Horsley circular

Jane Rosoux writes...

I attach photographs taken on the Joint Hampstead and Northwest London group 13.5 mile circular walk from Horsley on Sunday, 19th June led by Stephen Bird



[Stephen Bird is pictured Centre].


There were 17 of us in the party and we were fortunate with the weather. Stephen led us on an interesting route which started off by taking us past several 'Lovelace Bridges', which were constructed by the 1st Earl of Lovelace in 1860s in the hilly woods of his estate as part of a network of gently-graded tracks which were laid to facilitate the transport of timber on horse-drawn carts.




The lunch stop was in the very attractive village of Shere, the Parish Church of which is noted for the remains of an Anchoress' cell where Christine Carpenter was immured for several years in the 14th century. She had a squint built into the church wall so that she could see services and she was passed food and drink through the outer wall.

Sawbridgeworth Circular

Jane Rosoux reports on the May day 15 mile circular walk from Sawbridgeworth led by Stephen Bird....

"The weather was excellent and the ground was very dry. There were 11 of us in the party and we enjoyed an interesting walk led at a brisk pace with varied scenery. Our lunch stop was at the ancient village of Hatfield Broad Oak at 'The Cock Inn', which is very near the early medieval church. A highlight of the afternoon was the walk through Hatfield Forest."





Stephen Bird is pictured above left.

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West Hornden Circular

"I attach photographs taken on Stephen Bird's circular walk from West Hornden on Sunday, 30th January.

"Six of us went on the walk and were fortunate that the weather was dry. The lunch stop was at Herongate, at the 'Green Man' and the distance covered was 12 miles.

"I am afraid that none of the photographs are very interesting - the skies were very overcast for most of the day and the vegetation lacked colour.

"Although we returned to West Hornden Station before 4.00 pm and had hoped to get home at a reasonably early hour it was not to be because damaged overhead cables meant that there were no trains at all on the line for nearly two hours and when a train did finally arrive it turned round at Barking, leaving us to stand around on a chilly platform for another lengthy period.

"Such is life...."

Oxted Circular Via Westerham

Here are some photos from Sunday's joint Hampstead Group / North West London Group circular walk from Oxted led by Stephen Bird.




There were seventeen of us on the walk, which was led by Stephen Bird and was very scenic and blessed with good weather.





The walk was 13 miles in all. Don't worry about the photo below - nobody had fallen in!



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Tadworth Circular.

There were 14 of us on Sunday for a twelve mile circular walk around the North Downs near Boxhill.

The walk was led unnerringly by Stephen Bird, pictured below...


Despite the heat, in the high seventies (showing my age here) we kept a pace near to three miles an hour for the first few miles.



Near Mogador (very Tolkien-sounding!) we paused for a quick breather near a Coal Post (see here for an explanatory link).



We had some stunning views...



Later in the day we were to become very familiar with the hill at the top of the photo below.



A couple of us got seperated for a while after stopping for a chat and a photo of one of the locals...



The walk was described as "hilly" with good reason. Perhaps these pictures will convey exactly how steep it was in parts...





I'm certain that quite a few of us knew we had been on a walk the day after!!

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