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