Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1

Walk 43 : Otford (round walk)

Romney Street, Shoreham and the Darent Valley

Length	12.2km (7.6 miles), 3 hours 30 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow 7 hours 30 minutes.
OS Landranger Map	No.188. Otford, map reference TQ 532 593, is in Kent, 4km north of Sevenoaks.
Toughness	5 out of 10.
Features	This would make a good, brisk, shortish autumn or winter walk, with a late start possible. The route at the outset is steeply uphill, for a time following the North Downs Way, with views back over Otford and the valley, then going through Greenhill Wood, with a glimpse of Oak Hall, before heading north to the pub in Romney Street. On reaching Shoreham there is the Shoreham Countryside Centre to visit, should you want to learn more about the history of the area and about its wildlife (the centre is closed from the end of October to the beginning of April). Shoreham Village itself is worth visiting too, with its four pubs and twelfth-century church. The route onwards is the Darent Valley Path, which leads back into Otford. The village of Otford offers a tearoom, a palace (in ruins), a church and many ancient buildings. It also contains the Otford Solar System, which claims to be the only scale model of its kind in the world. It shows the relative position of the sun and planets at the start of the new millennium. The sun and inner planets are on the Recreation Ground, while the outer planets are scattered around the town. It gives a vivid impression of the extent of the solar system, and the scale of 5 billion to 1 means that you walk around it at 20 times the speed of light! There are fast trains to Otford from Victoria and slower ones from Blackfriars.
Shortening the walk	You can cut 0.8km off the end of the walk by following the short cut at [*] below. This alternative route has the advantage of going close to the centre of the Otford Solar System (see above). It is also possible to get a train back to London from Shoreham.
History	Shoreham is the remote village that the painter Samuel Palmer chose as a refuge from London's pollution. He was visited there in 1826 by William Blake. The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Shoreham has many interesting features, including an outstanding wooden rood screen spanning the width of the building and a stained glass window by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Burne-Jones. Otford goes back to the sixth century, when the Saxons settled the place and called it Ottanford (Otta's Ford). Offa and Canute fought battles here. The village pond, with the duckhouse, is a listed building and was the main source of water for local people until the early twentieth century. The Bull pub in Otford has magnificent fireplaces, brought there from the ruined Otford Palace. Opposite the Bull is the Arts and Crafts-style Church Hall, designed by Edwin Lutyens who waived his fee, as it was commissioned by his brother William who was then vicar of Otford. The craft shop by the pond in Otford sells a leaflet entitled 'A Look Around Otford' should you have an hour to spend at the end of the walk in which to admire the village's ancient past. Otford Palace once occupied four acres, but it fell into decay after Archbishop Cranmer was forced to surrender it to Henry VIII in 1537. The Church of St Bartholomew in Otford was founded about 1050 and contains memorials to the great-grandsons of Oliver Cromwell.
Saturday Walkers Club	Take the train nearest to 10.15am (before or after) from Victoria Station to Otford. Journey time 35 minutes. If coming by car, Otford Station car park is free at weekends. Alternatively, there is a free public car park opposite the Bull pub.
Lunch	The Fox & Hounds pub (tel 01959 525 428) in Romney Street, serves simple food from midday to 2pm weekdays (to 3pm Saturday and to 4pm Sunday); groups of more than ten should phone to book.
Tea	The suggested tea place is the Hospices of Hope tearoom (tel 01959 524 322), 11a High Street, Otford. It is open until 4pm Monday to Friday (till 5pm from April to October), and till 5pm Saturday. Profits from the tearoom are used to support a Romanian Hospice. Alternatively, there are two pubs in Otford High Street, the Bull (tel 01959 523 198) and the Crown (tel 01959 522 847).
Revised	This walk was fully revised in 2006.

Walking Instructions

Note: Bold numbers in square brackets refer to the Walk Map in Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1.

1. [1] From the middle of platform 2 at Otford Station, exit up steps with blue-painted metal handrails, then go on a tarmac lane heading east away from the station. In 30 metres you turn left on an unasphalted public footpath, a metal fieldgate to its left-hand side, soon passing a Chalk Pit sign on your right-hand side.
2. Bend left with the path when you reach an open area and then go up steps to pass through a wooden kissing gate. Turn right on the road for 10 metres, then left on a signposted footpath, the North Downs Way, uphill, your direction 40 degrees; and soon steeply uphill, to a bench, with views back down to Otford and its valley.
3. Carry on up the path and near the top, where it levels out, follow the right-hand edge of the large open common. In 300 metres you pass a chest-high Ordnance Survey Marker 80 metres away on your left-hand side, and in another 100 metres you go over a stile [2]. Leave the North Downs Way to turn right downhill on a tarmac road signposted Otford and Kemsing.
4. In 100 metres you go left over a stile with a public footpath sign (a metal fieldgate to its left-hand side), your direction 75 degrees, past Row Dow mini-reservoir on your left, and parallel to the vale below. Keep to the main path. In 650 metres go through a wooden barrier and across a path to carry straight on through another wooden barrier, past a Kent Wildlife Trust panel for Kemsing Down.
5. In 125 metres a footpath merges from the right and you continue eastwards.
6. 100 metres from this junction continue past a large dead tree trunk, soon ignoring a path to the right going downhill. 125 metres from the dead tree, turn right downhill at a path crossing, rejoining the North Downs Way. In 25 metres you come to a wooden bench, with a wooden post nearby marked Whiteleaf Down and with an arrow pointing to Kemsing Village in the vale below.
7. Turn left by the bench along the hillside, your direction 70 degrees, keeping to the main path (the North Downs Way). In 125 metres pass to the right of a stile, leaving Kemsing Down. In another 200 metres, go left uphill at a fork, following the North Downs Way sign, in 80 metres re-entering the wood.
8. In a further 15 metres, turn left at a main path crossing, leaving the North Downs Way to head north uphill.
9. Keep straight on, over a drive with the courtyard and wooden part of Oak Hall on your left. In 40 metres go over another drive and, after another 40 metres, go over a stile.
10. [!] The shortest route at this point would be to go left, with the hedges to your left-hand side, but the legal right of way requires a slight detour. Instead of turning left, head slightly left across the field, your direction 330 degrees, towards a wooden post about 150 metres away (the actual route may not be visible on the ground). 25 metres before reaching this post, [3] turn left on a wide grassy path leading to the corner of the field 200 metres away, your direction now 250 degrees.
11. Leave the field over a stile, to the right of a fieldgate. In 80 metres this path ends and you cross a stile on your left on to a tarmac lane (the driveway leading to Oak Hall). Turn right along this lane, resuming your westerly direction.
12. Out past the drive's entrance columns, and past Thatched Cottage on your right-hand side, the road curves to the right and you continue along it, now heading due north.
13. In 60 metres ignore the North Downs Way signposted off to the left and continue along the road, past Shorehill Cottage and then derelict farm buildings on the right, and later a large modern house and barn at the bottom of a field on the left.
14. You come to a road T-junction and turn left downhill, past Primrose Cottage on your right-hand side, and 70 metres from the junction [4] you turn right to head north on a signposted public footpath. 350 metres down through the woods, cross a stile into a field, still heading north and soon going uphill.
15. Exit the field by a stile (with two metal fieldgates on its left-hand side) and carry straight on, with the field fence and wood on your left-hand side. Then go down across a field to the right of a house shielded by a wooden fence and trees, still heading northwards. Exit by a stile (with a fieldgate to its left-hand side) out on to a tarmac road [5] and then turn left downhill, your direction 305 degrees.
16. In 20 metres turn right over a stile uphill on a signposted public footpath, your direction 10 degrees. In 30 metres go over another stile and straight on.
17. In 100 metres go over a stile into a field. Ignore a path to the right into the woods. Keep straight on along the edge of the wood on your right-hand side, or any less muddy way just inside the wood, your direction still roughly northwards. Exit the field by a stile (a metal fieldgate to its right-hand side) and then fork right off the main track, following a yellow footpath arrow, your direction initially northwards.
18. [!] In 60 metres [6] you leave this bridleway over a stile on your right, at a gap in the hedge. Then go half left over the field towards two white buildings, on a path that is a short cut to the pub, the Fox & Hounds in Romney Street, the suggested lunchtime stop.
19. Coming out of the pub, turn right and head west across a stile to the left of Romney Street Farm entrance, signposted as a public bridleway. You pass a large shed on your right-hand side (one that sometimes shelters a small aeroplane) and a grass runway in the distance. In 100 metres the bridleway turns off to the left, but you continue straight on.
20. In 60 metres go over a stile, ignoring a yellow arrow to the right, and you are then away from the last building, and carrying straight on downhill, your direction initially 300 degrees, with fine views of London ahead and to the right. Keep to the right of a copse (a small island of trees in the field) 120 metres downhill. Exit the network of fields by a stile, cross a car-wide earth track, and continue steeply down towards the golfcourse.
21. Go over a stile, your direction westwards, and at the bottom of the field you go over two tree-trunk stiles to continue across the golfcourse between hedges. Exit the golfcourse by a stile, continue steeply uphill and cross another stile to enter a wood.
22. Exit the wood through a gap in the fence and head slightly left towards a redundant stile 80 metres away, your direction 240 degrees. Pass to the left of this stile, to carry on across a field on a car-wide path, your direction now 230 degrees.
23. At the end of the field, another farm track merges from the left and you turn half-right onto it, downhill. Keep on this farm track when it then goes uphill through a farm (Dunstall Farm) [7]. Then go more or less straight on through the farmyard, following a yellow arrow to pass to the right of the far barn, then across a farm track to continue straight on across a field, your direction 260 degrees.
24. 180 metres from the barn, you go down into the wood, in 50 metres crossing a path to carry on down earth steps. 350 metres from the end of the steps, your path merges with a bridleway and you carry on downwards, slightly to the right, your direction 330 degrees.
25. In 200 metres, you come to a road junction where you carry straight on across the A225, where you head west on the road signposted Golfcourse and Shoreham Village.
26. In 70 metres you come to pedestrian steps up to Shoreham Station. Detour up these (but not in winter - see the introduction above) to visit the Shoreham Countryside Centre in the station building.
27. Carry on by going under the railway bridge. In 130 metres you ignore the main entrance left into the Darent Valley golfcourse. But in a further 70 metres [8], your onward route is to turn left to head south on a footpath signposted Darent Valley Path.
28. I recommend, however, a further detour to visit Shoreham Village: staying on the car road brings you, in 200 metres or so, to the Church of St Peter and St Paul and to Ye Olde George Inne, and beyond that to the River Darent and the Kings Arms. Coming back to the footpath: this leads through the golf-course and, in 450 metres, through a metal kissing gate; and so onwards, now with a cricket pitch and a pavilion on your right-hand side, to follow a path between fences,still heading south. 100 metres along this enclosed path, you come to a major path junction.
29. ([*] For a slightly shorter route back to Otford, you can continue ahead at this point. In 1.5km this path comes out directly opposite the Hospices of Hope tearoom, but 300 metres before this, opposite a farm building, you can cross a stile on your right into the Recreation Ground. The centre of the Otford Solar System is in front of you and an information panel is by the hedge on your right. Be sure to note where the nearest star is on the same scale!)
30. For the main route, however, turn sharp right to head north-west on a tarmac lane, still following the signposted Darent Valley Path.
31. In 250 metres, by a crossing of many paths, turn left through wooden barriers, following the Darent Valley Path, signposted 'Footpath to Otford', your direction 200 degrees, with the golfcourse on both sides.
32. Carry straight on, following the Darent Valley Path signs. Once you are past the golfcourse, cross a stile into a field and continue along its left-hand edge. Exit the field across a stile and ignore a public footpath sign off to the left, continuing ahead over another stile [9] to carry on towards Otford, now visible in the distance, your direction 150 degrees.
33. In 230 metres go over a stile to continue on with the clear waters of the River Darent now on your right-hand side, later bending left with the river's fork (by a house on the far bank with unusual round brick chimneys). Go through a wooden swing gate to pass between gardens and houses to the main road and turn left along the main street of Otford, towards the village green and station.
34. You pass Pickmoss, a medieval half-timbered yeoman's house, on your right-hand side. Immediately next door is the old Baptist Chapel (at which Samuel Palmer's father was minister); and, a bit further on, the (partly sixteenth-century) Bull pub. Beyond this, you come to the Hospices of Hope tearoom, also on your right, the suggested tea place (opposite a footpath signposted to Shoreham).
35. Beyond the tea shop, you come to the village pond and, the other side of that, to the Church of St Bartholomew. Less than 100 metres to the right of the church is the north-west gatehouse, virtually all that remains of Otford Palace.
36. To get to the station without going on the main road, take the tarmac path through a kissing gate to the church's front door, and go along the right-hand side of the church, keeping to the path, soon with a brick wall to your left and the churchyard to your right, and so through a wooden kissing gate. You go eastwards, in a further 250 metres reaching the car park of Otford Station. The station's near platform is for London trains.

Driving	Start: Otford Station is near : TN14 5QY. [gmap]
Train Travel	London to Otford
Revised	This walk was fully revised in : 2006 For the walk map, please see the Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1