Stoke Row circular

I had planned to go for a walk on the North Downs today from Leith Hill, but my forgetfulness yesterday meant that I forgot to pick up my dry cleaning. Opening hours on a Sunday meant I’d have to go walking closer to home, to give me a chance of picking up my trousers!

So I opted for this self made walk, i.e. look at the map and pick a circular route that will get you done in time for a tasty pub lunch!

The pub in question was The Cherry Tree Inn in Stoke Row, Oxfordshire, more about which later. First the walk. The handy thing about a walk that finish at a pub is you can make full use of its car park without feeling guilty or annoying the owners. So my route started down Northwood Lane. Not far down here there was a footpath that really passed through somebody's back garden but eventually passed into some fields. Up ahead was what looked like a lych gate of a church, but with no church in sight. Passing through this is was then a short walk up to some farm buildings and then a pleasant walk on a old green lane, in the dappled sunlight forcing its way through the trees. The odd house was visible including the rather grand Oakingham House, but it was less ornate surroundings that we found at the next property.

All along the lane down to to road ahead was piles of old skips, with assorted junk ranging from children's toys to builder's rubble and everything in between including the kitchen sink! Well three kitchen sinks in fact.

No sooner has we passed this by than the best part of the walk began. Through a small plot of beautiful woodland and then onto to English Farm. In the setting of the rolling Oxfordshire countryside was yet another grand house, with a collection of classic Dutch barns. One of which was housing Cobalt Blacksmiths, given away by a oversize wrought iron spider making its decent down the side of the barn.

Beyond English Farm we crossed a large field, the scenery around these parts reminding me of the opening scenes of Enduring Love (minus the red hot air balloon). We were then on another green lane, which continued to offer up some great vistas. I only wish I'd had my camera with me. Writing this now from memory, I recall so much that would have been worth snapping a picture of. Instead, I've made do with a screen dump from Google Earth.

At Howberrywood, after making friends with the owner's dogs, we headed through the woods to Highmoor Cross (yet more grand homes) and then via roads and trackways back to Stoke Row and lunch.

There seems to be loads of good pubs in South Oxfordshire and this is one of them. The food was excellent, and the courgette frites side order, whilst not doubt not very good for you, are well worth a try.

Coombe Hill and Chequers

I should have written this walk up weeks ago and never got round it it. But this was a great walk, so it was worth the wait!

This walk began at the car park for Coombe Hill, but unlike most people who probably just wander round the corner to the viewpoint, we went the long way round. The first part of the walk was a stroll through some reasonable dense woodland eventually leading to a track that took us down into the village of Dunsmore.

From Dunsmore the route goes into farmland, and a fantastic hidden valley view. The path drops down into the bottom of this valley where there are a collection of farm buildings. Ominously a sign here advises you not to loiter in this area, particularly by sitting on the low walls. But the temptation escapes me and I follow the track up the gentle slope, initially into a very dark tunnel of tree, but then along a open woodland track.

Just after the crest of the slope, we meet a couple of male walkers standing by the side of the track, trying to balance a camera on their rucksack. They spot us and I get ask if I can take photo of them with the trees in the background. I do and then continue on, down to slope to a narrow country lane.

Now this could be any ordinary country lane, bar on thing poking its head above the hedgerow across the road. On a huge black pole is a large CCTV camera, with night vision capabilities. This is the first sign that we have arrived in the grounds of

Chequers, the country home of the Prime Minister. The footpath cross a wheat field with fences both sides. All along the fence are small signs warning, in no uncertain terms, that you should not cross the fence. If I were to do so I'd be in breach of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Needless to say I don't, but curiously there is no barrier when the public footpath cross the driveway to Chequers.

The path now heads gently uphill to a stand of woodland, then the path skirts along the edge of the wood providing a great view of the house itself. In Tony Blair's day, he may well have been here relaxing with Cherie. But I doubt Gordon is here. Upon taking up the premiership he said he wasn't planning to use Chequers as a weekend retreat, just as a venue for summits and brainstorming!

Up until this point we'd been following a walk in Country Walking magazine, but we're starting to feel peckish and deviate from the printed route to head down into Great Kimble for lunch at the Bernard Arms. Many a foreign leader has supped a pint in this pub and we spot photos of Boris Yeltsin and John Howard by the door. Lunch was a little unmemorable, and I tend to agree with this review in The Daily Telegraph from 2004.

So now we follow the main road down the hill and then turn right along Ellesborough Road. After passing a few houses there is a path that heads off between the gardens then out into the fields behind them. Up ahead the church in Ellesborough stands proud above the trees. There are signs on many of the gates a stiles advertising cream teas and views from the top of the church tower. But we're expecting a better view soon, from the top of Coombe Hill, so we don't investigate further. However if you want to know what the view is like, here it is.

From Ellesborough its a short walk to Butlers Cross and then a walk across Ellesborough Golf Course. Once past the club house its a dart across the road and the start of the climb up the hill to the Coombe Hill monument. The route start within some trees, but quickly emerges to an open path, but this a a seriously steep lungbusting slope. However, the view from the top is stunning and is arguably the best view I've seen in this part of the country. Through my binoculars I can just make about Didcot Power Station. Crowning the top of the hill is the monument to those men from Buckinghamshire killed during the second Boer War. There's loads of people here, but I doubt many (if any) of them have approached it from the same direction as we have. I suspect most have just parked where we parked and wandered the short distance to the monument. Once we've fully appreciated the view, it's time for us to head back as well. A great walk.

LOOP Day 3: Petts Wood - Hayes

A week after I was here last, I'm back in Petts Wood and taking the walk from the station, up the high street and onwards to the Jubilee Country Park. The first part of the walk today seemed pretty pointless. Looking at the map it appeared that I was ultimately walking in a big circle, and that there was a quicker route from the station. The hoped for rural idyll was not really apparent either. I've not doubt that Jubilee Country Park is a vital piece of undeveloped land, providing crucial wildlife habitat, but its not particularly pretty, hence the lack of photos.

Skirting the edge of the park eventually leads to the service lane of a school and then a long walk down a suburban residential street. This seemed a little endless, with every roundabout and road junction hoping that route would change, but didn't. Eventually I pass a no through road sign and the end of the houses is in sight. I had got so hypnotised by the houses that I forgot to check the map at this point and tramped into the woods in completely the wrong direction. Eventually it dawned on me that I'd gone wrong, and I backtracked to find the much broader track through Sparrow and Roundabout Woods.

I like woodland walking, but this was some how second rate. The principal complaint was the condition of the ground underfoot, and the continuous dodging of very very large puddles meant this bit of the walk took much much longer than intended. The worst point was where the path crossed a small stream where it looked like the stream was crossing the bridge, not going under it. After this through the path dried a little and soon came to a more open grassland area with a few trees dotted around. Down to a tarmac path then led to the main road at Crofton.

Crossing this road I head past the scout hut and down a winding alleyway between gardens and houses. At first this is dark and claustrophobic, the sort of place you wouldn't want to walk down at night. I quickly catch up with a doddering old lady, who I think feels the same way and seem quite alarmed as I approach. Soon I back with the houses, but only briefly and then I walking up hill through Darrick Wood, a much more pleasant plot of trees. But I'm quickly through the trees and passing a playing field and tennis courts. Then something of a surprise view with benches waiting to take it all in. And I could do with a short break - its quite humid today. Sadly both benches are occupied, and look like they'll be occupied for some time, by four middle-aged women with, at a guess, 12 dogs in tow. So instead I drop down the grassly slope, to the hedge and road below.

Crossing the main road, takes me to an alley way between houses and then onto Gladstone Road and into the village of Farnborough. Walking through this little village and take to path to the village church - St Giles the Abbott and finally take my break on the bench under the church's dominant yew tree, planted in the 1640s, when the nave of the church was rebuilt following storm damage.

A short stoll through the churchyard leads to an open, undulating grass field. The trees here are more exotic and it definitely feels like ornamental park land. And so it is because a short walk through the woods at the end of the field lead to the car park of High Elms Country Park. This was once the home of the Lubbock family, but since the 1960s it has been owned by Bromley Council. The house is long gone, but the stables still exist and house a wildlife centre. There's also a Eton wall game court. Passing this the exact route of the LOOP becomes indistinct. There's lots of paths but no signs. I cross the formal terraced gardens and find myself on the edge of High Elms golf course. Clearly this isn't quite right, but I press on and drop down past the clubhouse into the car park, then down the course's driveway.

I now follow a small path parallel to the road and pass a farmhouse with an impressive weathervane. Its here I turn up the hill, cross another part of the golf course, then head into more woodland, to eventually emerge onto North End Lane.

From here I follow an old green lane, but for much of it there's a handy path along the edge of a cropped field. In the warm sun this provides great views across the rolling countryside, and amazes me that I am walking inside Greater London. I could be in rural Oxfordshire! This route has the charming name of Bogey Lane, confirmed by the street sign at the junction with Farthing Street.

I follow the sharp corners of Farthing Street to the busy Shire Lane. Here I'm worried. The cars are going pretty fast here, but handily there is a path behind the far hedgerow. The downside is that it is heavily overgrown with cow parsley. The benefit is you get good views of the parkland up the hill to the north and importantly Holwood House, the former home of William Pitt the Younger.

Finally, after fighting with the jungle, I head up the hill towards to house, and before heading into more woodland get some more stunning views of the London countryside. Then up ahead I reach the Wilberforce Oak, or what's left of it. In fact there are two old tree stumps here, and at first I get the two mixed up. The Wilberforce Oak is the one that is fenced in and somewhat overgrown by surrounding plants. There's also large stone bench, but this is on the estate land behind a huge security fence. All a bit over done if you ask me and spoils the setting a little. For it is at this spot that William Wilberforce is supposed to have decided that he would pursue a campaign to abolish slavery.

Now its down the hill towards Keston Common and its lakes. Crossing the car park takes you past the source of the Ravensbourne, which has been bricked in and looks like a water feature in an 1970s shopping centre. There are three ponds here, covered in lily leafs with flower buds ready to burst. There are also a few families of wildfowl with mallard dusk and young coots on the water. By the third pool is an ice cream van and I stop for a 99, before heading on towards Keston village.

The village you just skirt before your back into more woodland, this a thin strip that leads to West Wickham Common. This is later confirmed by a huge Corporation of London sign, for it is the City elders that own this plot. Like Petts Wood its purchase was an early attempt to preserve some green space in South London in the early part of the 20th century. And you're quite high up here, with some good views of suburbia.

However, eventually the common ends and I arrive at a busy road junction that marks the end of the walk today. I now make my way along the very undulating path that leads to the shops around Hayes station and the train home.

LOOP Day 2: Bexley - Petts Wood

Bank holiday weekend, and, guess what, the weather is forecast to be wet and windy! Well in the south certainly and it definitely restrict walking opportunities. But Saturday turns out to be sunny and reasonably warm, just a bit breezy. And so I head off by train to Bexley, where the trains are running to this weekend – I checked beforehand!

So a short walk from Bexley station brings me onto the high street, but quicker than you can blinks, I’m off down a lane than leads to a track under the railway, the wooden platforms hanging perilously off the side of the bridge. Immediately on the other side the track becomes a very narrow path with high growing grass and nettles on either side. I meet a father with two very young children, both of whom are shorter than the plant life on either side of the path, and they clearly a little wary.

But soon I’m passing the cricket club, where the Whitstable Cricket team are warming up for their day’s match. Crossing their car park and then up a small incline to be face with a large area of open grassland. This used to be a landfill site according to my LOOP guidebook, but you’d never guess. The path across the grassland eventually leads to the end on a broad residential street, then it’s an immediate left turn down a snicket [not unsurprisingly my spell checker has queried the word ‘snicket’ as I’m not using the Yorkshire version of Microsoft Word!]. The path follows two very high green fences, clearly keeping people out of the surrounding land which is lush and green. Eventually the path emerges at a bridge over the River Cray, and a calming riparian scene, unlike the Cray I’d seen during the previous leg of this walk.

The route now follows the far bank of the Cray providing a very pleasant shaded riverside walk. The highlight of this stretch is the arrival at Five Arch Bridge where the river widens out to form a small lake at Foots Cray Meadows. Soon I’m onto the streets of Foots Cray itself. There are some older buildings here, but most seem to date from the 60s and 70s. Turning down Suffolk Road, leads to a small playing field, then a track skirting through Foots Cray and to the edge of Sidcup.  This route passes the ground of Cray Wanderers Football Club.

A short climb through woodland brings me out into open parkland. The walk up the hill eventually leads to the grounds of Sidcup Place, once a private home, but now a very stylish pub. The grounds are maintained by Bexley council and the route now wanders through the gardens, being enjoyed by the locals in the warm sun.

But soon its back onto the road, past Queen Mary’s Hospital, then to a large roundabout where the route weaves its way through a series of subways. Once out of the subway system, I’m straight into Scadbury Park, and a wooded walk down the hill with the occasionally view of sweeping vistas, totally unexpected on my part within the M25. The route passes through the quite densely wooded park, and to my surprise I meet hardly anybody. One unusual feature is the ruins of "Scadbury Manor", a house surrounded by a moat. But what you really see is a 1930s recreation of stylised ruins.

Onward through the woods, which is often quite dense, until eventually you emerge on a main road. A quick dart across here, avoiding being knocked down, and back to more woodland, but now I’m into Petts Wood. Eventually, at a clearing this is confirmed by the National Trust sign and large information board. Here, with the woods are two monuments. The first is probably the most significant and involves a short trek of the LOOP path through very thick woodland. Have a minute or so I emerge into another clearing in the centre of which is stood a sundial. This is dedicated to William Willett of Chislehurst who successfully campaigned for the introduction of British Summer Time which came into effect in 1925.

Back on the path and further on there is a second memorial. This is the Edlmann memorial commemorating the saving of Petts Wood in 1927 and its subsequent donation to the National Trust thirty years later. This was an early attempt to save land as part of the green belt to protect it from over development. The result is a peaceful piece of woodland unexpected within the confines of Greater London. The path now follows the railways, out of the woods and over Kyd Brook. Then its up and over a series of three bridges across railway tracks, until the path emerges on the edge of Jubilee Park. And it is at this point that I head off to Petts Wood railway station.

Gomshall circular

Given the inconvenience of the bank holiday engineering work on the trains, the option of doing the LOOP this week was not there. Well I could still have done, but I’d have had to sit on trains for nearly five hours, there and back. I have better things to do.

And so the alternative was to do a walk from Country Walking magazine. I opted for a circular walk starting at Gomshall in Surrey that would take in a climb up onto the North Downs ridge.

So it was an early start and an interesting drive to Gomshall. I was on the A25 at around 8am heading just over the top of the Downs. Immediately in front of me was a battered Ford Transit van, and suddenly from the woods at the side of the road out bound a deer. It ran into the side of the van, enough for one of the van’s hubcaps to come loose. The deer ran straight back from where it had come, and appeared to be OK, it a little stunned.

I parked at Gomshall railway station, the only car there when I arrived. Given the walk I then did, this seems a good base for a walk, and your pretty much guaranteed a parking space on a Sunday, unlike some of the other car parks along the North Downs.

The walk started with a short stroll down the hill along the station’s approach road, then along the main road through Gomshall itself. Very soon I turn up a lane that immediately starts its way up the slope of the North Down’s ridge that overlooks the ‘valley’. I put this in inverted commas because the there’s no river here, but it has the feeling of a valley with two parallel runs of high ground to the north and south.

I take a footpath from the lane which to begin with wends its way on the level, sheltered by trees with fields either side. Then this path starts to climb as well and soon starts to get quite steep. All this is through woodland, but eventually the path emerges out of the trees and a glance over the shoulder reveals a wide vista opening up, only marred by a little haziness in the humid morning air. I pass the concrete foundations of a former World War 2 pillbox. There’ll be more of these later on the walk, most of them fully intact.

The gradient starts to ease once more, and the path eventually meets the North Downs Way. The familiar acorn symbol on the fingerposts indicates that this is a National Trail. It runs the along the edge of the ridge and it is the NDW that I now follow as it crosses varies roads and byways. Often the view is hidden by trees and bushes, but every now and again you get a stunning view.

I pass at least three or four brick built pillboxes, some very close to the path. After a reasonable run along the path here, it’s time to leave the NDW and also to ridge. I take a track down the slope, which at the start provides the best views of the walk as I step aside to let a couple of mountain bikers pass, coming uphill.

The path is soon back on lower lying land and then cross the railway line. Its now a short walk to Park Farm, part of a larger farm holding called Manor Farm. The farmers here seem to see the benefit in a bit of PR. They have their own website and there are a couple of articles about the latest goings on. Laminated and attached to a post they provide an interesting read. One is about their maize crop of 2008 which they have been growing under special biodegradable plastic. This increase soil temperatures and allows the seed to germinate a little sooner than normal. This therefore explains the acres of white I could see from the ridge – it was the plastic sheeting. There’s also a very sad notice about recent sheep deaths of the farm from a dog running amok. To make this doubly distressing it was during lambing, with one ewe in labour.

The magazine suggests a detour here to the church at Wotton. This involves a short walk across a field, then through a wood of Scots pine. This gives way to fields of germinating maize, covered in the plastic. Then at the top end of this field is the church of St John’s the Evangelist, a church that dates back to Saxon times. And a pleasant stop it makes for lunch.

Then it’s time to make the journey back the Gomshall. This takes me through Abinger Roughs, yet another piece of National Trust land that I have been passing through during the walk. Abinger Roughs is an attractive area of woodland. My route passes the old Leasers Barn, and a monument commemorating Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Guildford who in 1873 fell from his horse here and died.

The path winds its way through the woods, occasionally passing though clearings. Then I’m on the path back to Gomshall down to Hackhurst Lane. A footpath now leads across the edge of a field and into a small wood called Piney Copse. Despite its name this is a mixed woodland and is owned by the National Trust, but was once owned by the novelist E.M. Forster.

Turning left down Beggars Lane, and I’m back on the A25. A right turn past the trout hatchery and I’m nearly back. A nice touch with this walk is that I can get back to the station via a different route. A track between the houses heads uphill and eventually turns into small path. At the top a gate that leads onto the platform 2 of Gomshall station. A careful crossing of the tracks and I’m back to the car.

As featured in Country Walking magazine, January 2008

LOOP Day 1: Erith – Bexley

A new walk begins today, but I start with a strange feeling of déjà vu. I had definitely been here before. Almost two years ago to be precise when I started the Thames Path (Extension). So I arrive on a overcast but largely dry Sunday morning at Erith railway station. The train disgorges me right by the exit gate from the station, so I’m able to get going straight away.

The first task is to negotiate the roads near the station and get myself to the small riverside gardens. There seems to be attempt after attempt to beautify the town, but they all seem half hearted attempts and the abandoned swimming pool building, with windows smashed out, doesn’t help. Later I come across the new retail development that has found its way here since my last visit. But even this doesn’t seem like to retain is youthful looks for long.

The gardens are a short lived affair, but it provides the first opportunity to see the Thames, which at this point is very wide and feeling like the seaside. Then there are more road junctions to tackle, followed by a long slog down a road that leads to lots of riverside industrial site, many linked to gravel extraction. But soon some green looms up ahead and the salt marshes around Crayford Ness are in touching distance. Down another track and onto the to raised walkway that will take me to the mouth of the River Darent. There’s not a soul around, bar a group of five or six yoofs sat on a bench. A couple of them have bikes, one the pedal variety, the other a large engined scrambler. I can hear the sound of motorbike engines as well, but it’s a long way off and fortunately turns out to be on an organised course on the opposite bank of the Darent.

At the mouth of the Darent the path heads ‘inland’, then shortly after the same path follows the River Cray, which will form the focal point of the route for the rest of today and for much of stage two. The tide was out all along this stretch leaving a little bit of water at the bottom of a deep muddy channel. Soon, its time to negotiate some more industrial areas and then roads again. In between there is some willow lined riverside walking, but this is short lived as there are more roads and major junctions to cross at Crayford.

Eventually, just after a Mazda garage, I arrive at a park. A lot of Sunday morning football games are underway, and I skirt round and head back down to the river Cray. The book that describes the London LOOP explains that nearby you can visit Hall Place and Gardens, but there’s lots of development work going on here and it's clear that restoration work is well underway. So I continue, over the bridge and towards the railway line. Now I need to cross the railway and pass under the A2 which involves a protracting weaving around line and road bridges. But eventually I’m through, and now on a very pleasant woodland walk, the most attractive part of the whole walk. In the densely pack wood, there is a good crop of bluebells in full bloom. Then it’s a short walk down a walkway into the centre of Old Bexley, past the church.

A quick trip home via Bexley railway station proved impossible. No trains due to engineering work! So it’s a bus trip back to Erith, just as the rain starts to pour.

It’s got to be said, I’ve neglected this blog for some time. It’s not that I’ve found it difficult to maintain. It’s not even that I’ve given up walking the Thames Path. It’s just I forgot about it really.

So now I’m posting another entry, this time to say that I have now finished the Thames Path. It has taken approximately two years, which is nothing to brag about. Only the other week the winner of the London Marathon did it in just over 2 hours. And at that pace he’d have done the Path is around 16 hours! But, as anyone who knows me will testify, I’m no marathon runner. But doing the Thames Path has allowed me to rediscover walking.

I’ve always enjoyed walking. As a child I would regularly go walking with my parents, particularly on our holidays, usually in Scotland. But as a student and then a fully employed adult, my walking boots tended to get a little dusty.

The Thames Path has reinvigorated all that. I'm pleased to get it finished. The latter stages, west of Oxford, had to be done in groups with one car left in villages at the start and end of the day’s walk. The landscape in this part of the world is very flat, which to be fair surprised me, but still made for a pleasant walk. The stage immediately after Lechlade, which involved a long walk down for a mile down an A road, and a distinct lack of riverside walking and was consequently the least enjoyable.

However, there was a real sense of achievement arriving at the source, marked by a some stones on the ground, a tree and a lump of granite left by the Thames Conservators, but whose plaque is getting tricky to read. I would recommend that anyone doing this lack stage should park at The Thames Head pub. Once you’ve finished you just need to retrace your steps and for a couple of field lengths, then turn right and head up the hill to the railway track. Carefully cross the track (it is allowed at this point) then turn immediately left over the stile and follow the track alongside the railway until it drops down to the main road. The pub is then just up to the right. It’s not the best of pubs, but on a cool day it was got to stop for a celebratory coffee and banoffee pie! (The better pub to stop for lunch is The Wild Duck in Ewen, just a short diversion from the Path.)

So that is the Thames Path. What next?

Well I paid a visit to Waterstones and have purchased a couple of books for other long distance paths in the South. The first is the more challenging Ridgeway. Like the Thames Path, most of The Ridgeway is accessible from home, albeit by car rather than public transport. I’ll do this, but will have to use the same method adopted for the west of Oxford sections of the Thames Path. However, the other one that is intriguing me, that can be done by public transport is the London LOOP. This starts at Erith, along part of the Thames Path Extension.

In addition I’ll be doing plenty of circular walks, some picked up from books, others from the excellent Country Walking magazine, and some just made up after a perusal of a OS map. And I’ll try to right about them here.