Guildford to Gomshall walk

Guildford to Gomshall

Distance: 8.1 miles.
Time without long breaks: Apx 4 1/2 hrs.

Terrain: Mostly easy, though a few climbs and one tricky path.
How to get there and back: Train to Guildford, return from Gomshall
(buy a return to Guildford, then a single from Gomshall to Guildford).
Pub breaks: All the pubs are located towards the end of the walk. Shere has The White Horse and The Bray, while Gomshall has the Compasses (the Gomshall Mill has sadly closed).
More information: Trains from Gomshall to Guildford can be infrequent. An alternative route is to go via Dorking or Redhill instead.

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One of the shorter walks on the site, this is an easy excursion from London for anyone who wants to escape the city for a day. Following part of the North Downs Way, it includes great views of the Surrey countryside, verdant woodlands and nature reserves, a beautiful country church and a site of ancient legend – the Silent Pool (see below). The final section includes the historic village of Shere. The walk ends at a pub a short distance from Gomshall station, which has trains back to Guildford.

Exit Guildford station and walk towards the town centre, going down Bridge Street and over the river. Cross the road and walk along the side the Friary Shopping Centre. Then cross over into pedestrianised Friary Street. This will take you to the bottom of the High Street. From here take a right into Quarry Street and then a left by the Kings Head pub down narrow Castle Street. On your right is one of the entrances to 11th-century Guildford Castle. This fortification was built following the Norman invasion and was mainly used as a royal residence. The castle and its manicured grounds and gardens are free to wander around.

Just along from the viewing post. you will come to a junction of paths by a line of bushes. Take the one furthest on the right, passing a green bench. Walk down this chalk path, with the bushes on your left, until it enters the wood. When you reach a T-junction of paths turn left. Passing a footpath post where a track merges from the left, you exit the woods and head down a long straight path with open fields either side. This track is Mile Path and is part of a route called the Scholar's Way. The path leads towards the edge of some woods in The Chantries. Ahead of you, you will see a pictorial information board depicting local wildlife.

Located in a beautiful spot with views towards the Surrey Hills and Chilworth Manor below, this is a tranquil place to take a break. The church was built on the site of a 12th-century building and includes a memorial to the singer and actress Yvonne Arnaud. It featured briefly in the 1944 Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale. Neolithic artefacts have been found on St Martha's Hill, which forms part of the Greensand Ridge (as you might guess from the sandy soil). Leave the church by the gate on the eastern side of the churchyard to continue along the North Downs Way.

If you take the castellated tunnel exit on the other side of the ruins and then turn left up some steps you will come out at a bowling green. Exit via the gate to your left, by the Mad Hare pub. Turn right here into South Hill and then immediately left up Pewley Hill, which is quite a steep climb. Towards the brow of the hill on the left there is a converted Admiralty semaphore station. When the houses end, the road leads to open countryside and the Pewley Down nature reserve. Follow the tracks across the top, with fine views across the Weald and the Downs to your right. You will soon spot a memorial plinth and toposcope on your right-hand side, displaying sightlines to the visible landmarks.

Rather than turn left or right, take the path straight ahead, into the woods. After about 250m, the North Downs Way (here following the route of the old Pilgrims Way, which ran from Winchester to Canterbury) merges from the right. Just after this, the track comes out at Halfpenny Lane. Turn left into the lane and then turn right by the entrance to a house to continue along the North Downs Way. Go past a fire gate and walk up the broad sandy track. Keep going straight ahead following the waymarkers for the NDW. You will soon come to the church of St Martha's-on-the-Hill.

Go through the wooden gate on your left and turn right up the path following the sign. Keep going along this footpath, which runs parallel to the lane, until you eventually reach a set of steps on your right which lead back down to the road. Cross over and carry on up the track opposite through the woods. Ignore the path that heads into the bushes to your right, but follow the track around to the left, which leads to a wooden signpost for the North Downs Way. This is Albury Downs. Head across the field via the broad grassy track with far-reaching views to the south (or follow the higher path). Shortly after passing a secluded bench in the bushes on your left (a good spot to have a rest), the path turns uphill into an open space with benches and a car park beyond.

In the woods to your left is The Silent Pool and the adjacent Sherborne Pond. There is a track that goes down steps to reach the shoreline, or just turn inland along the path that runs between the two lakes. The Silent Pool (the northern lake) has long been a focus of local folklore (see below). It used to be a very serene spot, and was previously managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust, but the tranquillity has been spoilt somewhat in recent years by the addition of a bar for the distillery next door which now overlooks the pool (not sure how they managed to get planning permission for that!). It now seems impossible to walk around it too, and the old wooden bridge has gone. Our advice is to visit at a quiet time, when it can be best appreciated.

When you come to a fork of tracks, take the one on the right, down a rocky path. This comes out at another fork. Here, take the left-hand track which then goes through a gap in some wooden railings. Keep straight ahead along this wide track until you come to a signpost which indicates that the North Downs Way branches off to the left (if you reach a war-time pill box on your left and a stone marker for the Downs Link on your right, you have gone too far). Follow the NDW through the woods, ignoring any tracks that turn off, until you reach a house on the left at a junction of lanes.

Just before the first bench on the right, turn right past a tree to take a winding path through the bushes. You come to a wooden signpost near to the A25 road at Newlands Corner. Turn right, as indicated, for the North Downs Way and then cross over the busy road to continue along the NDW on the opposite side (there is a cafe and restaurant with toilets up to your left if you need them). Keep walking along the track through the woods. After about a mile, you will come to a junction of four paths and a wooden sign. Turn right here, heading southwards down a bridleway, part of the Fox Way. This rocky track can a bit tricky to negotiate in places. After about 500m down the path you will see a vineyard to your right.

From the pool, walk down to the A25, turn left and go along the pavement parallel to the main road. Cross at the junction via the traffic island and continue along the path that runs southwards to the left of Sherbourne Road. After 100m turn left by a pillar box, following the sign, and proceed up the track past the large and ornately-designed Sherbourne Catholic Church. This is still Fox Way. Go straight across the field with the church behind you. Keep left of the trees and fence ahead and go through a small metal swing gate into Silver Wood. Exit the wood via a metal gate on your left into a field. Follow the edge of the field, crossing over a driveway and then going through a metal gate into trees.

You emerge at a lane in Shere, an old smuggling haunt and one of Surrey's most picturesque villages. Cross straight over and continue along a path with a brick wall on the right. This comes out at Rectory Lane. Turn right and follow the road down. At the bottom, there is a ford which is crossable via a wooden bridge when flooded. Turn left to head along Lower Street, which runs parallel to the River Tillingbourne. There are two pubs here within a few yards of each other – The White Horse and The William Bray – as well as cafes and tea rooms. Head down Church Lane. When you reach the church, carry on straight ahead through the small wooden gate to the right, at the junction with Church Hill.

After 150m you reach a crossroads of tracks. Turn left and follow the path, with views of Shere church behind you. The path runs between trees along the edges of fields before emerging at Gravel Pits Lane in the village of Gomshall. Turn left and walk up the lane until it comes out by a road junction. Take a left at the junction into High View, passing a bus shelter. Follow the road round, ignoring the railway arch on the right, into Goose Green. At the top of the lane you remeet the River Tillingbourne. There used to be two pubs here – The Compasses and the Gomshall Mill – although the latter has recently closed. Gomshall station is 500m from here (about a six-minute walk). Turn right along the main road and then left into Station Approach.

According to legend, the Silent Pool at Albury is haunted by the ghost of a woodcutter's daughter who drowned there in the 13th century. She was driven into deep water while trying to protect her modesty from King John, who had noticed her bathing naked in the pool while riding past. The story seems to originate from a novel written in 1858 called Stephan Langton: or The Days of King John by Martin Tupper (Stephan Langton was the Archbishop of Canterbury. There is a pub named after him in the Surrey village of Friday Street – see walk 7). This hasn't prevented the tale entering local lore, however, and it was featured in the popular 1970s Reader's Digest compendium Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain (see illustration). Perhaps Tupper based his story on local hearsay, although it seems unlikely.

It is not the only enigma associated with the pool. In 1926, it was trawled by police who were searching for the body of Agatha Christie. The whodunnit author, then aged 36, had gone missing from her home after discovering her husband was having an affair. Her car had been found parked nearby, on the edge of a steep quarry at Newlands Corner. The headlamps were still on and her fur coat and driving licence were found inside. But there was no sign of Christie and this sparked a huge manhunt, involving 15,000 volunteers, which made international headlines. The writer turned up at a Yorkshire hotel 11 days later, booking in under the surname of her husband's mistress. She was accused of a publicity stunt or staging the events to spite her husband, but claimed amnesia. The historian Lucy Worsley believes she was suffering from a state of fugue brought on by depression. No-one can be certain of the true story, however, and it remains the one Agatha Christie mystery that has never been solved. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Guildford to Gomshall

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Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond