It’s been almost a month since the end of the Greensand Way and I had yet to christen 2021 with anything longer than a 5k run. With footpaths ever busier over lockdown 3.0 it can be tricky to social distance, so I headed slightly further afield to ensure a bit more space. Starting early on a very cold and frosty morning, I headed south from Horley towards Three Bridges. This isn’t a very spectacular walk, its all on concrete for a start, but there are some points of interest. I took the footpath that tracks alongside the railway rather than through Riverside Park, but once you pass under the concourse of South Terminal and follow cycle route 21 you‘re alongside the Gatwick Stream and there’s nearly always a heron to be spotted, or a cheeky robin perched on the landing lights of the runway. Once into City Place (keep following the cycle route) you pass The Beehive, the Art Deco original terminal building of Gatwick Airport, the first to have covered walkways out to the planes. You can still see the runners. (Incidentally, the Beehive also houses a secret tunnel within, that runs out to where the original railway station was).
Manor Royal, I must confess, isn’t exactly thrilling, but it wasn’t far to Three Bridges! Passing under the railway bridge by the station and then turning right up Station Hill, you’ll find the start of the Worth Way on the left, peeling away from the road. This is a great bit of winter walking, firm underfoot and following the track of the old branch line between Three Bridges and East Grinstead (more on that later). The WW follows this out to (shock) Worth and this section of it is perhaps the bit most obviously part of an old railway line; as the path progress towards Worth you pass under arches with high embankments either side. In the early mist it was evocative of a Dicken’s ghost story!
On reaching Worth, due to the inconvenient placement of the M23, you divert from the track bed and walk through the outer reaches of the village and pick up the WW main footpath, crossing over the motorway before eventually rejoining the old track bed.
From a walker’s perspective the WW is perhaps not the most challenging, but it is incredibly accessible being straight, more or less flat and wide enough to accommodate bikes, buggies and wheelchairs. And with the hoar-frost clinging to the surrounding countryside, it made for the perfect winter excursion.
The WW is about seven miles long in total (11 km or so) and is punctuated by signs and traces of its past. Most notably Rowfant Station (pic above). Rowfant was the only station on the line when it opened in 1855, built at the behest of the American fur trader, on whose estate it was built. Basically he wanted his own station. Another station was added at Crawley Down five years later. The branch line closed as part of the Beeching reforms in 1966 (Beeching was, apparently, a local resident) and became the Worth Way in 1979; you can still see where the level crossing was hung and various tell tale signs of signal wire posts.
The WW passes into Crawley Down at the point where the old station stood; no building remains any longer. You then have a walk though the village/town (not sure how Crawley Down defines itself!) until reaching Crawley Down pond, which seemed a good spot to pause for a cup of tea. From here the WW resumes its straight line run towards East Grinstead.
I didn’t go quite so far as East Grinstead but instead, about half way between Crawley Down and East Grinstead, took a left and started to head back to Horley. Initially this took me up past Gullege, a Tudor house with a fascinating history. Again, that mist and hoar-frost evoked something out of an MR James story.
Emerging onto Crawley Down Road in Felbridge, a left turn and short walk on the road led me to pick up with an old chum, the Tandridge Border Path (TBP). Practically home already.
The TBP is (mostly) well waymarked, initially heading up to and crossing the A264 just by Doves Barn, then onwards passing to the east of Hedgecourt Lake then curving round and tracking along its northern shore. The lake was frozen and just beautiful, although I’m not sure the flock of geese who were standing on it entirely agreed!
The subsequent section of the TBP, heading up towards Domewood and eventually emerging by The Old House pub on the B2037, was (in the words of a local Horley walking celeb) “a tad muddy”. But the icy conditions worked in my favour, the ground was more solid than I had reason to hope and progress wasn’t too slippy. To follow the TBP from here you loop back south, but this was proper home turf so I took a shortcut, buzzing north up Redehall Road instead, turning left into Broadbridge Lane and using the footpath to cut across to the corner of Church Road in Burstow. From this point it‘s all very familiar, following the footpath cutting west across to Church Lane, crossing back over the M23 and onto Peeks Brook Lane and so along Haroldslea, through the bridle paths and to the Balcombe Road.
Home sweet home after 34km (21 miles) and 44,000 steps. OK, so I might have gone further than I planned. BUT, I barely saw a soul, replenished my mental energy after a horrible first week back at work and discovered new paths and places to revisit. So worth it in the end.
Here’s the map. I realised later I’d covered Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex, hence the three counties title.
And instead of the cat, here’s one of the peacocks on Haroldslea preening himself as I went past. These must be the most photographed birds in town!
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