02/06/26 - London Spiral Stage 24 - Kenley to Knockholt

Ups and Downs on the North Downs

The London Spiral had got into a complete rut of built-up housing estates with little green space.

That changes on Stage 24, where the North Downs are explored. History underfoot, as ancient villages and Roman Roads are found. Then there are the hills.... all gentle in their own right but over the 14 miles, 1,150ft of ascent has been completed.

This starts from the get go - out of Kenley Station and up a chalk hill to Riddlesdown and the London Loop.

I've been here before

One of the gentle valleys on the North Downs

It's all golf courses, woodland, horse fields and the odd little village like Fickleshole. Fine, cache laden walking with two "highlights".

The words Biggin Hill will stir memories in any child of the late sixties brought up on Commando and Sven Hassell books. I was quite excited to be walking around the northern perimeter of this key site of the Battle of Britain. Until I arrived there. Dense vegetation, an overgrown footpath and a high fence. I heard aeroplanes and at one point, I saw the tail of one as it revved up for take-off.

Milking Lane Cottages, just before Biggin Hill

Refreshment should have been found at the two-pub, one-café village of Downe. A place with strong associations with Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin moved to Down House in the village of Downe in 1842, seeking space and quiet away from London after returning from the voyage of the Beagle. He lived there with his family for the rest of his life, spending more than 40 years working, observing nature, and developing his ideas on evolution. It was at Down House that he wrote On the Origin of Species (1859) and carried out many of his famous experiments in the house, garden, and surrounding North Downs countryside. Darwin remained there until his death in 1882, by which point the house had become both his home and his lifelong scientific base.

I arrived at 10:50am, too early for the pubs but I could have murdered a cup of coffee. The café had an opening time of 11am detailed on the door but remained firmly in darkness after my 20 minute exploration of the church.

Coffee tickers having as hard a time of it as pub tickers.

A Sundial dedicated to Darwin on Downe Church

The front door of the Queens Head Pub, Downe

More countryside to Pratt's Bottom and the nearby Knockholt Station to end the walk. 

Initially, I think the Bulls Head is closed. The door refuses to open and a look through the window shows a place seemingly devoid of life. I console myself with the thought I will have more time to battle Central London tube strikes, when a lady chases after me down the street to tell me they are indeed open. The door is stiff and I am not the first to fall foul of its required "twist and pull" operation.

The first fully enjoyable leg of the London Spiral for some time is celebrated with a Harvey's Sussex Best.

Be careful not to make a Pratt of yourself at the Bulls Head

And no problems on the Northern Line from Charing Cross to Euston.

Walk Details

Distance -  14 miles

Start - Kenley

Finish - Knockholt

Areas Walked - North Downs, Biggin Hill

Geocaches - 17

Pubs - 1

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21, Stage 22, Stage 23

01/06/26 - London Spiral Stage 23 - Epsom to Kenley

More Surrey Housing Estates

The London Spiral is coming to its final knockings. I reckon that this, and one more 2-day trip, will see the odyssey completed.

Nothing for the walking purist on this stage. 9 miles and I have three photos. One of those documenting one of the Spiral's original intentions - to investigate public art.

The alley to the Barley Mow, Epsom

Nothing of any note until the quaint village of Woodmansterne. Everything needed for a mid walk break, including Harvey's Sussex Best at the Woodman. A bonus point for it being "Cask Monday" and the bank doesn't need to be broken. £3.25 - another Surrey bargain.

The village green

A bench for Mappiman in the sunshine

I could find nothing worth stopping for in Coulsdon - a scruffy looking town centre, where a climb is required to reach Kenley Station.

Tomorrow, I determine how the Surrey Hills get their name.

Walk Details

Distance -  9 miles

Start - Epsom

Finish - Kenley

Areas Walked - Banstead, Coulsdon

Geocaches - 5

Pubs - 1

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21, Stage 22

09/02/26 - London Spiral Stage 22 - Hampton Court to Epsom

Cheap Pints in Good Beer Guide Pubs Save the Day

Another pointless walk on the London Spiral. I think its lost its way on the outer fringes. Today's walk starts by leaving Hampton Court beauty behind to walk down a busy dual carriageway, to then walk through fairly endless housing estates. The little countryside available is Horton Country Park - which is a mudfest.

Here's an example of the nonsense;

From the original map

Look at this pointless loop. Why avoid the route straight down to take a diversion through horse fields, only to have to walk back along the A3? It gets worse, the southbound marked route to the circle of doom is actually a private road. The circle of doom a locked 8ft gate topped with barbed wire.

Like an idiot, I walked it. I am nothing if not a completer. Then I had to walk back to take the logical route.

Thames Ditton looked Olde Worlde and pretty. But everything was closed up

Hardly a World of Adventure

The plan was to hit the high spots of Epsom and then complete another couple of miles to Banstead Station. Avanti had different ideas for me. The 35-minute delay incoming throwing all my timings out. 

So a loop of Epsom, looking for 75% of the Good Beer Guide ticks is all that can save the day.

The Barley Mow - an equine themed Fullers Pub - is available through a narnia-style portal off a back alley.

Welcome

Rustic and housed in three knocked-together cottages, I have to remind myself this is no longer London and I am Surrey. ESB in fine form, as it so often is.

Happiness is an ESB on a Chesterfield 

Back Street Boozer, Surrey Style

The Rising Sun suggests that today is traditional pub name bingo and I am going for a full house. Another back street boozer - perhaps more food led than the Mow. It's easy to be shocked at beer prices in the South East but rarely in a good way. A well kept Anspach & Hobday Ordinary Bitter a bargain £3.60.... in a gastropub.

Pleasant Surprise

No new town visit would be complete without the 'Spoons. The Assembly Rooms on the way back to the impossible-to-find railway station.

Sir Timbo - Saving Architecture, Saving Pubs

£2.85 a pint and a difficult choice between a Wimbledon Brewery Helles Dark Lager or a Three Acre Ruby Porter. It's not just the price you cannot knock - this is top level micro-pub-run-by-an-enthusiast levels of choice.

Let's hope Alicante Airport is a blueprint for the future.

Walk Details

Distance -  10 Miles

Start - Hampton Court Station

Finish - Epsom

Areas Walked - Thames Ditton, Chessington

Geocaches - 1

Pubs - 3

Previous Walks - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8, Stage 9, Stage 10, Stage 11, Stage 12, Stage 13, Stage 14, Stage 15, Stage 16, Stage 17, Stage 18, Stage 19, Stage 20, Stage 21

03/11/18 - London Countryway Stage 9 - West Byfleet to Sunningdale

Distance - 10 Miles
Start - West Byfleet
Finish - Sunningdale
Geocaches - 7
Pub - The Broomhall Hutt, Sunningdale
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7, Stage 8


No one would have believed you could walk in England's South East and experience such wilderness.

In Stage 9 of the London Countryway, we cross from Surrey to Berkshire via two distinct landscapes - the urban oasis of the Basingstoke Canal and two commons, Horsell and Chobham.

Its a short distance from West Byfleet station to the Basingstoke Canal.  I've walked it before, last time turning right and heading for Weybridge.  Today, its left and towards Woking.   Pleasant walking seeing how many of the houses have accommodated the canals into the back gardens.  Private boat mooring inlets and extravagant decking with tree houses were admired for their owner's vision.

The canal was derelict when KC wrote the guide to the Countrway.   Nice to see that sometimes things do get better.

Easy Walking along the canal

A short length of road walking delivers me to the heavily wooded Horsell Common.  If the name sounds familiar, you've probably read the opening line of the blog in Richard Burton's voice. 
Location for the first martian attacks in War of the Worlds.

Yes, I was singing "the chances of anything coming from Mars...."

The link to the next common is via equestrian fields and skirting the edge of an airfield.  If I had been quicker on the camera draw, I could have provided an impressive take off photograph.  The footpaths run right at the end of the runway.

Instead, you can make do with a sign to live your life by.

Sound Sentiment 

Onto the most surprisingly of all the commons encountered today and on previous legs.  I've never heard of Chobham common before today and you don't expect such vast swathes of wild heath land to be present so close to London.   574 hectares, apparently.   It takes me a good 90 minutes to walk across it, encountering more birds than people.

Surrey Wilderness

The common butts right up against Sunningdale - the end station of today's walk.   Not really heard of Sunningdale either and the locals don't seem to refer to it by this name.  Both the pub and the OS Map are marked Broomhall.

I'd checked on Google Maps before heading off to see what post walk entertainment was available.  Nothing really came up, so I vowed to just see what was there when I arrived.

An Event

An unexpected pub

The Broomhall Hutt is geared up for diners.  Initially, I thought post walk thirst was to be sated by Doom Bar but closer inspection showed a Rebellion Brewery IPA.

Never sure of the quality of ale in establishments like this, I asked for a sample and was provided with a rather large 1/4 pint measure.   It was perfect.   And the sample helped top up and under poured pint.

Holiday's are coming!

The London Countryway keeps delivering... today was a beautiful and varied walk. 

22/09/18 - London Countryway Stage 8 - Horsley to West Byfleet

Distance - 9 Miles
Start - Horsley
Finish - West Byfleet
Geocaches - 4
Pubs - The Anchor - Pyrford Lock and The Station - West Byfleet
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7

The only question for this month's leg on the London Countryway is whether to go full out mental, following the Dick Bowman 19.9 miles to Sunningdale or a take a more sedate 10 miles on Des De Moor's amble to West Byfleet.

I've got all the time in the world.

I've had a great run on the London Countryway - some stunning walking on the North Downs Way - so I expected a more pedestrian leg was coming.   This is nowhere near as exhilarating but does have plenty of variety and well spaced refreshment stops.   It's still a fine way to spend a damp September Saturday, with more than a hint of Autumn's approach.

Nothing much happens from Horsley through the ancient village of Ockham.  If you've heard of Ockham, it's because you have been reading too much crime fiction.  50% of them mention Ockham's Razor - the theory that the simplest solution is always the most likely - usually just before the most convoluted denouncement imaginable happens.  I'm talking to you, Peter James, with your hijacked helicopters over the streets of Brighton.

Lane walking, some posh gaffs, horses and the Black Swan pub, where the Geocache tells me the locals call it the Mucky Duck.   Of course they do.  It's tradition.

Ockham - Proud of their Philosopher Sons

The Mucky Duck - At 10:45am

Horse fields are left behind for the surprisingly sandy commons of Ockham and Wisley.   Narrow paths disappear into the ferns and there is the accidental stumble into a herd of friendly cows.   The highlight to seek out is Chatley Semaphore Tower - the finest remaining relic of a post Napoleonic Communication line running to the sea.

Operational from 1822 to 1847

Not all the paths on Ockham Common are this broad.

Two commons split by the A3 - Photo style taken from Des

Next, the River Wey navigation needs to be found.   The blog is going to be a tale of bridges, that will bore the casual reader but may be important to anyone thinking of walking the route.

Des points out that Pigeonhouse Bridge was washed away in 2013 storms.  As a simple wooden structure is going to cost £400K (!) to replace, it remains missing to this day.   There is a golfers bridge seconds away, but agreement was not reached to allow right of way access for the casual walker.   Des's instructions detail a diversion to Walsham Lock and a warning not to trespass.

I thought I would check things out on the ground and a series of "Tow Path" diversion signs encourage me to make my way to Pigeonhouse Bridge.   And Joy - since August 2018, agreement has been reached with the golf club and ramblers can use the little footbridge.   And in a twist, the diversions are in place because Walsham Lock appears to be inaccessible.

I didn't read the smallprint on this but the London Countryway can be completed, just as Keith Chesterton expected.

Yellow Sign is old - the new laminates are sending you over....

This strategically placed golfing bridge

Having survived bridge confusion, the Wey Navigation provides easy walking more or less all the way to West Byfleet.   Where you have canals, you have pubs - and the first stop of the day is Hall and Woodhouse's Anchor Inn.

Handy Stopping Point

Good colour.  Headless Badger

Despite its handy location for cyclists, ramblers and anglers, every table - bar the one with the above pint - is setup for fine dining.   How I hate this disregard for the drinker.   The beer had left its head in Dorset but I did make friends with the two blokes crammed around my table - one in waders and one in lycra.

Back into the rain and along the canal into West Byfleet.   Trains are plentiful back to London, so I can take my time and see if the Station breaks the unwritten rule that any pub named after the railway infrastructure is a horror.   It doesn't look much from the outside but cavernous, clean and with a nice little area for drinkers to sit and watch the early game.

The Station - next to the Station

Jamie Redknapp warning me that Meantime IPA is all fancy glassware

Like Des, I am done for the day.   Dick would have merely been half way.

11/08/18 - London Countryway Stage 7 - Box Hill to Horsley

Distance - 10 Miles
Start - Box Hill
Finish - Horsley
Geocaches - 4
Pubs - I missed the Barley Mow at Horsley
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6


More delightful walking on the London Countryway, as I leave the ridge paths of the North Downs Way and Greensands Way, to drop down from the hills and start the attack on the Thames Valley.

The walk starts at Box Hill and Westhumble Station.  Served only hourly from Victoria, I board with an alarming number of people in hiking gear.   I am asked firstly if I am a member of the Saturday Walking Club and then if I am an Outdooraholic.   The second question took a double take but an explanation from the leader details that they are 31000 (!) strong meetup group based in London who hike every weekend.  With the leader also holding all the groups rail tickets and organising trips to the single train toilet, it all looked a bit school trip-ish to me but their itinerary looks fun.

On train departure at Box Hill, they are all heading west and its just me and a denim clad rambler heading east, looking for the North Downs Way, which runs along private roads to gently gain height.

Metalled North Downs Way

The best walking is undoubtedly the first half of the way.   Once through the trees, there are fine views over England's biggest Vineyard, Denbies, revealing Dorking and the planes taking off from Gatwick.  You have to wonder where the passengers think they are flying to that could possibly be better than this.

Denbies Vineyard

Ranmore Common next, providing good paths but little too look at when you cannot see the woods for the trees.  The shade, however, is most welcome and St Barnabas of Ranmore is an architectural highlight.

St Barnabas of Ranmore and a cycling team in Pink

More woodlands through indistinct areas marked on the OS Map as White Downs, Sheepwalk Lane and Effingham Forest.  Few ramblers around but there is a close encounter that I wished I'd been able to focus on better before it shot off.

Resident of Effingham Woods

The drop down from the ridge is at the Sheepleas, where London reveals itself for the second point on the Country way.  I am without my telescopic lens to pick out the famous reference points visible with the naked eye but the notice board does explain what the photo doesn't pick up.

London - Far Away

The remainder of the walk was all down hill to Horsley Station.   Little to look at but plenty of interest - if you do you research.  Mine was half completed.   I knew St Mary's Church reputedly has the head of Sir Walter Raleigh (pickled by his wife and kept in a red leather bag, no less) buried in the crypt.  A wedding interrupted exploration.

Wedding at St Marys

A cracking Geocache tells me the history of West Horsley Place.  We know its ancient because of the type face on the OS Map.  Owned by Walter's Son at one point and recently bequeathed to Bamber Gascoigne before he donated it to become an arts centre.

My lack of research?  I forgot to deviate from the path to take in the Barley Mow for post walk refreshment.   There's nothing to be sourced at Horsely Train Station, so I head back to the City dry.

14/07/18 - London Countryway Stage 6 - Merstham to Box Hill

Distance - 10 Miles
Start - Merstham
Finish - Box Hill
Geocaches - 2
Pubs - Stepping Stones at Box Hill
Previous Stages - Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5


Stage 6 of the London Countryway and I finally determine where the guide book's cover photo is taken from.

Colley Hill

This leg promised a lot and duly delivered.  The entire 10 miles is along the North Downs Way, accessed almost immediately from Merstham railway station.

A gentle climb through sports fields, a golf course and across school grounds.

First views from the golf course

Plenty of interest here too, with information boards spelling out the history of Reigate Fort.  Even a gap in the trees has a story to tell.  There are two monuments, that sadly could not be taken in the same photo, but the gap in the trees is explained as a WW2 Air crash site.  The monuments mark the extremes of the wing tips and are part made from metal from the B17 Bomber.

One Half of the Monument

Much needed shade is provided by the tunnel like paths before we reach Colley Hill, where the North Downs reveal themselves in the their splendour.  I recognise the monument from the book cover but get that involved in taking photos that I neglect to look up at the art work in the ceiling.  Check out Des De Moor's excellent commentary for details.

With this beauty, I unsurprisingly failed to look at the monument ceiling

Look up Mappiman, you goon

The Path Ahead

The last photo represents what fine walking remains for the day.... dropping to the valley floor on steep paths and working my way around the quarry and lime works to Box Hill.  There's only one question - where to sit for lunch?   A number of benches are either occupied or out in the midday sun, but I do find shelter in the trees just off the path.

Seat for Lunch

In case you think I am being disrespectful, I do check the inscription.  I'm working on the assumption that "Quick, An English Thoroughbred" is a dog.

Leith Hill is the last to be conquered.   A picnic spot that is hard to surpass, judging by the hoardes taking advantage of the weather and the far ranging views.

Dropping down from Leith Hill

Rather glad that I am coming down this way, as the way up is beyond steep.  I half feel sorry for the cub pack coming up the other way, carrying kit for an overnight expedition.  It doesn't stop my exaggerated answers to their desperate questions of "how much further do we have to climb".

Westhumble and Box Hill Station, with its once hourly trains back to the smoke, awaits at the bottom of the hill but first a choice on which path to take.

Surely no-one takes the Footbridge

Not me, anyway

A Country Pub is just before the station.  Four real ales were available but sometimes, reassuringly expensive continental lager is all that is going to do the trick.  Even if it is brewed in Northhampton.

Over Stepping Stones - to the Stepping Stones

£5.20 worth of Midlands lovliness