Summer afternoon: at just three and a half miles, the amble along the LOOP from Banstead to Ewell is ideal for a couple of hours
SUNDAY WALKS WITH KEN TOWL: Our resident rambler has set off on his travels again, this time picking up on the LOOP – the London Outer Orbital Path – to explore a short stretch of the Surrey Hills between Banstead and Bourne Hall Park
The section of the London Outer Orbital Path that runs from Banstead Downs to Bourne Hall Park is only three and a half miles long, so it allows you time to take in the beauty and majesty of Nonsuch Park, the site of the palace that Henry VIII built, at great expense to the Treasury to be the greatest royal residence in Europe.
Indeed, there was to be none such a place in the whole world!
To get to Banstead Downs, take the Epsom Downs train from West Croydon and alight at Banstead. Turn left out of the station and walk 100 yards or so down the hill and cross the road where a green LOOP sign indicates a footpath going off to the right into some trees.
Beware tee shots: Banstead Downs GC comes up early in this walk
When you emerge into a clearing, it will quickly become apparent to you that you are on the smooth, manicured lawns of a golf course fairway. I heard the tell-tale thwack of iron on plastic and I halted. Over to my left, a small group of men were swinging their clubs and pushing those motorised wheelie-bag things towards me.
As we crossed paths, one of them spoke: “Thanks for stopping,” he said.
I considered saying that I hadn’t felt I had much choice, but decided to gracefully accept the thanks. I smiled magnanimously. I think it is usually best smile at men with clubs in their hands.
It turned out that his gratitude was merely an opener. “Walking, are you? Where are you heading to? Do you know the area?” I said I was heading to Ewell by way of Nonsuch Park and that I had a map. I wondered to myself whether he was a retired police officer.
I have seen Line of Duty, after all, so I know what they are like. Anyway, he seemed satisfied that I was a bona fide hiker. “Enjoy your walk,” he said, and turned his attention to his ball.
I turned mine to the path ahead, through more trees, across more green, following the finger posts and the circles of green LOOP stickers to the end of the course and out into Sandy Lane and then, after 600 yards or so, left into Cuddington Lane. The lane is named after the village, Cuddington, that disappeared after Henry VIII served a Compulsory Destruction Order on it to create space for his new palace.
Then you turn right on Cheyham Way and left onto Northey Avenue, past the “Borough of Epsom and Ewell, Home of the Derby” sign, and, at the bottom of the hill, cross Cheam Road and go right along Nonsuch Walk. (Nonsuch walk, sir, have I ever seen!)
Portal to another world: under the railway line and through to medieval meadows
Follow the signpost left into Bramley Walk and go under the railway bridge. This is like a magic portal that takes you from comfortable but rather nondescript suburbia and transports you to a medieval meadow where the peasants of Cuddington would have tilled the earth until their monarch flattened their church and their houses.
Halfway across the field that is Warren Farm: you have the option to turn left and head across the meadow to Ewell East. But if you do that you will miss the best part of the walk.
I continued straight ahead to the edge of the field. This is marked by a pair of hard-surfaced tracks. This is the “Ghost Road” that marked out where houses were to be built (the “New Cuddington” estate perhaps?), but the introduction of the Green Belt almost a century ago put a stop to that, and so Good King Henry could continue to rest easy in his Windsor Castle grave.
Pit stop: the walk is hardly long enough to require a cake stop, but it would be rude not to
The LOOP goes off to the left along the Ghost Road that marks the boundary between Warren Farm and Nonsuch Park, and you may wish to follow it. On the other hand, and especially if you like cake and planets, you might wish to take a detour and head straight ahead into Nonsuch Park and follow the path that winds up past the ornamental gardens up to the Mansion House, a Gothic-style events venue that also offers a charming little café.
When I was there, the weather was good so I sat outside with a cup of tea and a cheese toastie. You might wish to try the cakes, however. They had Boston Brownies, Caramel Shortcake, Salted Caramel and Nut and Cherry Almond and Tiramisu Slices, Banana and Walnut Bread, Honeycomb Tiffin… and many more. Nonsuch variety of cake, madam, have I ever seen.
Star spotting: the signs provide interesting perspective
The return journey back to the LOOP features a representation of the various bodies in the solar system made up of pictures and information of each set out to scale, so that the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are all just a few metres apart as you set off from the café, with Jupiter a bit further away. You only get to the outer planets once you have got across the park and back on the Ghost Road heading towards the remains of the Nonsuch banqueting hall.
About halfway along, I found myself staring at Uranus, which, I discovered, is “a beautiful blue colour”, has faint rings and is very cold.
After such an edifying sight, I carried on, following the pillars that indicated the way to the banqueting hall, once the place where Henry and his entourage would have eaten after hunting in the grounds. The banqueting hall , almost 500 years later, is now a raised platform of grass and trees enclosed by a low brick wall.
Dog Gate: close to the end of the walk here, at Bourne Hall Park
From here, you cross the A24 nearby and head down the footpath on the other side, Vicarage Lane, that takes you in the direction of Ewell High Street, but not until you have passed the lonely church tower, built c1450, left standing by itself in the graveyard of St Mary, after the medieval church it was attached to was demolished.
The LOOP continues into Bourne Hall Park which you enter via the Dog Gate, a large gateway with a larger-than-life statue of a dog on top. You follow the path by the edge of the ornamental pond and leave the park and get onto Spring Street, whence you take Chessington Road and look out for the Ewell West Station sign.
From here, you can get trains to Wimbledon and Clapham Junction for connections back to Croydon by tram or by train. It is a lovely walk.
In fact, as far as I know, there is nonsuch, etc etc.
- For previous walk guides, by Ken Towl and, before him, Patrick Ford, “Walker Dunelm”, click here for our archive – though please beware with some of the older suggested walks, they will have been subject to change in the intervening years
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You don’t think the golfers were, well, err, being friendly? I know in England the English aren’t supposed to talk to each other, unless they both have dogs, but… Sounds like a lovely walk, you didn’t happen to notice if the café had any gluten free cakes? Any readers fancy a stroll down there? I might even stand you a cake as a thanks for helping me to experience it.
They had gluten-free cakes, and vegan ones, too.