Saturday Walkers' Club

Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1

Walk 2 : Wanborough to Godalming



Watts Gallery & Chapel

Length 11.5km (7.2 miles), 3 hours 30 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow at least 8 hours 40 minutes. In winter, it's best to be on your way from Watts Chapel by 3pm, so as to reach Godalming before dark.
OS Landranger Map No.186. Wanborough Station, map reference SU 931 503, is in Surrey, 6km west of Guildford.
Toughness 2 out of 10.
Features Note that there are no trains to Wanborough on a Sunday. You may need gumboots - one path in particular is like a flood drain in wet weather. I was enchanted by this walk - first by Wanborough Manor and its tiny church, then by lunch in Compton at the tea shop with its 50 varieties of tea, but, above all, by Watts Gallery and Chapel, the monuments left by Mary Fraser-Tyler to honour her husband George Frederick Watts, a Victorian painter and sculptor, 'England's Michelangelo' ('though that's a bit rich,' I overheard one visitor comment). Later, the walk is along the River Wey followed by tea in Godalming, an ancient town, the centre of which is virtually car-free.
Shortening the Walk The hourly Guildford-Godalming bus service from Watts Gallery will resume once work on the road bridge is completed. Until then, the bus stop is some five to ten minutes away. The Watts Gallery staff may also be able to help you call a taxi.
History

Wanborough 'bump-barrow') may be named after a Bronze Age burial site on the Hog's Back. A Wanborough manor and chapel are said to have belonged to King Harold's brothers and to have been ransacked by William the Conqueror's army marching up the Hog's Back. The present manor house was built in the eighteenth century. During the war it was a training centre for 'the members of the European Resistance Movement who served behind enemy lines in special operations, facing loneliness and unknown dangers in the cause of humanity'.

Wanborough Church, one of the smallest in Surrey, was rebuilt by the Cistercian monks of Waverley Abbey in 1130, and was visited by pilgrims passing along the Pilgrim's Way.

Railway bridge with crosses. Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt writes: "When Surrey C.C. wanted to build a by-pass through the Watts property, Mary Watts refused, then finally agreed - if the bridge was designed by Lutyens. It dates from 1931, the Vic Soc says it is 'an excellent example in miniature of Lutyens' interest in geometry. The tunnel surrounds, created with a sequence of stepped arches, are skilful exercises in perspectival adjustment - the vertical walls are battered, the centres of the arches are not the same, and the horizontal planes also taper." The original railings of oak cantilevered out had to be replaced by metal safety rails, but the two crosses over the Pilgrims Way have been renewed."

Watts Gallery, Watts Gallery, Down Lane, Compton (tel 01483 810 235, admission free). Closed until late 2010. An information centre is open on Tues-Fri 11am -3pm, Sat 11am -5pm and Sun 1-5pm. When it is re-opened, this gallery is recommended, and is how all galleries should be: wonderfully intimate, eccentric and on a human scale. There's a vast sculpture of Watts' lifelong friend Tennyson (with his wolfhound), allegorical paintings of Time, Death and Judgement, political paintings of hunger, and some coy nudes. Watts' most famous painting is the Rossetti-like portrait of the actress Ellen Terry, called 'Choosing' (would she give up the stage for him?). Their marriage, in 1864, is said never to have been consummated. He was 46 and she was 17.

Watts Chapel was the project of his second wife, Mary, who designed this Celtic, Byzantine, art nouveau masterpiece without previous architectural or building experience, inspired by the Home Arts and Industries Association, and with the help of local villagers. Every interior surface is covered with what Mrs Watts called 'glorified wallpaper' - angels and seraphs made out of gesso, a material which her husband used when rheumatism meant he could no longer handle wet clay. He is buried in the cloister behind the chapel. Admission is free, and it's open dawn to dusk daily.

Godalming is thought to mean 'field (-ing) of Godhelm' (the putative first Saxon to claim the land). It was a coaching town between London and Portsmouth, and a centre of trade in wool, stone-quarrying, timber, leather, paper, corn and brewing. The High Street has many half-timbered and projecting buildings.

Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt writes: "On the north side of the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul in Godalming, (roughly opposite your back on the main Borough Road, before going straight on) there is the Phillips Memorial Cloister designed by Thackeray Turner in 1913 with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll. Phillips was the chief wireless operator of the Titanic, who went down at his post on the ship. Worth the detour."

Lunch

NOTE ON WATTS GALLERY CAFE: The cafe is changing hands in December 2009 and may not re-open till April/May 2010. It is not known yet whether they will serve lunches or just teas when they do re-open, so until that time, Withies Inn will be the only lunch option.

The suggested Lunch place is the Tea Shop tel 01483 811 030; (groups should phone in advance), Compton, open 10.30am to 5.30pm daily. Eat there early if possible, before looking around Watts Gallery, as there tend to be queues by lunchtime. It offers good food at reasonable prices and sells about 50 varieties of tea. There is no room for large groups - an alternative would be the Withies Inn tel 01483 421158) Withies Lane, Compton, later on in the walk, which serves food daily from midday to 2.30pm (groups of more than 15 people should phone to book).

Tea Church Street - Cafe la Creme, High Street – Bay Tree Cafe, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee, Kings Arms.
Saturday Walkers Club Take the train nearest to 9.40am from Waterloo Station to Wanborough, changing at Guildford. Journey time around 50 minutes. There are trains back from Godalming several times an hour. Journey time 45 minutes.
Travel by Train
  • Out: (not a train station)
  • Back: (not a train station)
Travel by Car

Start: Wanborough Station is near : GU3 2EX [gmap]

Finish: Godalming Station is near : GU7 1EU [gmap]

Return to your car by train:

  • (park at the start) at 4pm
  • (park at the end) at 10am
OS Explorer Map

145 : Guildford & Farnham [Amazon]
Revised

This walk was fully revised in : Nov-09.

Download the PDF (link above) for the revised instructions, but for the map, you'll still need the book.
Other North Downs (Surrey) Walks Boxhill to Leatherhead, Woldingham to Oxted, Merstham to Tattenham Corner, Guildford via Chantries Hill Circular, Boxhill Circular, Ash Vale Circular,

Walking Instructions 

  1. [1] Turn left out of Wanborough Station and in 80 metres turn right on the main road in a southerly direction for 200 metres to the junction where the main road continues – but you turn left on to Flexford Road.
  2. In 50 metres opposite Little Hay Cottage [2] take the public footpath to the right, your direction 160 degrees, over a stile with a metal field gate on the left hand side into a gravelled area before in 30m going over another stile onto a potentially muddy path between fences, towards a little concrete bridge and stile visible some 200 metres away.
  3. Go over the stile and continue on, your direction 150 degrees, for a further 200 metres, to the field hedge. Go through the gap in the hedge and straight on, southwards, with a hedge and stream on your left hand side. In 400 metres you go over a stile, then left for 30 metres, following the field edge on your left hand side, then bend right with the field edge, your direction now 215 degrees, to continue straight on still with the stream on your left hand side, passing a black wooden house further away to your left.
  4. You reach a car road [3] with a footpath sign and a house (Pear Tree Cottage) on your left hand side. Turn left on to this road and in 150 metres go left on a road with a footpath sign directing you to Wanborough Church, your direction 100 degrees. Wanborough manor house is to the left of the church. To continue the walk take the signposted bridleway just to the left of a redbrick gabled house opposite the churchyard entrance your direction 140 degrees. The bridleway is soon overarched by mixed evergreens and goes uphill to the A31 for 800 metres. With care, cross the first carriageway, go slightly to the left and, straight on, go over the second carriageway.
  5. Continue on a signposted footpath, over a stile , your direction 130 degrees, along the left-hand edge of the field. In 300 metres go over a stile and straight on, still with the hedge on your left-hand side, and, in 100 metres, go over another stile. Cross over a farm track, then through a gravelled overflow car park and over the next stile, to go half right across a small field, your direction 135 degrees to a gap in the hedge near an old barn.
  6. Fifteen metres brings you to another stile and then onto a farm track. Go right and then after 10 metres go onwards, your direction 130 degrees. Continue beyond a golf course tee on your right-hand side to reach a fence by a wood. Go straight ahead for 80 metres through the wood your direction 165 degrees. You come out of the wood to go across the golf course (golf balls coming at you from your left hand side), your path between white posts, and exit the golfcourse via a narrow path to the left of a largish house, to arrive at a T-junction [4] where you turn left on the North Downs Way, an earth car road, your direction 70 degrees.
  7. Keep left at a fork in the road in 20 metres , and carry on downwards past a house called Questors on your left hand side, and in 100 metres at a crossing of the ways in the wood, you carry straight on for 800m, still on the North Downs Way, your direction 65 degrees towards the noise of traffic on the A3, ignoring ways off. Go under the A3 on a tarmac lane and, in 40 metres, under a second bridge (this is the one designed by Lutyens) to keep straight on, ignoring forks to the left to a road T-junction. Turn left on the road, and, in 40 metres, turn right at a sign saying ‘Tea Shop and Watts Gallery’. The Tea Shop in Compton is the suggested early lunch place.
  8. After lunch a visit to Watts Gallery is recommended (at the very back beyond the complex of buildings of which the Tea Shop forms a part).
  9. To get to Watts Chapel, the next stop, return to the car road and turn left along it, your direction 230 degrees. In 160 metres you pass Coneycroft Farm on your left and in another 100 metres you reach the cemetery with the chapel up above you on the hillside.
  10. Having regained the cemetery exit on the road, turn right in the direction you came from and in 100 metres turn right at the footpath sign – just before Coneycroft Farm – and keep to the right edge of the barn beyond the farm, following the path left at the end of the barn, then through a metal fieldgate and in 10 metres right through another metal fieldgate, following arrows.
  11. You are now on a concrete road, your direction 110 degrees.
  12. Ignore ways off. At the end of the concrete, in 200 metres, by a field gate, turn right through a gate and then ignore a path immediately to your left to continue on a path due south. In 40 metres, you have the edge of the wood on your left hand side. Carry on down the path for 600 m, ignoring ways off, to come out of a wood onto a tarmac lane [5]. Turn left. In 10 metres, you turn right, past some houses on your left-hand side (one called Waterhaw), your direction now 200 degrees.
  13. You arrive at the Withies Inn, an alternative lunchtime stop. At the main road, the B3000, called New Pond Road, go straight over (slightly to the right) and continue on a lane called the Avenue, fringing the wood on its right-hand side, your direction 200 degrees.
  14. In 250 metres [6], take the first right onto a signposted bridleway to go into a wood. In 30 m [!] carry straight on at a four way signpost leading in 30 more metres to a bridleway between hedges which you go through.
  15. You pass a house on your left hand side in 80 metres and your way merges with a farm track, to carry straight on, your direction 220 degrees. In a further 125 metres by a large old ash tree to your left, turn right, following the blue bridleway signpost, your direction 265 degrees. A field edge is on your left. In 120 metres, follow the path as it bends sharp left to go due south with the field hedge still on your left and a fence on your right.
  16. At the top of the field in 350 metres, turn right, and keep the edge of the wood on your left hand side, on a footpath going due West. In 380 metres, turn right with the path for 15 metres and then left again, to continue gently uphill your direction 215 degrees, ignoring two gates into a wood on your right. In 60 metres, you pass a large house on your right and 200 metres beyond it, you come out into its driveway and go straight on between houses – with Broomfeld Manor on your right. 100 metres past this manor, you come to the main road, ignoring a yellow marked footpath alternative uphill to your left [7] and go straight over on to another bridleway, your direction 250 degrees.
  17. 200 metres down this path (which is like a flood drain in wet weather) you go straight across another car road onto another path, your direction 230 degrees, soon between wooden fences on both sides. After 250 metres, you come to the end of the fence on your left hadn side and carry straight on downwards (ignoring a left turn).
  18. In a further 60 metres, at a T-junction, go left, following a blue bridleway arrow, due ssouth. Then in 15 metres ignore a yellow arrow footpath uphill to your left (which goes off at 130 degrees) to keep on due south, still downwards, along a wide path.
  19. In 450 metres, you pass a drystone wall on your right hand side with a lovely sixteenth century mansion house with varied window styles beyond it. Just past this house [8] turn left on a tarmac lane, your direction 145 degrees. In 80 metres you go through a wooden swing gate (a wooden fieldgate and the entrance to Milton Wood on its right hand side). In 150 metres go through a metal barrier, now alongside the river Wey.
  20. In 500 metres, go through another metal barrier. In 40 metres, one metre before the start of a tarmac road and housing estate, follow the signpost right, marked ‘Public Footpath to Godalming’, your direction due south. In 75 metres you go over a concrete bridge, straight on. In 15 metres, turn left under the pylons, your direction 140 degrees with the river Wey on your right hand side. Keep the river on your right, going in the same direction. In 30 metres you pass under more pylons and fork left, your direction 170 degress. In 40 metres, continue to the left your direction 100 degrees, alongside the river Wey on your right.
  21. In 120 metres you again go under pylons and again in 55 metres. In 120 metres by a bench, yours becomes a tarmac path. In 55 metres you cross a stream on a bridge. In a further 280 metres, you cross a bridge with scaffolding pole railings. In five metres you go through a metal barrier across an entrance drive to offices on your right hand side and straight on with the stream still on your left hand side.
  22. In 65 mtres at a tarmac road go right, your direction 170 degrees. In 20 metres go under the railway line. Ten metres after the bridge, fork right on a signposted public footpath. In 110 metres, having kept parallel to the road, you cross the river on a wooden bridge with wooden railings.
  23. In 35 metres you are back on the main Borough Road, going straight on. In 65 metres, by the entrance to the Church of St Peter and St Paul, go left up Church Street (signposted ‘To the High Street’). In 130 metres turn left into the high street, Godalming, if you wish to visit the town. To go back to the station retrace your steps back to the church, and once at the church, go straight on to pick up a passageway leading to the station, again straight on.