Sunday Walk: Ham Street to Appledore

We’re doing the main walk. Difficulty 3/10, length 14¼ km (8.8 miles). First up, a circuit of Ham Street Woods (good for wildflowers), then along the inland Saxon Shore Way (the sea moved -  honest). If you get the impression the locals are laughing at you, it's more likely to be the Hungarian marsh frogs that have settled in these parts. 🐸🐸  Feel free to laugh back.
Trains: take the 10:37 Hi-Speed Ramsgate train from St Pancras (Stratford International 10:44) and change at Ashford International for the Eastbourne train (arr 11:14 platform, dep 11:24 platform 1) arriving Ham Street at 11:32.
You could get the cheaper 9:29 Ramsgate train from Charing Cross to Ashford but there's a bit of a wait there (arr 10:46 dep 11:24). 
Return from Appledore at xx:57 changing again at Ashford International.
Get a return to Appledore.
Lunch The Woolpack Inn (01233-732900) in Warehorne.
Tea: There are two places in Appledore village. The Black Lion (01233-758206)  and Miss Mollett's High Class Tea Room (01233-758555), open to 5pm.
You need to allow at least half an hour to reach Appledore Station, 2¼ km away.
Directions here click option M for the main walk.
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Sunday Walk: Knebworth to Hitchin

11.6 miles, difficulty 4/10.
This walk, a variant of the Knebworth Circular, goes through Knebworth Park, glimpses Knebworth House and, later, passes near the ancestral home of the Queen Mother. You also pass a church associated with the family,  that’s worth a look. But today’s big stars are the bluebells. These ones could eat Dockey Wood’s offerings for breakfast.
Trains:
Get the 10:02 (possibly Royston) train from Kings Cross (Finsbury Park 10:08) arriving Knebworth 10:39.
Return from Hitchin at x:00 and xx:30. Get a return to Hitchin.
Lunch
The recommended choice, after you’ve turned onto the Hitchin walk, is the community-owned, CAMRA-recognised, Red Lion in Preston 01462 459585. You should reach this about 1:30. Booking advised.
An earlier possibility would be a short diversion to the village of Whitwell, using the main (circular) directions (page 9), to find Emily's Teashop 01438 871928. (The Bull Inn there 01438 871513 also does food).
The Strathmore Arms in St Pauls Walden doesn’t seem to do food on a Sunday.
Tea  The directions recommend  Halsey's Deli in Hitchin - near St Mary's Church - open till 5.
If it's beer you're after, Mr Tiger would recommend the Half Moon, 57 Queen Street (01462 452 448), winner of several CAMRA awards You'll find this on the right hand side where you would turn left into Bridge Street (para 25).
Walk Directions here
 If you like to use a printout, the pages needed are 6-9, then 21-25  When you get to point 17 in the main walk, skip  forward to page 21 where the walk to Hitchin continues. (If you do finish in Knebworth, trains back from there are at xx:44).  t=swc.353

Sevenoaks to Westerham - Up the escarpment to bluebell ridge

Length: 18.6km (11.6 miles) T=swc.20

9.59 train from Charing Cross (10.02 Waterloo East, 10.08 London Bridge) to Sevenoaks, arriving 10.31

If you miss this, there is another fast train at 10.08 Ch X, 10.11 WE, 10.17 LBG, arriving Sevenoaks 10.42 - but don't get the 10.10 from Ch X, 10.14 WE, 10.20 LBG, which is a stopper!!

You can actually buy a single to Sevenoaks, since return from Westerham is by London Transport bus, on which you can use Oyster, contactless and TfL passes/travelcards. Having said that, a day return to Sevenoaks is valid for return from Bromley South to Victoria.

For walk directions click here, for GPX click here, for a map of the route click here. 

This walk starts in suburban Sevenoaks and then has a stretch across Knole Park. After that you are out in a very idyllic slice of Kent countryside, nestling under the Greensand ridge. You gradually climb to the escarpment, where there are usually plentiful bluebells. 

There is a possible lunch stop after 4.8 miles - The Windmill in Sevenoaks Weald, which requires a 1km diversion off the walk route: a very pleasant pub, but not large, so ring to check they have space - but most walkers seem to prefer to press on to the Cock Inn in Ide Hill after 8 miles, a popular pub which serves food till 3pm. Ide Hill also has a community shop serving tea, coffee, pasties, sandwiches and cakes - but this now shuts at 2.30pm on Saturdays.

In the afternoon the walk takes you through the National Trust Emmetts Garden on a public footpath. (Its grounds also have good bluebell displays, but you would have to pay the entrance fee to see these). It has a tea room (on the public footpath), open till 4.30pm.

The remainder of the walk is through woodland, which should have lovely bright green foliage at this time of year, to Westerham, which is bursting with pubs and tea places.

For return from Westerham the easiest option is the 246 bus, operated by London Transport, and so Oyster, contactless and passes can all be used, and fares are as for a normal London bus (£1.65?). This takes 31 minutes to Hayes, Kent station (four trains an hour to Charing Cross) or 43 minutes to Bromley South (regular fast trains to Victoria). It leaves from the green in the centre off Westerham at 15.17, 15.39, 16.10, 16.41, 17.12, 17.43, 18.14, 19.16, 20.18 (etc...)

An alternative is the 16.33 or 17.33. bus 594/5 to Oxted railway station, taking 20 minutes: you would then obviously have to pay whatever fare is relevant from Oxted to where you are going. 

Saturday Walk: Beaconsfield Circular

12.1 miles / 19.5 km

A walk through gently rolling wooded hills in Buckinghamshire, it passes the cottage of the poet John Milton in Chalfont St Giles, as well as Jordans, a hamlet with Quaker links. 

Trains: 09:37 London Marylebone, 10:03 Beaconsfield.  Return trains at xx:04/xx:42, plus a slow service at xx:10.

Lunch:  There are a couple of pubs in Chalfont St Giles - Merlins Cave and The Feathers, or you can get a sandwich at The Deli.

Full walk details here

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Robertsbridge to Battle

SWC 222a Robertsbridge to Battle

Length: 19.7 km (12.2 miles). Toughness: 3/10

Longer option 222c: 34.5 km (21.4 miles). 

Catch the 9:08 from London Charing Cross arrives Robertsbridge 10:28. 

Buy a day return to Battle. 

Return trains xx:01 xx:35 until 22:35

222a Robertsbridge to Battle - directions required SWC Walk 222 pages 1-4,7 + SWC Walk 30 pages 3-5

222c Robertsbridge to Battle (long option) - directions required SWC Walk 222 

Note: The route for this walk does not overlap with the recent (13th April) Robertsbridge to Battle walk (20b)

For the longer walk 222c it is recommended that you take some provisions in case you are delayed and don't make it in time before they stop serving at 15:00 at The Ash Tree (22.5km into the walk).

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Nye - One man’s dream of the NHS at National Theatre

Tonight, a history lesson will be taught about NHS.  This new play by Tim Price is about surreal and spectacular journey through the life and legacy of Nye Bevan (played by Michael Sheen) who transformed Britain’s welfare state.

From campaigning at the coalfield to leading the battle to create the NHS, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan is often referred to as the politician with greatest influence on our country without ever being Prime Minister.

Confronted with death, Nye’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Churchill in an epic Welsh fantasia.

Tickets from £20.  To book, please click here. 

Pre-theatre F&B:  meet at the NT Foyer for F&B from 6pm - Atrium Cafe (serving salad, sandwich etc) or KERB at the Understudy (serving street food).  There are also outdoor sitting areas weather permitting.

Meeting Place at the Interval: meet outside the Circle to share your thoughts, Also nice views of Thames and surround in the balcony - weather permitting.   

If you booked a ticket and wish to join the event Whatsapp group for better co-ordination on the day,  please email with your mobile number to swcsocialATgmailDOMcom.  The Whatsapp group will be deleted post the event.

Evening Walk - Bluebells in the evening: Wanstead Park

Length: 6.0 km (3.7 mi)
Net Walking Time: 1 ½ hrs

Meet: Wanstead Station, at 18.45 hours. Wanstead is a station on the Hainault loop of the Central Line in Zone 4. Travel time from Oxford Circus is 27 minutes, and from Liverpool Street 17 minutes.

Leafy stroll in the Borough of Redbridge through the Grade II* listed historic landscaped parkland of Wanstead Park, once home to the Palladian mansion of Wanstead House, compared at the time to Blenheim Palace. Today only two smaller structures, The Grotto and The Temple, remain (and the House itself stood on what is now a golf course), but nevertheless the present smaller park retains some of the layout of Wanstead House’s grounds, especially its many ponds, and provides a perfect venue for relaxing and escaping the urban sprawl, with its plentiful water features and varied woods, famous for their bluebell displays in season.
The park closes ‘at dusk’.

Eat/Drink: Plenty of options near the station. See webpage for details.

For walk directions, map, photos, and gpx/kml files click here. T=short.11

Bluebells in the Thames valley: Goring circular via Hill Bottom

Length: 18 km (11.3 miles) 4/10

Travel: 1008 from Paddington (Reading 1053) arriving Goring and Streatley 1105. You could make your way to Reading on the Elizabeth line and change there, but it's a slow journey - 0948 from Paddington, 0956 Ealing Broadway. Late starters happy with a tight connection could get the 1023 Paddington to Oxford and change at Reading. Return trains at around 18 and 48 (a few minutes earlier or later after 5 pm).

Lunch: the recommended pub is the Sun Inn, Hill Bottom (0118 9842260), open all day from 12 noon.

Tea: Pierreponts cafe in Goring (01491 874464) is open till 5. According to the walk description it does delicious cakes, light meals and refreshments which you can also take out to eat by the nearby weir on the Thames. There's also the up-market Swan (01491 878800) in Streatley on the other side of the Thames, and a Tesco Express near the station.

For walk directions, map and GPX click here

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Sunday Walk – Faversham Circular [New]

Extra Walk 420 – Faversham Circular

Length: 19½ km (12.1 miles), or 14½ km (9 miles) for the Short Walk (see below). Toughness: 2/10

09:40 Ramsgate train from Victoria (Bromley South 09:58), arriving Faversham at 10:50.

Trains back from Faversham to Victoria are at xx:37 (fast) & xx:44 (slow). You could also buy a “Plus High Speed” supplement at Faversham and take the xx:00 to St Pancras, but it's only marginally quicker.

I hesitate to call this walk around the North Kent marshes ‘new’ because much of it duplicates the various endings of the Teynham to Faversham walk (#299), as well as the route in a Faversham publication which has regularly featured on this site. However, if you thrill to the sight of massive lumps of concrete scattered around woodland you'll enjoy the new section through Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park.

There are three or four possible lunch places, all quite different. It feels right to support the old-fashioned Shipwright's Arms in Hollowshore as it relies heavily on passing trade from walkers on the coast path, but its food offerings are pretty basic (no Sunday roast). In contrast The Three Mariners is really an up-market restaurant masquerading as a pub. The middle ground is occupied by The Castle inn and The Cafe by the Creek. The last three are all close to each other in the small village of Oare, twenty minutes beyond Hollowshore.

There are plenty of refreshment places at the end of the walk in Faversham, which you can reconnoitre on your outward route through the town.

Walk Options: When you reach Luddenham on the afternoon leg you can choose whether to complete the full walk via Uplees and Oare Marshes (another two hours) or head straight back to Faversham (less than an hour).

You'll need to bring the directions from the L=swc.420 page.

Sunday Walk - 20 days to Tomich: Bluebells on the Downs - Pewsey Circular

Length: 26.9 km (16.7 mi) [shortcuts possible, see below] 

Ascent/Descent: 410 m 

Net Walking Time: ca. 6 hours 

Toughness: 6 out of 10 

 

Take the 10.32 Paignton train from Paddington (11.01 Reading, 11.16 Newbury, 11.25 Hungerford), arriving Pewsey at 11.36. 

Return trains: 14.56 (68 mins), 16.57 (67 mins), 19.01 (70 mins) or 22.14 (79 mins). All return trains stop in Newbury and Reading and all but the last one also in Hungerford, so a split ticket London – Hungerford and Hungerford- Pewsey will give you the best prices (unless you are planning to take the last train back, in which case split the ticket at Newbury).

The Network Railcard is valid to Hungerford, so split the ticket there AND take a rtn train no later than the 19.01.

 

Exhilarating excursion through the solitude of the Vale of Pewsey, which separates the chalk upland of the North Wessex Downs to the north from that of Salisbury Plain to the south, including an ascent up the southerly hill chain of the Marlborough Downs, from where there are stunning far views in all directions over this land of wave-like hills, with its scarps, ridges and valleys. It is a mysterious landscape, full of pre-historic earthworks and hillforts as well as barrows – burial mounds of kings and warriors. After a scenic descent back into the Vale of Pewsey, your tea option is in the hamlet of Honeystreet. Finally, an undemanding stretch along the Kennet & Avon Canal leads back to Pewsey. 

 

Two Shortcuts on the Downs are possible, they reduce the walk by 3.5 km (2.1 mi) or 3.4 km (2.1 mi) respectively. See route map and pdf for details. 

 

Lunch: Picnic. 

Tea: Honeystreet Mill Café in Honeystreet (19.6 km/12.2 mi, open to 17.00), or The Barge Inn (open all day, food to 16.00), also in Honeystreet, plus one other en route and several others in Pewsey; check page 2 of the walk directions pdf.

 

For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.127

Saturday Walk - Knockholt Circular

Length: 18.5km (11.5 miles) 5 out of 10

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This walk has bluebells. It is also in Zone 6, so makes for an easy journey.

Trains: Get the 1010 Sevenoaks train from Charing Cross (Waterloo East 1014, London Bridge 1020) arriving 1101. If you miss that, get the 1016 and change at Orpington. Return trains at xx14 and xx44.

Lunch: In Downe (7.7km from the start) The Queens Head (01689 852145). Food served all day is the suggested lunch stop. Also The George & Dragon (01689 889030). Food served noon-8.30pm

Tea: Arthur's Coffee Shop Coolings Nurseries, closes 4.30pm Located 2.6km from the end of the walk. The Rose and Crown Otford Lane, Halstead, 600 metres off route. The Cock Inn is closed. 

Tiptoe through the Bluebells - Warlingham Circular (Amendment)

Difficulty 4/10

Main Walk 17 km (10.6 miles).

Today’s walk is the Warlingham Circular.  On the walk document's web page you can scroll down and click Option ‘Main Walk 17km’ below the map to give you the route for today’s walk to print and bring along.  

There are fine displays of bluebells throughout this walk.  As witnessed last weekend, the bluebells are coming out in strength, so this weekend they are likely to be at their best.  

This part of the London/Surrey border feels pretty rural, the woods, fields and isolated valleys having escaped suburban expansion. The walk starts with a climb to the top of Riddlesdown and the adjoining Sanderstead to Whyteleafe Countryside Area, (now part of the South London Downs National Nature Reserve). It then heads east via Hamsey Green for a short stretch through King's Wood, the best of the bluebell woods. After crossing an isolated valley the full walk continues with a meander through Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve, which also has good displays of wood anemones. A tiny 11^thC church and more bluebell woods are then passed on the way to a lunch pub on the edge of Great Farleigh Green.

The return leg comes back across the valley to King's Wood, this time through its full length. The walk ends with a longer stretch through the Countryside Area, and a flight of steps takes you down to a café in Whyteleafe Recreation Ground and a choice of return stations.

Trains: 

 Either Victoria 10.20 arrives at Upper Warlingham at 10.52 calling at CJ 10.27; E Croydon 10.40;

Or train from London Bridge at 10.10 arriving at Whyteleafe at 10.47

These two stations are very close together. Travellers from London Bridge can walk to Upper Warlingham to meet the travellers from Victoria.

 Tickets: Both stations are at the outer edge of TfL Zone 6 so a Travelcard or London Freedom Pass would suffice.

 Return Trains:

From Upper Warlingham: xx02 and xx32 to Victoria

From Whyteleafe: xx01 and xx31 to LB

 Lunch: The Harrow (01883-627565) on Great Farleigh Green. The suggested place for a picnic lunch is at Farleigh church, which has several benches in its churchyard.

Tea: The suggested place in Whyteleafe is the small Pavilion Café (01883-770666; open daily to around 4pm) in the Recreation Ground, a friendly place serving hot drinks and a selection of cakes. Stronger fare is available at the refurbished Whyteleafe Tavern (01883-624547) and the Radius Arms micro-pub (07514-916172), but neither do hot drinks. Both are on the A22 between the two stations.

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Walk directions: here

Saturday Walk - 21 days to Tomich: Bluebell Woods, Anemones, Heathlands, a Steam Train Option - East Grinstead to Wivelsfield or Sheffield Park

Length: 31.9 km (19.8 mi) [much shorter walks possible, see below]

Ascent/Descent: 453/532m

Net Walking Time: ca. 7 ½ hours

Toughness: 8 out of 10  

Take the 09.20 service from Victoria to East Grinstead (CJ 09.27, EC 09.40), arriving 10.20. 

From LBG, take a train to East Croydon for a connection, no later than the 09.19 Horsham service. 

 

Return trains from Wivelsfield: xx.11 (Victoria), xx.14 (Thameslink), xx.26 (Victoria, change Burgess Hill), xx.41 (Victoria) and xx.44 (Thameslink), xx.56 (Victoria, change Burgess Hill). 

Buy an East Grinstead return, you then will have to buy an additional single from Wivelsfield to East Croydon, if you want to stay honest.

 

This route in the East/West Sussex boundary lands descends from East Grinstead into the Upper Medway Valley and past Weir Wood Reservoir and then meanders through an undulating landscape of hills, streams, ponds, heaths and mixed woodland, rich in bluebells and wood anemones in season. For the most part, it largely shadows the course of The Bluebell Line steam railway, and lunch is either in tranquil Horsted Keynes or in Scaynes Hill, near the (Sussex) Ouse River. Later you pass through several parts of the large Chailey Common heathlands and continue westbound through flatter ground – mostly pastures with fine South Downs Views – to Burgess Hill (for Wivelsfield station).

 

An Alternative Finish at Sheffield Park, the terminus of the Bluebell Line, is possible if a little expensive (in money, travel time or kilometrage): the 121 bus is running at 14.06, 15.21 and 16.36 to Cookbridge and Lewes Stations, or you could take the steam train back to East Grinstead (at 14.15 or at 15.30), but only pricey day tickets are available, or you could walk out-and-back to the interesting station (adds 5.0 km).

 

Shorter Walks, enabled by bus connections: Start at Forest Row/Brambletye (i.e.: opposite The Chequers Inn, route from there described in the pdf, cuts 3.6 km) or even Horsted Keynes/Lewes Road (right on the route, cuts 13.7 km): Bus line 270 either from East Grinstead (09.11, then xx.05) or from Wivelsfield (10.01, 11.03, then xx.04) or from Haywards Heath/Perrymount Road – by the station (09.21, 10.21, 11.23 then xx.24).

Lunch: The Green Man (Greene King, food to 15.00) or The Crown Inn (food all day) in Horsted Keynes (13.7 km/8.5 mi); The Sloop Inn in Scaynes Hill (19.2 km/11.9 mi, food to 14.30).

Tea all walk options: The Sloop Inn (as above). 

Tea Sheffield Park ending: The 360° Brewing Company Taproom or The Bessemer Arms. 

Tea Wivelsfield ending: The Watermill Inn, right by the station.

 

For summary, walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.27