Tales from the riverbank: Ken Towl’s latest walk took him from Westerham in Kent to Bletchingley in Surrey, via the picturesque Oxted Mill
WEEKEND WANDERINGS: Continuing our tradition of providing guides to readily accessible walking routes in and around Croydon, KEN TOWL set off in the footsteps of this website’s original guide, Walker Dunelm, to revisit the Greensand Way
Follow the arrows: the Greensand Way is not very well-signposted
On April 13, 2020, a month into covid lockdown, and a little short of his 86th birthday, Patrick Ford died after a battle with Alzheimer’s.
Ford, a librarian and jazz musician, was an early contributor to Inside Croydon, writing under the nom de plume Walker Dunelm, about walks outside Croydon, but never too far away.
Most of these were written between 2011 and 2012, and some of them followed the Greensand Way, that lesser-known cousin of the North Downs Way which is bisected by the Kent-Surrey border and runs largely along a ridge parallel to the A25 and accessible from Nutfield and Godstone along the line between Redhill and Tonbridge. There is also the 400 bus, running through Redhill, Nutfield, Godstone and Bletchingley.
When I was invited by a friend to walk east-to-west along a section of the Greensand Way, from where it passes below Westerham in Kent, and along past Limpsfield Chart, skirting under Oxted and along to Tandridge, Bletchingley and finally Earlswood, just to the south of Redhill, I thought this would be the chance to follow in Walker Dunhelm’s footsteps.
Not exactly, it turned out.
Hard trudge: the path through this field outside Bletchingley shows the impact of the long, dry summer
Ford wrote his accounts of the Greensand Way going west-to-east, so in going the opposite direction, it was not possible to follow his detailed and precise directions. This turned out to be a bit of an issue.
The Greensand Way is not terribly well signposted. You have to keep your wits – or your mobile phone – about you. My wits are not necessarily to be relied on and, on the day, I forgot to take my mobile phone.
I was reliant then on my companion, a veteran walker who informed me that we were going to walk “about 18 miles”. On the appointed day, there was an amber heat warning in London, and temperatures above 30ºC. Ford had walked the Greensand Way in six-mile sections, and done so in spring and autumn, rather than in a heatwave.
I decided to prepare. I would take a small waterbottle and a large hat.
Let me be clear from the start. The Greensand Way is great. It rolls gently through idyllic countryside and woodland and affords views that are surprisingly green pockets of rural England between commuter enclaves. It is also well-supplied with Kentish and Surrey country pubs where walkers can fortify (or, in my case, debilitate) themselves along the way. Just don’t try to walk 18 miles, however gently the hills roll, in a heatwave.
Up on the ridge: the Greensand Way ‘rolls gently through idyllic countryside and woodland and affords views that are surprisingly green pockets of rural England’
Walker Dunhelm got it right. However, for the sake of Inside Croydon’s readers, I walked too far and stopped in too many pubs.
I expected to end, very tired, in Earlswood so, in advance, I looked on Googlemaps for a pub by the station. There was nothing there, and I didn’t think I would fancy walking another mile or so after a day of walking, so I looked at Walker Dunhelm’s detailed account of his walk from Earlswood to Nutfield and found a reference to the Station Hotel in Nutfield, some five miles or so into his walk.
It now has the more prosaic name of “Station Pub” on Googlemaps. I looked at the reviews. One said, “Best for drinks and casual gatherings”, which sounded to me pretty much the definition of a pub. Another review said it was “absolutely brilliant in every way”. It doesn’t look like Ford actually visited the pub. No doubt he would if he had read the reviews. I didn’t visit the pub either, but more about that later.
Carpenter’s Arms: Limpsfield Chart’s delighful-sounding village pub
Coming from Kent, the first pub we encountered was the Carpenters Arms in Limpsfield Chart in Surrey, self-described as “a homey cottage-style eatery with a fireplace and a terrace”. It looked great, but we got there before the midday opening time. So we carried on to The Haycutter.
Cutting through the south of Oxted, the fields and woods we had become used to were replaced by narrow alleys between broad back gardens.
We passed Oxted Mill, with its attractive pond and old buildings repurposed as offices, and crossed a couple more fields to get to the pub which sat in an attractive well-to-do area of Broadham Green, about a mile south of Old Oxted.
Narrow paths: the Greensand Way gets a little tight behind the suburban houses of Oxted
It is the sort of well-to-do area where people think nothing of paying £2.50 for a pint of soda water with lime and £2.50 for a pint of soda water with blackcurrant. It was a steal.
On the other hand, it was the most sensible drinking decision of the day. For me, that is. In retrospect, I realise that my friend drank soda water throughout the day. She had her wits about her, and a mobile phone. The food, as it passed us on trays borne by efficient young staff, looked impressive but it was too early for us to eat, having covered only five of our 18 miles.
The Greensand Way zigzags in a way that the crow doesn’t fly. So a couple of miles later we came to the Barley Mow in Tandridge and our plans of waiting until Bletchingley to eat dissolved. It was just after 2pm, and there was a long list of food options, and the Venom and Virtue nettle beer looked tempting.
“Kitchen’s closed,” said the barmaid. “We’ve just got panini.” These were listed on the menu at £6.25. “You get a side salad and crisps and it’s £7.25,” she said.
We opted to share the beef, tomato and horseradish panino.
Thin fare: those crisps and “salad” with the panino came at added cost
Our pints of nettle beer and unflavoured soda water added another £8.05 to the bill. The pub’s website says it is “temporarily closed”. It felt more like it was temporarily open.
We carried on, mostly along shaded paths that protected us from the worst of the heat.
However, there was a point where we had to cross a very large, recently harvested field of grain that was hard and dry and dusty and open and seemed to have absorbed all the heat of the sun.
My ridiculously small bottle of water had long been emptied and, as we walked, I could hear the cold, cold water sloshing about in my companion’s insulated metal bottle. It felt like a scene from Ice Cold In Alex. Finally, I asked if I could possibly have a sip of her water. It was the best water I have ever drunk.
Well-mapped: Surrey County Council has an entire online section about the Greensand Way, with directions and maps. All the routes provided are no more than a very sensible seven miles
After about 10 miles (probably 11, given the number of times where we missed Greensand Way signs or, for long stretches, there weren’t any), we were close to Bletchingley and 4.30pm. My friend had to be in Redhill for her Mahjong class at 6.30pm and we still had a way to go in the heat.
We had reached our walk’s end.
We decided to stop for lunch at the Red Lion, just opposite a bus stop that a 400 bus would stop at a couple of minutes before 6pm.
I ordered a pint of Greene King IPA and, when it arrived, I drank half of it down in one gulp. “Doesn’t touch the sides, does it?” said a fellow customer, “Great day for walking.”
“It is warm out,” I replied. Understatement. I can do pub banter.
My friend got a pint of soda water and I realised I should have done the same.
30 degrees in the shade: our Greensand Way walkers were fortunate that much of their route was in tree-lined shade
At the Red Lion a pint of soda water will set you back just £1.35 a pint, and we ended up having two more. The fish and chips (£17.95) were good, but it was too hot to eat. More wisely – of course – my friend accompanied her fizzy water with lighter plates of whitebait and halloumi salad taco (both £8.95).
The bus arrived on time and we found ourselves in Redhill just a few minutes after 6pm, in time for Mahjong or, in my case, a 405 back to Croydon and a lie down.
Ken Towl’s previous walk: Trout, Clarkson’s lager and scotch eggs on a cathedrals walk
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Coming soon: a new challenge event called the Greensand Way pub crawl (preferably not done during a heatwave) ?!
There used to be – maybe it still exists – a running festival on the Isle of Man at Easter, where one of the events was a running pub crawl, where runners were expected to down a pint at each pub before heading off on the next leg… Cue jokes about the winner finishing leg-less.
Closer to home – Coulsdon – South London Harriers used to hold an annual pub run. It’s disappeared opff the calendar, probably due to ‘elf and safety concerns under Croydon’s then sour-faced labour administration, but was really an event for the hard men – and women. I did it one year but cheated and got dropped off at the half-way stage. From, hazy, memory it was six pubs, six miles and a pint at every stop. The REALLY hard guys then got stuck into the beers over a greasy pizza from the shop near the Comrades Club.
Oh joy Ken – you’re on East Surrey Walkers territory. The Greensand Way – bits of it – crop up in our walks regularly. As does the Carpenters’ – a terrific local with great food and great service. I might see you out in the woods one day, when my hernia’s healed. ESW calendar here – https://www.eastsurreywalkers.org.uk/