16 of us set off on this walk in bright sunshine towards the village of Bledlow Ridge, passing horses and alpacas on the way. We recovered from our first steep climb with a quick stop at the Boot pub before following the Chiltern Way, gradually wending our way down via beautiful views across the valley, freshly green fields and a beech wood, before circling around to meet the Ridgeway.

The rain held off for our picnic at Lodge Hill with fantastic views as well as an 80th birthday cake and bubbly for one of our members. We were lucky to see a horizontal rainbow over towards Princes Risborough, the first of several fabulous rainbows of the afternoon, which more than compensated for the occasional sharp squalls of rain.

We crossed the railway tracks and the Saunderton tunnel before leaving the Ridgeway and heading towards Lacey Green. Our route took us through the pretty village of Loosley Hill up a second fairly sustained climb. The Black Horse pub at Lacey Green provided an extremely welcome stopping point. From here, 7 miles in, two members of the group decided to take the 300 bus down to High Wycombe. After our stop at the lovely old pub the rest of the party headed off into the undulating Chilterns farmland for the next part of the walk.

We navigated some of the first mud of the season and sheltered from a heavy rain storm at the top of Highwood Bottom. We met horses taking shelter in the pretty Flowers Bottom, before navigating past a herd of Friesian cows as we completed the final climb of the walk to the outskirts of Bradenham.  From here we walked down through Brandenham Beeches where the fabulous trees afforded us shelter and some beautiful glimpses of sunshine. As we came to the edge of the wood we had a wonderful sunny view across Saunderton and towards the ridge opposite where we had started the walk. The party made it to the station in time for the 6 o’clock train, having completed 11 miles and a total ascent and descent of around 1300 feet. 

Jo

Many thanks to Chris and Mary for the fantastic photographs.

We were eighteen in number when we arrived at Chelmsford Station, along with many others heading for the Radio 2 in the Park music event. Fortunately, they had their own buses to take them to the venue so we all managed to get seats on our bus to Maldon.

This estuary town has a thriving centre, as well as pretty surroundings of saltmarshes and waterways. With the sun shining brightly, we headed down a steep hill to the River Chelmer. We then followed it through woodland to the town bypass, built on the route of a disused railway. Crossing underneath, we continued to Beeleigh Abbey. This used to be the site of a monastery but is now a private residence once owned by William Foyle, co-founder of Foyles Bookshop.

Further on, we reached the Beeleigh ‘Falls’, a collection of roaring weirs, and then the towpath of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation, built in 1796 to provide reliable access to Chelmsford. This took us back to the river which we crossed back into Maldon. Skirting the quaysides, we got to the busy Queen’s Head pub where we stopped for lunch.

Suitably refreshed, we passed a number of magnificent Thames sailing barges as we headed along the promenade to a statue of Byrhtnoth, the hero of the Battle of Maldon in 991AD. We retraced our steps back to the Queen’s Head and then up to the High Street from where we got our bus back to Chelmsford and onward to London by train.  

Danny

Photos courtesy of Joyanna and Gillian

Sixteen Polyramblers assembled at Merstham station having all taken a train from London Bridge. Shenanigans were to be had, with  unmanned ticket barriers providing the only way out from the (Brighton) platform! Firstly they failed my outward portion return ticket to Merstham. Several  of us had the same problem. It became apparent there was a screen on the sidewall where you could display your ticket to a gateman on the opposite platform who could open the barrier by remote control. Having cleared the barriers, my safety briefing then ensued and we set off northeasterly, crossing under the fast quarry line, then over the M25 footbridge.   Soon a left turn uphill on a footpath took us under the M23 underpass, which I called “acoustic underpass”. I decided to stop the party here awhile and demonstrate by singing a short song.  Unfortunately the echo didn’t sound quite as good as it did on the walkover version, which proves how the clothing of an extra 15 people can absorb the sound!  (Les has posted a short sample video of this rendition to the Club’s Social Group!) The path then took us further northeastward up the escarpment, then at the top joined the North Downs Way as a  level  bridleway eastward.

Soon there were good views of Redhill below, on our right.  We then passed Willey Park farm, then onto a lane where taking a left turn, we called at the The Harrow PH, being on the outskirts of Chaldon.  This was our half hour liquid refreshment halt. Continuing eastward we took War Coppice Road coming across the folly of Whitehill Tower, built by Jeremiah Long in 1862 as an ornament in the grounds of his Surrey villa, but has been neglected for years, needing desperate attention before it may collapse. In half a mile we reached a wooded track which soon took us onto a lovely open area at the top of the escarpment, this was Caterham view point with excellent views to the southeast, south and southwest,  including Godstone.  With several benches overlooking the views, it proved an ideal picnic spot. The sky became very grey, but the rain mainly held off save a few short sprinkles.

After lunch, we followed a wooded track around Pilgrim Fort and down via stepped section to the A22 Caterham bypass which we crossed via a footbridge. Beyond the bridge we came across the site of a hauliers firm and our track took us  across Winders Hill.  Our route then continued through Hanging Wood, then along the side of Gangers Hill and South Hawke, until we reached a sudden descent of steps.  These were placed straight above the tunnel carrying the Oxted to Croydon railway.  Near the bottom of the steps was a viewing balcony with a seat where you could see the railway in a straight line below as it comes out of the tunnel towards Oxted.  About a mile later we crossed a rather busy lane, and proceeded uphill on the other side, then below the slopes of Beach Plantation, until we reached the Greensand Way path.  At this point we left the North Downs Way, which would carry on to Botley Hill(where the club ended one of the NDW sections back in July 1985).  But today we turned right onto the Greensand Way downhill  and over another M25 bridge and across a meadow into the urban area of Oxted.  We reached that station just in time for the trains back to London.

I would like to thank Mary for doing the roll call at the start, and to Kim for backmarking.

Geoffrey

Photos by Les, Chris and Geoffrey

15 Polyramblers assembled at Henley station at 10.27. Unfortunately, the leader and 3 others did not arrive until 10.57 due to delays on the Elizabeth Line.  They say that every cloud has a silver lining and, in this case, at least the rain had stopped by the time we eventually set off.

We started walking by the Thames in Henley then the path took us out into a broad valley, to the church at Rotherfield Greys, followed soon after by the church at Rotherfield Peppard.  The rest of the walk was through fields, beech woods and small villages, with a few stretches of road and lane walking.  We stopped for lunch at the Unicorn Pub in the village of Kingwood and many were able to sit outside in the sunshine.

A few miles further on, 4 Polyramblers decided to take advantage of the opportunity to pick up the bus to Reading from Cane End. Alas, they were not able to avoid the sudden downpour which struck at that precise moment and the whole group were briefly drenched! Fortunately, it did not persist and by the time the remaining hikers reached the Bozedown Alpaca farm most of us had dried off, although there were not very many alpacas to be seen.  

On the final leg the walk then carried on to the Whitchurch parish church beside the Thames, from there to the toll bridge over the Thames, and finally into Pangbourne where most of us took the train and a few decided to stop for a cup of tea at The Swan Pub on the river.

On the train we reflected that it had been a lovely walk but had felt quite long and after comparing various phone step counters we concluded that it was at least 13 miles, rather than the 11.9 miles in the walk description.

Rochelle

Photos by Jo, Gillian and Chris

I was delighted to find there were 19 of us assembling for this adventure in Kent.  We got a fast train from London Bridge to Tonbridge and then had to wait for a local train which took us the one stop onwards to Leigh.   The village name is pronounced ‘Lie’ locally by the way.

Passing through the churchyard we were soon in the midst of fields and saw the first of several oasthouses built for drying hops in times now past. The weather was overcast and it looked like rain but happily the rain held off except for the odd spattering of raindrops every now and then.

This walk does have a fair bit of minor road walking and in spite of doing several walkovers I still took us down the wrong road at one point until Geoffrey realised my mistake (thanks Geoffrey!) and alerted me.  We also had a rather tricky crossing of a busy road approaching our lunch stop near Hildenborough but we all got across safely.  Lunch was in a small paddock before a large field which normally has horses in it.   There were no horses to begin with but by the time we had finished our lunch a posse of them arrived!

We crossed this field and then negotiated several more all with horses in abundance.   There is a large riding school here.   We left the fields passing a barn with one horse looking forelornly out of a stable.  I wondered why it was being kept indoors. Then after a little more minor road walking we were back in the fields and woodland again.    The countryside around here is lovely.   At one point we passed through a field where I had been briefly chased by a black dog on a walkover and I could hear it barking from within the grounds of a large house!

We arrived about 3pm at the White Rock pub in Underriver and had a refreshing drink.  One of our party took a taxi to Sevenoaks after that.  We then embarked on a rather steep path up the wooded hill that takes us near to Knole.  There are beautiful views from the top of this hill across the valley. We passed through a wood and then crossed a minor road to enter Knole Park through a deer-proof gate.   The park is proper deer country, with lots of ferns and dotted with ancient oak trees extending across a wide landscape.  At one point we disturbed a white stag which broke cover and ran away from us into yet more ferns!   A beautiful sight.

In half an hour or so we passed the impressive mid-15^th Century Knole house.  We felt we would like to have visited it but that would have to be a day trip for another time.   It was gone 4pm so we were too late for tea there and we pressed on to the old town of Sevenoaks which is up another steep hill!

A few went for tea in the town and the rest of us headed for the station passing a large Ferrari dealership on the way.

It was about 5pm when we arrived at the station just in time for a train heading back to London.  Everyone seemed happy and said it had been a great day out which made me happy too.

Chris

Photos by Ida and Joyanna