Stage 2 Guildford to Dorking (15 miles) - Pills and Wine

January 10th 2017. Another early start mixing it with the commuters into Waterloo and out the other side to Guildford. Fortunately, I was travelling with Southeastern and South West Trains and not the strike ridden Southern Rail. Waterloo was, however, suffering from overcrowding and delayed trains due to a broken down train outside the station. Tannoy announcements informed us that "exit 2 was congested, please other exits". Waterloo is Britain's busiest railway station by passenger usage; of the almost 100 million commuters who pass through every year I wonder how many know where exit 2 is? I passed through the station for the best part of three decades and I have no idea where exit 2 is. Some thought on communication with the intended audience is required, I think.

Enough of commuter hell. I arrived in Guildford, somewhat later than intended, in mild and bright, blue sky, weather. I retraced my steps along the River Wey, to pick up the NDW at the wooden bridge river crossing. There was a ferry here dating back to the 14th Century or earlier until 1964 with the bridge being built in 1985. Chalk mining and associated lime kilns was the industry of choice in this area. Chalk being used to make lime for building and agricultural purposes and transported by the barge load into London and beyond. The River is a much more peaceful place today.

The "Pixie" Bridge over the River Wey at Ferry Lane

The path then climbs through woodland and across paddocks over very sandy ground up to St Martha's Hill and St Martha's church. The ground is so sandy that it s like walking on a beach and is very hard going, one step forward, one slide backwards. Heavy rain at this point might actually be to a walkers advantage.

St Martha's Church

St Martha's Church was built in 1850 on the ruins of a 12th century church which was on the site of an earlier Saxon church. There is no road to the church, worshippers have to be devoted to their faith enough to want to walk up the hill to a height of nearly 600 feet. The guidebook* tells us that it is thought that pagan Saxons burned Christian martyrs here and that may be the source of the name. The church has its own website which has a fascinating (relatively short) section on it's history, far more comprehensive than I can do here and well worth a read. On leaving the church yard at the eastern end there is a memorial to Yvonne Arnaud (1890 - 1958) who was a French pianist, singer and actress who lived in Guildford for many years and after whom the theatre in the town was named in 1965.

Memorial to Yvonne Arnaud, St Martha's church. Not convinced that the plastic miniature trees are entirely appropriate...

The sandy path continues beyond the church, through pine woods down hill before climbing back up to reach the chalk escarpment forming the true north downs. I almost had the expanse of the downs here to myself apart from a couple of  dog walkers. One dog called Willow was being particularly mischievous, refusing to go to his / her / it's (Willow?) handler's call to heel preferring instead to trot off in the opposite direction behind me. I realised that Willow was following me and so stopped at a bench to allow his owner to retrieve her charge. I smiled but received what can best be described as a grimace in return. Poor Willow, I thought.

Albury Downs, looking west along the Greensand ridge

Albury Downs leads to Newlands Corner where the A25 crosses the escarpment. The Corner is described as a Honey Pot by the guidebook and I could see why. Car parks and two cafes, one on either side of the road and views across the southern counties. Being mid week in January there were few "bees" around today and I took advantage of the "cafe with the view" where I had splendid almond and orange cake with my coffee.

Having had a late start, thanks to the problems at Waterloo and a leisurely cake break I was a little concerned on leaving the cafe at the time given the distance I had to go and sunset at about 1600. Fortunately, the next few miles were largely over flat ground through woods and on good paths through West Hanger, Netley Heath, Hawkhurst Downs and Ranmore Common. This is where the "Pills" come in. The Downs here were used by the Canadian Army in 1943 as a training ground prior to the Normandy landings in June 1944. Evidence of their presence endures in the form of the, now much degraded, road that the path follows and several concrete water tanks amongst the trees. The water tanks are shallow round concrete structures maybe 30 metres in diameter. I don't understand how these worked other than perhaps collecting rain water for the thousands of troops billeted here.

Canadian Army water tank from 1943

I have seen reference to this "thing" on other blogs as being of WW2 origin. I think this is agricultural in origin rather than military; I think it is a dew pond used for watering livestock; I have seen similar in Kent. I suspect it is of a similar age to the water tanks but not for human service.

Concrete Dew Pond? At Combe Lane en-route to Hollister Farm.

Back to the Pills... there are numerous (I counted 8, guidebook says 7) Pill Boxes along the path or just off it. These were rapidly built in 1940 to a war office specification as defence against a perceived imminent German invasion. Thousands were built along "stop lines" and would have been manned by soldiers armed with light machine guns ("...it's a Bren Gun innit..."). The ones in this vicinity have a line of fire down into the valley. They are type 24 shell proof, suggesting to me that they were expecting tanks to roll up the valley towards their goal of London; but that's just my speculation or imagination at this stage.

Pill Box on the NDW

Room with a view? Grand Designs or Restoration Man?

I find these buildings fascinating, sorry, I think it's a boy thing. They look as though they are constructed from brick but that's just the "shuttering" to contain the three feet of concrete to render them shell proof. Given the thickness of the walls, they are very cramped inside, even now without personnel, guns, ammunition and other wartime paraphernalia. Despite being shell proof it feels like the occupants would have been on something of a suicide mission in the face of an invasion in large numbers as seen elsewhere in Europe. The welfare of the occupants did run to a Y shaped "ricochet wall" inside, preventing rounds entering the interior from bouncing around like.. well... the blade of a blender.

Inside the type 24 shell proof. Presumably the occupants sat of kneeled behind their weapons with a very restricted view through the "loophole".

The woods in which most of these boxes now sit are now mature beech woods and although many trees were lost in the gale of 1987 some older trees bear some interesting scars. I came across graffiti on two trees, some dating back to the 19th century and some dated 1940. Did these include the builders and likely inhabitants of the type 24s?

Beech Tree Graffiti. "1940" visible in the centre.

Amongst plenty of modern stuff (of interest to someone in the future...) there is what looks like "AG? 26 1877".

On the smaller far tree you can see "EA 1940"

By now, having dallied around the pill boxes, I was seriously behind schedule to avoid walking the last few miles in the dark. I was prepared, I had my head torch, but would rather not be benighted in the woods. However, I was now approaching the Denbie's wine estate, which I had no idea was so large. Turns out it is the largest wine growing estate in the UK according to the guidebook. I would tell you more but their website is malfunctioning at the moment so I can't. The wine estate sits just outside Dorking and I could see the church across the rows of vines in the valley.

Dorking on the opposite side of the valley which forms part of the largest vinyard in the UK

I arrived in Dorking just as darkness descended, waited half an hour for a train, joined the commuters at Waterloo again and got home at 1900, a long, but rewarding day.


*North Downs Way by Colin Saunders, Official National Trail Guide