From Haxted (on Saturday), I walked south. The Tandridge Border Path was still my guide, just about all day. Here is farmland, without villages.
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I passed by some sites completely hidden – the remains of Starborough Castle are on one farm here, and a hill fort earthworks are indistinguishable from the path, but I was enjoying the walk to much to play antiquarian.
I then came to the end of Kent, and Surrey – the corner of the three counties, from where my path would be west along the long border of Sussex. It is a quiet spot, with a few houses just enjoying the view, and no dramatic anything, but three counties meet here and are content to do so.
I set off then westward, on a tree-shaded lane, now with the Sussex border. Soon the track comes off the road, where I was pleased to see I was being joined by the waymarks of the Sussex Border Path, and through Gotwick Manor Farm – whose name echoed the theme of the latter part of the day. On this path, I went across a footbridge into Sussex for a while. (Along here I met two dog-walkers who told a tale I had heard in the the county corner many years before and which had I recorded in my Part 2½ post: the prize fights which used to happen in Three Counties Field, that could hop across the border if the constables arrived.)
At a lane, I walked due north: by the brook (the Kent Water) which would bring me back into Surrey, a herd of fallow deer ran across the road; two holding back when they spotted me, only for the herd instinct to beat their fear. Across the brook is Old Surrey Hall, which I need to look up. It looks a grand, old house, and has a moat (a think I would love to have but for the midges they bring). The dog-walkers of earlier told me that it was where the pioneer of plastic surgery during the War cared for his patients. I did not want to disturb the householders though, and carried on westwards into the woods.
I emerged from the woods (after a slight diversion after taking the wrong path – there are several – and skirting fields, onto a road to greeted by signs welcoming me to East Grinstead. To that point, I had not met a single town or village on my route.I did not enter the town though, and hopped over a stile, cut off a loop and came back to the same road for a few hundred yards before the Sussex Border Path and Tandridge Border Way (working in tandem) led me down a broad track under the railway. The Tandridge route headed north on a path also waymarked “GMT” – the Greenwich Meridian Trail – past the edge of Dormans Park to Dormans Station, but I kept going west until the path leading south to the northernmost streets of East Grinstead – streets which are in Surrey.
The route dips in and out of the abodes of humanity along the county border; through Felbridge (a pleasant village), looping north around Hedgecourt Lake, to Copthorne, through which the border passes, and north to Burstow, with its pretty church and little else.
In this part of the walk, the presence of Gatwick Airport had become more and more pronounced. I was walking under the flightpath at times. After Burstow I entered those parts where all the ugly businesses are put that you get near airports, which are absolutely necessary and putting them here out of the way at least keeps them away from the eyes of all but those who seek them (and those of us happening to walk by). In a moment I was over the M23 and deep into the churned up landscape. A final run west, beside the motorway spur road, and I reached the railway line, where I called a halt to the day, and waked to find the B&B I had booked in Horley.
I will resume the next day in the next article. In the meantime, please donate for the Stroke Association.
