains:

Either
London Bridge: 10-15 am. Thameslink service from Cambridge to Brighton. East Croydon: 10-29 hrs
Arrive Balcombe: 10-55 hrs. Cross the footbridge to leave station through its car park, the meeting place

or 
London Victoria: 10-05 hrs. Bognor - Portsmouth H train.   CJ 10-12 hrs. EC 10-23 hrs
Arrive Three Bridges : 10-44 hrs - change trains
Leave Three Bridges: 10-49 hrs  - on Brighton service
Arrive Balcombe: 10-55 hrs. Cross the footbridge, as above

Return service

Balcombe to London Bridge:  04 & 34 mins past the hour. Change at EC for Victoria


This is a pleasant walk through West Sussex countryside. The route is undulating in places in the morning, but it is never steep and demanding of effort. In winter parts of the route can be very muddy but today conditions under foot should be very good, to enhance your enjoyment of this lovely walk.

Lunch can be taken mid-walk in the village of Handcross. The National Trust's Nymans estate has reopened for pre-booked visits. Its cafe is closed but its refreshments kiosk should be open for hot and cold drinks and snacks.  In the village the Red Lion pub has reopened for main meals and drinks. It should be fine for those wanting a classic pub lunch. A mile further on in the hamlet of Slaugham The Heritage pub (previously the Chequers) is not due to reopen for meals or drinks until 03 September.

The afternoon leg takes you initially through the ruins of Slaugham. Then, after taking the underpass under the A23, your route is mostly flat through open country, through farms and over farmland all the way back to Balcombe. The tea rooms there, pleasant but close too early, and the local community run pub with hit-and-miss opening hours, might offer walk-end refreshments if you strike lucky.
T=1.16
Walk instructions here: L=1.16








7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for scheduling such an attractive walk, Marcus.

Marcus said...

15 off the suggested train, 1 on the following train - who caught us up mid-morning - and 1 car driver - so that's n=17, and nice to see the return of some of our Wednesday regulars. The weather probably had most to do with today's turnout - it was a w=lovely-sunny-warm-day, circa 24 degrees C, with a light breeze in the afternoon.
At the start we separated into three groups (two sixers and a foursome) and after swapping contact details the groups set off a few minutes apart - all very Corvid-compliant.
The morning leg of this walk is a delight (the longer, 3 hour afternoon leg, although nice, has a bit too much road and lane walking) and the Sussex countryside, lush and green, looked at its best.
Nymans was busy and I was not sure if we could get in to the Red Lion pub for lunch, but no problem - four of my group sat at one table and another four from group three sat at another. The pub organised its Corvid compliance very well - and the food hit the right spot - and what a treat to sup a pint of Harveys Sussex !
Suitably refreshed, and having been reunited with our group's two sandwichers, we set off on the long afternoon leg in bright sunshine. A visit to St Mary's Church, Slaugham and a brief look at the nearby ruins from the footpaths, and we were on our way.
Just before we crossed the railway we spotted two from group one, who took the direct route along the road to the railway station. At the station they were joined by the four from group three (our fellow lunch diners) who had taken a short cut (sensible in the sunshine) and I am told they all caught the 17-04 hrs train. My group, on reaching the village centre, was delighted to find the Half Moon pub to be open, so cold drinks were enjoyed before four of us caught the 17-34 hrs train back to London, leaving our two companions in the pub to linger over a more leisurely drink in the late afternoon sunshine.
A grand summer's day outing and so good to see some familiar faces after the long period of lockdown.

Marcus said...

For Corvid, please read Covid !

Walker said...

No, I think you have hit upon something here, Marcus. Those crows are suspicious looking birds, always looking aslant at us. it was not the Chinese that started this virus - it was the crows!

Marcus said...

Thanks Peter !

Yes - it's the crows, not the Chinese.......

PeteB said...

Crows!!! You are both raven mad😂

Gabriella said...

This was a lovely walk that I have never done before. Thank you Marcus for posting.