Balcombe to East Grinstead walk

This was a re-walk of this high quality 10.5 mile offering in The High Weald, last undertaken in November 2010. Today, the weather was initially overcast, but brightened up later on, though a chill northerly breeze persisted throughout.

Starting out from Balcombe station, the walker is in classic Wealden Wonderland almost immediately; lots of woodland, birdsong, meadows, bubbling gills and, of course, mud! There's also a lake, a seed bank, and a wonderfully located church for lunch (St Margaret's of Antioch).

Thereafter, there's more woodland, with sunken paths, a heritage railway line, another large reservoir and more mud before reaching the finale of East Grinstead.

A cracking walk, even on a greyish day, with some muddy paths (not as bad as they could be though!) and a bit of Gatwick air traffic after lunch.

Gentle wooded hills, Wakehurst Place Gardens (NT) and a reservoir

Wakehurst Place, Priest House & Weir Wood

Length: 17.2km (10.7 miles), 5 hours. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow at least 9 hours.

Toughness: 6 out of 10.

OS Maps: Explorer 135 or Landranger 187. Balcombe, map reference TQ 306 302, is in West Sussex, 7km south-east of Crawley.

Features

This walk has a fair number of relatively gentle uphills and downhills, but is well worth the effort.

It starts in the old village of Balcombe, passes Balcombe House, and then goes through the woods and by the lake of Balcombe Estate (which you can swim in), up to a farm that can be extremely muddy in wet weather, to reach the National Trust gardens and Tudor mansion at Wakehurst Place around mid-morning. Wakehurst has a manor house and large lanscaped gardens. Free entry for NT and RBS members, the flowers are best in spring.

This walk is covered by our Club's insurance. Our Club is registered on The British Mountaineering Council (BMC)

© Club Hiking in London. Ltd (CASC) in collaboration with Saturday Walkers Club.

#HikingUK #HikinginLondon #Balcombe

swcwalks book1 walk34

#swcwalks #book1 #walk34. Marek Larwood spends an early September day walking from Balcombe to East Grinstead via the Cat Inn in West Hoathly and the Standen Stones.

You can go on the walk here: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/balcombe-to-east-grinstead/index.html

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Music

Retreat - Jason Farnham Youtube Creator Studio

Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg

A 10.7 mile walk through the undulating hillsand woods of the High Weald in the West Sussex countryside. Part 1 takes the walker past the lake of the Balcombe Estate and on through woodsand meadows to the National Trust's Wakehurst Place. Lunch is at the second highest point in Sussex (183m), the village of West Hoathly.

After lunch at St Margaret's Church, the walk goes through Giffards Wood, crosses over the Bluebell Railway Line, then joins the Sussex Border Path to pass the climbing rocks at Stone Farm. Then, it's on past Weir Wood Reservoir and across meadows back to East Grinstead.