A train and a cab back to Shipbourne, home of the Greensand Ridge gin distillery and starting point to the 29km (18-and-a-bit) mile epic over to Sutton Valence.
In the bag:
warm hat, gloves, scarf (because, England. Also, October)
protein-tastic lunch
flask of tea-earl-grey-hot
hand sanitiser and two face masks
1.5l bladder of water
Todays map:
We‘re on OS Explorer 147, but not for long then it’s.....
Go on, guess....
OS Explorer 148!
OS Explorer 148 is the penultimate map before the end of the GW- the end of the epic is in sight. But today we’re covering 29kms through the fruit basket of England. It took me almost dead-on 6 hours, plus a 30 minute lunch stop.
It doesn’t take long to get out of Shipbourne, passing pretty cottages and well manicured hedges and then diving down a footpath between the houses to emerge into open fields. Walking at this time of year is a joy- yes autumn colours, early morning mist and all that jazz, but also with the turn of the season comes activity on the land. The harvest is in, hay has been baled and fields are lying ploughed and muddy (very muddy!). Well, almost; for this is fruit growing country. Bar the odd bit of livestock and some tilled fields at the start, a large chunk of this section of the GW was miles and miles of orchards. Mainly apples, but to my surprise also pears, cherries, raspberries and (less surprising) strawberries. Of course most had been harvested but there were still some late varieties coming in; I got a few cheery waves from gangs of pickers sporting natty-looking beanie hats.
Between the swathes of orchards was the continuing gorgeous views over the Low Weald of Kent. The first 5km or so out of Shipbourne was over gentle terrain following the ridge. Footpaths were well waymarked (kudos to whoever is in charge of public rights of way at Kent County Council) and cut through large open spaces and followed the edges of all those orchards.
Around the 6km mark you come into the quintessentially English village green of West Peckham (cricket crease, pub, the last-red-phone-box-standing) with the imposing tower of St Dunstan’s church overlooking proceedings. I perched on the Queen’s Silver Jubilee bench to remove a layer of coat, spotted the Queen’s Golden Jubilee bench just next to the church gate; no evidence that I could see of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee bench. Admittedly I didn’t look very hard; if anyone finds it, let me know.
After West Peckham watch out for a bit of merging with the Weald Way. Then there’s a couple of tricky road crossings (A26 followed by A228 I think) followed by slightly more challenging terrain on country lanes and then woodland. Almost out of nowhere, and apropos of nothing, insofar as there’s no evidence of a village, a church tower looms out of the trees. The GW goes through the churchyard and I confess my curiosity got the better of me so I had a poke around. Sure enough the church is out of use, under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. A grand old edifice, it was originally Norman and served the local manor and associated farms and cottages, until a more convenient church was built closer to, well, an actual village in the late 19th century.
Inside it felt rather forlorn; centuries of history of this small agricultural community consigned to the occasional viewing from a passing walker. A memorial caught my eye, to a young 2nd lieutenant Francis Hart-Dyke who died in Ypres aged just 20. Elsewhere on the GW I’d seen the pub sign below and was reflecting on how different this part of the world would have felt as young men marched off to war over 100 years ago. Finally (but without photographic evidence) the motto of the Queens Own Royal West Kent regiment spotted on a memorial took me back to my childhood, asking my dad what Quo Fas et Gloria Decunt meant; the Queen’s regiment he was serving with at the time was the eventual successor of the West Kent regiment and kept the motto (although this too was eventually merged in the mid-90s).
It’s “Whither Duty and Glory Lead” by the way. Tell that to Francis Hart-Dyke.
Descending from the church down through fields you approach Royston Hall, quite the stately pile. Unfortunately much of it was behind a high wall so not much in the way of pictures. Leaving the environs of the hall more orchards await, this time with fruit actually being picked, before heading through some beautiful autumnal woodland before descending to Nettlestead Green, which is just a short hop from a railway crossing and before you know it you’re standing on the edge of the Medway navigations. This is the outskirts of Yalding, where the River Beault flows in to the River Medway, 16km south of where it becomes tidal. This area where the marina and lock kind of co-exist is called The Lees and it’s almost as pretty as Yalding is. Replete with a 150m medieval bridge, an 11th century church, a quaint tearoom and even six almshouses for ‘poor women of the parish’, Yalding is a postcard of a little town. It once acted as a hub for shipping cannon from the local Wealden foundries up the Medway, and later shifted fruit from surrounding orchards. As its more or less halfway on this section, Yalding is a great stop for lunch.
Alongside all the orchards was lots of managed land, presumably linked to former manors or stately home of which there were many in this stretch, including the rather spectacular Linton Park. I passed a spectacular deer park along this route, with young bucks just lounging around looking handsome.
Presumably a plum spot for favourites of Norman conquerors, there are many villages and houses with Norman origins. The splendidly named Boughton Monchelsea Place is right on the GW (although I only got to see the tradesmens entrance!) comes right before Weirton Place which has the most spectacular glass houses.
The path across these estates is well maintained but relatively enclosed, so there’s limited chance to get decent views until it emerges into (guess what) more orchards. But it’s great to have less ‘manicured’ surroundings and a bit of wildness at this point redressed the balance of the whole stage. Before embarking on the final couple of km through orchards I came across a goat sanctuary; they offer a ‘walking with goats’ tour, a guided local country walk with your own goat in tow. For the walker in your life that has everything- only 7 weeks until Christmas folks!
From this point we head up to Chart Hill and join the road that runs into Sutton Valence; avoid house envy by doing this bit in the rain, which by this time it had started to do. Sutton Valence itself is another small town with ancient origins, and handily a bus stop outside the Kings Head from where the number 12 bus runs down to Headcorn Station in about 10 minutes. From there its a 20 minute train ride back to Tonbridge (and then onto Redhill and Horley for me), or a through train to Charing Cross, making this section pretty accessible by public transport.
Overall a thoroughly pleasant stage, with lots of odds and ends to explore and by far the most ‘Kent’ of all the walks I’ve done in the county recently. It felt genuinely off the beaten track and has a sense of continuity and, for want of a better term, function, probably down to the orchards.
Here’s the map and we end with a particularly plaintive looking cat.
Meow
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