Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Walk 21 : Leigh to Sevenoaks
Knole Park & Kent's 'rolling, tidal landscape'
| Length | 14.5km (9 miles), 4 hours 20 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, Knole House and meals, allow 9 hours. |
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| OS Landranger Map | No.188. Leigh, map reference TQ 546 462, is in Kent, 9km south of Sevenoaks. |
| Toughness | 6 out of 10 (only 7 as in the book if very muddy weather). |
| Features | You need to start this lovely walk early if you want to be in time for lunch at the pub, as the bulk of this walk is before lunch. The route is through what Laurie Lee described as the 'rolling, tidal landscape' of Kent. The walk starts in the village of Leigh (pronounced 'Lie' from the Anglo-Saxon for 'forest clearing') with its many fine old buildings, goes through the churchyard and parkland of Hall Place, and carries on through a few too many potentially muddy fields, and past many an oasthouse (the conically roofed buildings used for drying hops) to the church and pub in Underriver, the suggested lunchtime stop. After lunch, it is sharply uphill (and again it can be very muddy - why can't horseriders stick to the middle of bridleways?) to follow the Greensand Way into magnificent Knole Park, passing the front entrance of Knole and going on a footpath out of the park into Sevenoaks. Note that you can also get to Leigh from Victoria via Redhill, in which case you arrive on the opposite platform to the one assumed in the walk directions and do not go under the railway bridge. |
| Shortening the Walk | There are rare buses (eg 1.30pm Saturdays) from the lunchtime pub in Underriver to Tonbridge Station (or vice versa - given that the second part of the walk is more interesting) or there is a 308 bus from Knole House to Sevenoaks station. |
| History |
Knole House, built in the fifteenth century (and so huge that it has a room for every day of the year), was visited by Elizabeth I in 1573, who granted it to Thomas Sackville. It remained in the Sackville family and was the childhood home of Vita Sackville-West, featuring in Virginia Woolf's Orlando. The house is open to visitors from April 1st to the end of October, Tuesday to Sunday plus bank holiday Mondays (last entry 3.30pm). Admission is £5; children £2.50. Knole House stands in a park of 1,000 acres. There is no charge for walking in the park, and in any case the route described in the book follows public rights of way. |
| Lunch | The White Rock pub (tel 01732 833 112), Underriver, serves food midday to 2pm daily. They prefer to be phoned beforehand if a large group is coming to eat. |
| Major Updates | Changes to styles, and avoiding a busy road [details] |
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| Warning | This text was taken from an older edition of the book, and is a little out of date. Please check the updates for this walk. |
Walking Instructions
For a map and detailed walking instruction, please see Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
