East Grinstead Circular
T=swc.40
Length: 10.9 miles
(17.6km) 5 out of 10
Trains: Get the 09:44 East
Grinstead train from Victoria, arriving 10:50
(Clapham 09:53, East Croydon 10:10. Return trains are xx:12 & xx:42.
Note change of train times, due to ASLEF overtime ban. There may be cancellations, and the last train back is at 20:42.
Buy a return ticket to East Grinstead
This walk takes you around
pleasant hilly countryside to the south of East Grinstead, with fine views and
relatively gentle gradients, and the familiar Wealden mix of pasture, woods and
ancient houses. East Grinstead high street has many tudor and medieval timber
framed buildings.
Early in the walk you pass
Standen, a National Trust-owned house and garden exemplifying the 19th century
Arts and Crafts style popularised by William Morris and others. If you want to
make a visit to the house, three short walks to Standen are possible - see the
walk text. Later the walk takes you past the remains of Brambletye House, a
romantic ruin almost since it was built in the 17th century.
Lunch: It is 8.7km (5.4
miles) from East Grinstead. Chequers Inn
Hotel (01342 823333) in Forest Row serves meals, pizzas and ciabattas 12pm-5pm.
Next door to it on the left is the Java and Jazz Cafe and Pizzeria (01342
862699) which is open until 10.30pm Monday to Saturday, or 6pm on Sundays.
Across the road is the Brambletye Hotel (a pub, essentially). Plus various
other options, particularly the Hop Yard Brewery for it's beer, which has
separate Thai and pizza concessions.
Tea: Back in East
Grinstead, there are many options. CJ’s
Cafe Bar just before Cafe Nero, which is open until late in the evening. It has
a roof terrace with a fine view of the churchyard. Just before it on the left
is the Old Bank Cafe, open to 5pm daily. Pub choices include the Dorset Arms
opposite CJs, and the Crown nearby.
Closer to the station is
Bluebells (01342 458 491) on the corner of Railway Approach, which has a
pleasant ambience and good selection of cakes and is open till 5pm.
Directions, GPX etc can be
found here: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/east-grinstead-circular/
1 comment:
Even given the absence of many walkers in sunny Scotland, I was surprised that only N=7 turned up on this walk. This despite it being a w=gloriously-sunny-day when even a walk around a car park would have been a delight.
Luckily we did not have to walk around a car park (except briefly at the start). Instead we enjoyed gorgeous meadows dotted with buttercups and all the wonderful greenness of this time of year, but still with the cow parsley and hawthorn in full bloom. The ground underfoot was (finally) dry…apart from a few pockets of Battle of the Somme-grade gloop lurking by gates in shady spots.
Two of our number strode ahead, but then took a wrong turning at Standen and disappeared for a while. Five of us carried on to Forest Row, where three elected to do the main walk and took a short cut to Tablehurst Farm to have their sarnies. Two of us went to Forest Row, where we ran into one of the missing hares. He had a coffee and we two ate at the Java and Jazz Cafe. Speedy service because we could order at the counter and nice outside tables. But the food, it has to be said, looked more interesting than it tasted.
We then set off to do the longer afternoon, much of which was absolutely idyllic. Climbing a long hill to a panoramic view we came across a dozing figure who turned out to be the other missing walker. There was then the rather overlong road section (the one slight flaw in this option), at the end of which we saw the astonishing (and somewhat sinister) sight of about twenty cormorants nesting and perched on a dead tree overlooking the reservoir.
Approaching Standen the hares were once more some way ahead - too far ahead to call out to when we two diverted onto the back way into the National Trust site to have tea. My companion surreptitiously ate a vegan cake she had bought at the Java and Jazz - one thing they make that IS very tasty, apparently.
We then did the field route back to East Grinstead in golden sunshine, having encounters with some frisky bullocks en route. Fortunately they fell for our authoritative farmer act and stood aside, but then followed us all the way across the field to the gate.
At East Grinstead station we found that the 18.12 train mysteriously did not exist (not cancelled, just not on the roster), but we walked up the old railway line a bit and got the 18.42, satisfied with our day out.
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