Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Walk 42 : Holmwood to Gomshall
Leith Tower, its woodlands & heathlands
| Length | 15.5km (9.6 miles), 4 hours 40 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow at least 8 hours 30 minutes. |
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| OS Landranger Map | No.187. Holmwood, map reference TQ 175 437, is in Surrey, .5km south of Dorking. |
| Toughness | 6 out of 10. |
| Features | Much of this walk is through National Trust land, the broadleaf woods and heathland of Coldharbour, Leith Hill and Abinger Common. Leith Hill, with its tower, is the highest point in south-east England, with views out across the Weald to the English Channel. The hamlet of Friday Street is the suggested Lunch place, and then the walk follows the Tilling Bourne stream to within sight of Wotton House; from there it goes through the National Trust's Deerleap Wood, and so to the picturesque village of Abinger Hammer and for tea to the mill at Gomshall, with its functioning waterwheels oxygenating the water and attracting the trout. Short parts of the walk are very steep, but mostly it is easy going, mainly on sandy ways. |
| Shortening the Walk | You could catch a bus from Coldharbour; you could catch a 21 or 22 bus (operated by London & Country) from opposite the lunchtime pub in Friday Street, going to Guildford or Redhill; or you could catch a taxi from the Wotton Hatch pub in Wotton. You could have tea slightly earlier, in Abinger Hammer, as detailed in the book'swalk directions (then simply turn right, westwards, and stay on the A25 to Gomshall Station). |
| History |
Leith Hill, the highest point in south-east England, is based on a 70 million-year-old sandstone bedrock, one formed by a cementing amalgam of sand and the silica from seashells. It was on the summit of Leith Hill, in 851AD, that Ethelwulf father of Alfred the Great) defeated the Danes who were heading for Winchester, having sacked Canterbury and London. In 1765, Richard Hull built Leith Hill Tower with the intention, it is said, of raising the hill above 1,000 feet. He had himself buried under the tower. The Tower is open for people to clamber up it from 11am to 3.30pm on weekends and bank holidays; admission 50p. It has drinks for sale, and maps and information about the area. The Stephan Langton Inn in Friday Street takes its name from the Archbishop of Canterbury who was born in 1150 and is said to have spent his childhood in this hamlet. Archbishop Langton was a subscribing witness to the Magna Carta, supporting the barons against King John and refusing to publish their excommunication by the pope. The Church of St John the Evangelist, near Wotton (open Sunday only), is of Saxon origin. It contains the tomb of John Evelyn, the essayist (author of, among other works, Fumifiguim, or the Inconvenience of the Air and Smoke of London Dissipated) who was born at Wotton House in 1620. His diaries were discovered in an old clothes basket there in 1817. Abinger Hammer village is named after the Hammer Pond, which enabled the working of the iron industry furnaces here from Tudor times. The commemorative iron master's clock (seen on this walk) has Jack the Smith striking the hours. John Evelyn inveighed against the widespread felling of trees as fuel for iron works. In Sylvia, first published in 1664, he suggested exploiting the developing world instead: ' 'Twere better to purchase all our iron out of America, than thus to exhaust our woods at home.' Gomshall Mill is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but the present mill dates from the seventeenth century. The Tilling Bourne stream (which springs out of the north slope of Leigh Hill) passes directly under the mill. |
| Lunch | The suggested lunch place is the Stephan Langton pub (tel 01306 730 775) in Friday Street, serving adequate food at reasonable prices from midday to 2pm daily (with cold food to 2.30pm). Check these details with the new owners. This is 8km (5 miles), or about 2 hours 25 minutes, from the start of the walk. If you do not think that you will get there in time, you could go to the Plough Inn in Coldharbour, by continuing 750 metres up the road from point [4] in the walk directions. |
| 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. |
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Walking Instructions
For a map and detailed walking instruction, please see Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
