Edenbridge to Westerham Walk

Main walk: 17.8km (11 miles)

With shorter ending: 11.6km (7.2 miles)

Short cut to Emmetts Garden: saves 2.8km (1.7 miles)

Starting from Edenbridge Town: adds 1.8km (1.1 miles)

Starting from Hurst Green: adds 1km (0.6 miles)

Main walk: 8 out of 10: quite a few hills, some rather steep

Shorter ending: 4 out of 10: gentle gradients apart from a couple of short steep sections

Landranger 187 & 188, Explorer 147

When you see a view from a ridge, you do not usually know much about the countryside you are looking at. But on this walk, you start in the Eden valley and climb slowly and gently across fields up towards the Greensand Ridge, with increasingly pretty views. By the time you climb up onto the escarpment, in a series of delightful stages, the view has become a familiar friend.

In the Second World War, Winston Churchill is supposed to have looked at this very view and said: "This is what we are fighting for." Certainly, Chartwell, his house, which is passed on this walk and which is now owned by the National Trust, was his refuge and great love, though he had little enough opportunity to visit it during his time as wartime Prime Minister. This walk, with its short afternoon, is ideal if you want to visit this property.

The walk also takes in Emmetts Garden, another National Trust attraction, and offers a shortcut to this in the afternoon if you want to spend more time there. Emmetts also has a wonderful display of bluebells in late April and early May, but even better wild ones – some of the loveliest ones in southern England - are to be seen throughout the walk, particularly in the afternoon around Ide Hill, at the start of the optional Hurst Green start, and just beyond Mariner’s Hill on the Shorter Ending to Westerham.

If that is not enough, in the pretty town of Westerham you can also visit Quebec House (National Trust), a historic house associated with Wolfe, the youthful general who conquered the Canadian city for the British Empire.

Starting from Edenbridge Town station: Edenbridge has two stations on two different railway lines. This option starts from the other one and soon joins the main walk. It adds 1.8km (1.1 miles) to the walk length, so the distances to all lunch and tea options need to be increased by that amount.

Starting from Hurst Green: This attractive route starts at Hurst Green station and has some fine bluebell woods in its early stages. It later skirts along the bottom of the Greensand escarpment, then climbs up it, with panoramic views, to join the main walk route at Crockham Hill. It is 1km (0.6) miles longer than the main Edenbridge start, so the distances to all lunch and tea options given below need to be lengthened by that amount.

Shorter Ending from Chartwell to Westerham: This option takes you directly in 4.8km (3 miles) to Westerham, making a total walk of 11.6km (7.2 miles) from Edenbridge station, 13.4km (8.3 miles) from Edenbridge Town station, and 12.6km (7.8 miles) from Hurst Green. It is particularly useful if you want more time to visit Chartwell or Quebec House in Westerham.

The main walk starts from Edenbridge station on the Redhill to Tonbridge line. There is no longer a direct service to this station from London: you need change at Redhill - usually reached by a Thameslink train from St Pancras, Farringdon and London Bridge, though there also services from Victoria - or at Tonbridge - reached by a train from London Bridge or Charing Cross. Journey times are 55 minutes via Redhill and 1 hour 5 minutes via Tonbridge.

A quicker journey is from London Bridge to Edenbridge Town, for which there is an hourly direct train taking 38 minutes (at least Monday to Saturday: on Sundays a change at Oxted is needed and journey times are longer). This is an alternative start for this walk, but arguably a less scenic one, and adds 1.8km (1.1 miles) to its length.

Hurst Green, another alternative start, is the stop after Oxted and has two trains an hour from Victoria taking 44 minutes and one an hour from London Bridge taking 31 minutes.

For all the starts, catch the first train from London after 10am to get to lunch at Crookham Hill or Chartwell in time, or the first train after 9am if aiming for lunch at the Cock Inn in Ide Hill.

Buy a day return to "Edenbridge Stations". This will cover your outward journey to any of the walk starting points and should also be OK for the journey from Bromley South to Victoria on the return (see next paragraph), since trains from Bromley South go to Sevenoaks, which is on the way to Tonbridge, which is one of the two possible routes to Edenbridge. It is also valid for returning from Oxted to London if you take the bus to there from Westerham (see below), and for starting from Hurst Green. (In the latter case, you could just buy a Hurst Green return if you were absolutely sure of getting the bus from Westerham to Oxted, but it would not be a huge saving.)

Returning from Westerham you can get the 246 bus to Bromley South station (about 40 minutes), from where there are fast trains (taking about 20 minutes) to Victoria. This is a Transport for London service, running at least hourly (and often twice an hour) till late, and has standard TfL bus fares. You can pay with an Oyster card, contactless or use TFL travelcards or passes.

The 246 also calls at Hayes station about 15 minutes before Bromley South: from here there are up to four trains an hour to London Bridge (journey time 36 minutes) and Charing Cross. On Sundays when the house is open, the 246 also serves Chartwell hourly until around 5pm.

On Mondays to Saturdays there are also 594/595 buses from Westerham to Oxted railway station, leaving approximately every two hours. There is usually a bus around 5pm, but check the latest times on journey planners. On Mondays to Fridays there is currently (January 2025) a later bus at 7.15pm. There is also a four times a day bus Mondays to Fridays, the 236, that goes to Oxted one way and Edenbridge the other: again one departure is about 5pm. A day return to "Edenbridge Stations" or to Hurst Green will be valid for your return train travel back from Oxted to London.

In addition, there is a bus, the number 1, to Sevenoaks Mondays to Fridays, but the last bus is currently 4.30pm. An Edenbridge Stations ticket (or one just to Edenbridge, but probably not one just to Edenbridge Town) would also be valid via Sevenoaks.

The Royal Oak in Crockham Hill (01732 866 335), 4.7km (2.9 miles) into the walk, is a small pub (booking very much advised) that serves lunch from 12pm to 1.45pm ("last reservations") Thursday to Saturday and to 3.45pm on Sundays. It is open for drinks all afternoon at the weekend and until 2.30pm (and from 6pm) Thursday to Friday, but closed completely Monday to Wednesdays. In January 2025 it was also advertising a bar snack option of a bacon roll or fish finger sandwich that was available outside normal meal times.

Chartwell, 6.8km (4.2 miles) into the walk, has a National Trust-run self-service tea room and restaurant, which can be reached without going into the house. It does two or three hot food options (not in the most massive portions) every lunchtime from 12 to 3pm. It is open for tea until 5pm. It is open year around, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The Cock Inn in Ide Hill (01732 750 310), 11.9km (7.4 miles) into the walk, serves food till 12-3pm and 5-8pm Monday to Saturday and 12-4pm on Sunday. It has some outside tables, looking onto the village green.

Emmetts Garden, 13.7km (8.5 miles) into the walk, or 10.9km (6.8 miles) via the short cut in paragraph 122 of the walk directions, has a National Trust tea room. It is open till 5pm daily from mid March to the end of October and till 4pm in November and December.

In Westerham the Tudor Rose Tearooms are only open until 4pm Monday to Friday and 4.30pm weekends, but on the left-hand edge of the green there is a Costa Coffee open till 5pm daily. Between the two is the Grasshopper on the Green pub. Westerham village centre also has other pubs, including the Kings Arms.

A excellent picnic place with fine views is the benches on Mariners Hill near Chartwell, situated on both the main walk and the afternoon of the shorter ending. There are also various other very scenic spots just after Crookham Hill and around Ide Hill.

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Jan-25 Peter