Length: between 12¼ & 19¼ km (7.6 to 12 miles), depending on afternoon route. Toughness: 2 or 3/10
10:08 Tonbridge train from Cannon Street (London Bridge 10:13, Sevenoaks 10:37), arriving Tonbridge at 10:46. If you just miss this, the slightly slower 10:15 Hastings train arrives at 10:58..
From south London you could travel out on the Portsmouth Harbour train (Clapham Jct 09:42, East Croydon 09:53) and change at Redhill (arr 10:04, dep 10:21) to reach Tonbridge at 10:51. If the main group don't march off too quickly you should be able to catch up.
From Tonbridge there are three trains an hour back to London Bridge and Cannon Street at xx:18, xx:38 & xx:50, plus an hourly train at xx:26 for anyone returning via Redhill.
After a rather tiresome trudge out of Tonbridge this is an undemanding walk through parkland, farm fields and extensive orchards, with the world-famous Chagall windows in Tudeley church the highlight of the outward leg. A little further on the ‘Country Pub & Dining’ Poacher & Partridge should be able to provide a pub lunch for those who want one, but if it can't oblige it's less than an hour back to the many eateries in Tonbridge.
You could end the walk here if you wish (12¼ km), but the directions include several alternative routes on the other side of the town: around the Racecourse Ground (14 km); a short loop out to Barden Lake where there's a park café (16½ km); or a longer loop around Haysden Country Park (up to 19¼ km).
Please bring the directions from the L=swc.220 page. #2026-08-23T10:50
2 comments:
N=10 at the station, off of the 2 trains, were caught up with by walker number n=11
The day w=started-cloudy-got-sunny Omly bits of the ‘tiresome trudge’ were tiresome and things got better once we entered Somerhill. They stayed better until near the church. Silly Nr Tiger, who had fallen behind by then, tried walking down the dodgy road instead of the permissive path mentioned in the directions. He survived.
The church was mega, as young people might say. Fab even.
The field after wasn’t. It had been ploughed and left to dry out. It were like walking over boulders.
The group was caught up with at the Poacher and Pheasant. Most were having pizza. Kindly benefactors showered Mr Tiger with chips and crisps. All was well.
And so to the afternoon., which took us through orchards. Soon the fast ones were ahead, leaving just one lonely walker straggling behind ‘sigh’.
That walker had decided to just finish a Tonbridge rather than taking any of the extra loops. But not till after poking his nose in the Wetherspoons which was quite big.
A grand day out.
Drop-out rates on a Sunday walk can be quite high so it was rather surprising that only two others dropped out at Tonbridge. At the Barden Lake café there were reports of a closed footbridge on the next leg but four devised a workaround and pressed on intending to complete the full walk, leaving the other four to return to Tonbridge. I broke off to head for the hourly Redhill train only to find that a possible track defect had led to a replacement bus being called in at short notice. Thankfully it turned up more or less on time and proceeded to rattle along narrow country lanes for what seemed like ages, but after the recent derailments the train company's caution was quite understandable.
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