Greensand Way 10 : Pluckley to Ashford walk

16.4 km (10.2 mi) with 152 metres of ascent

25.8 km (16.0 mi) if you continue on the next stage to finish the Greensand Way in Ham Street

This is the 10th stage of the Greensand Way - from Pluckley to Ashford

The route starts along a link route through pastures to Pluckley village, where you pick up the Greensand Way proper. You then pass through a sequence of orchards to Little Chart and continue through a variety of interesting and pretty landscapes, from pastures, woods, commons and bogs to the very large Godinton Park Estate to Great Chart. The walk finishes with an acceptable urban stretch along another link route into Ashford's centre, following the Stour Valley Walk, largely through parks and along the Great Stour river, to Ashford International station.

You could combine this stage with the next one, and walk all the way to Ham Street to finish the Greensand Way. This avoids a 3.9 km spur each way to/from Ashford Station, but makes it a 26.5 km (16.5 mi) walk.

Catch a direct train to Pluckley. Buy a day return to Ashford International. Pluckley is 1 stop before Ashford.

Ham Option: Buy a ticket to Ham, which is 1 stop beyond Ashford International.

• Dering Arms, at the very start, by Pluckley station.
• Black Horse, Pluckley, Currently closed. [2.4 km]
• Swan Inn, TN27 0QB, in Little Chart. [4.5 km]
• Swan and Dog, in Great Chart, TN23 3AN. By the point where you turn left for Ashford station, or right to continue along the Greensand Way all the way to Ham Street. [12.7 km]
• Curious Brewery, right by Ashford International station. Curious indeed, the beer and cider making arm of the Chapel Down winery, in a modern industrial building, food and drink served Thu/Fri evening, Sat all day and Sun to 18.00 hours, with views over the brewery hall!
• On the other side of the station is the Everest Inn (Nepalese restaurant with outside tables) and some takeaways.

• Surrey Council have several leaflets of the Surrey (west) part of the route with OS mapping and directions (but not accomodation or public transport information) available from their website
• Kent Council also have leaflets of the Surrey section, but not, oddly, of the Kent section [Aug-23]
• The original guidebook to the walk is long out of print and hard to get. It did have OS mapping (with the contours removed!). In any case, the route has had many small changes in the meantime.

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

Dec-20 Andrew