Staffhurst Wood 06 May 2000

Bluebells don't have much of a scent, but when you come across them in such abundance, their delicate perfume becomes all pervasive. The bluebells here used to be at their best around the 6th May, but global warming appears to have brought them forward a week or so. Come a week later or two weeks earlier and you will miss the bluebells at their peak of perfection in the woods.

I don't think any of us had seen such a dense carpet of bluebells anywhere before.

A gallery of Staffhurst bluebells.

There are other flowers to enjoy on this walk, including some tall campions, another flower none of us could identify, lady's mantle and primroses.

Tom and Jo joined us from Scotland for a week in the congested South. As they like good food and good beer, we took them to the Royal Oak pub for a continental style lunch of snails, quiche and grilled goats cheese. The Adnams bitter is excellent. Sitting in the garden overlooking farmland, we had a rare continental sunny day. Latest update - July 2002: The French owners have moved back to France and sadly, the food has lost it's continental quality and prices are higher, but the beer is still very good.

The Royal Oak, Staffhurst Wood.  View of the rear of the Royal Oak.

There were a few people in the woods come to view the bluebells, but there were more folk in the pub, so it did not seem too busy. Further along the walk, we hardly met anyone. I think Tom and Jo were half expecting to be tripping over the world, his wife and her dog all along the way.

Black Robin's farm has some lovely buildings with a pond and traditional strains of poultry roaming about, perhaps more of a decorative effect, but a welcome sight nevertheless.

Black Robin's Farmhouse.

It was very hot and peacefully idyllic. There was no rush to get anywhere and we dawdled along, luxuriating in the sun and natural beauty surrounding us.

Willow lined stream

By the pond mentioned in paragraph 33 below, Tom spotted a pristine flower which looked as if it belonged in an alpine meadow. If anyone can identify it, drop me a line.

The unidentified flower.     Buttercup meadow

In the late afternoon, we emerged from a quiet grassy ride to cross a road. Before we did so, we heard a strange puffing noise coming towards us. It sounded like a steam train. A few seconds later we could indeed see steam shooting upwards in short bursts and coming up the hill.

Next, a strange looking lorry appeared and chugged along the road towards us. It was highly decorated and there was the driver and his mate dressed in the right accoutrements for the job. The mate waved with all the theatricality of a model train driver and the driver gave us a couple of blasts on his whistle. Like big kids, we waved back, truly delighted. It was a wonderfully nostalgic touch to the day and their timing was perfect.

     The steam lorry.

As I have said before, if you don't get out of the house and out of the car, you won't know what you are missing. You have to be there to experience it.

The Route:

Map: Ordnance Survey 147

Distance: 6 miles

Start: Royal Oak pub, Staffhurst Wood. Leave Limpsfield along Red Lane and turn right at major junction.

Map Ref: TQ487405

1. Leave the Royal Oak Inn and turn left along the road. After about 30 metres, turn left into a gateway and cross a stile into the field.
2. Turn left again and follow the field edge back towards the pub. When you reach the point below the pub, follow the boundary as it bends right, turning away from the pub.
3. At the top of the path, climb over a green gate in front and head roughly half left towards a stile by a water trough and another green gate, behind which you can see a building with a sharply gabled roof. Cross over the stile and keep ahead.
4. After crossing this rough meadow in an easterly direction, go over another stile into a small wood. Follow the well-defined path to a road. Cross the road, and turn right along it for 10 paces, before turning left into a public footpath into the wood.
5. About 80 metres into the wood, turn right along a broad path through a horse barrier. You should see a small pond beneath on your left.
6. When the track divides, keep to the right hand track. As the path goes downhill, you come to a junction. You will see a waymarker post with a green band around it. Turn right here. You should be going slightly downhill here.
7. Shortly, you will come to a broad crossing path. Cross straight over and continue in the same direction.
8. As you follow this main path, you cross a wooden footbridge with a yellow arrow on it’s right. Once over the footbridge, look for a narrow track on your left. Take this narrow track, leaving the main track.
9. About 30 paces on, cross a bridge made of three wooden sleepers, and then over a stile into field.
10. Keeping to the right hand fence, head to a gate opposite. Cross another sleeper bridge into a wood.
11. Follow this broad path for about 200 metres through the wood.
12. At the end of the track, cross a stile to the right of a rusty metal gate and then turn left along the broad grassy ride.
13. This soon takes you to a lane. Cross into the lane and tun right, passing Black Robins Farm. About 30 paces from the farmhouse, a wooden finger-post points the way left onto a footpath. Almost immediately after, aim to the right of a pond and an opening into a field.
14. Head half left, keeping the pond to your left and aim for another gap in the fence ahead.
15. Once through the gap, follow a sheep track towards the far right corner of the field. Nearer the corner, aim for the second telegraph post into the field. Beyond that you will see a stile which leads you up the steep railway embankment on wooden steps.
16. Cross the rails with care and down the long flight of steps to another field. From there, aim half left to a gateway in the far corner. Cross a stile onto a lane and turn right for 5 paces. Next turn left over a footbridge and follow the stream, keeping it to your left.
17. At the end of this paddock, cross over a stile and continue ahead. At the next stile, cross over and over a plank bridge and keep ahead in this little meadow.
18. When you reach the end where there is just a hedge before you, turn right along this long narrow paddock.
19. Just as the fence on your left curves round to the left, continue ahead. You will find a tiny gap in the hedge. Go through the gap and cross a double wooden sleeper bridge into the next field.
20. Continue in the same direction, keeping the hedge to your left. When you reach the end, go through another gap and a stile, footbridge and another stile into the next field.
21. About 8 metres to the right of the left corner of the field, go over a stile by a gate.
22. The next stile is about 20 metres to the right of the far left-hand fence by a glass gazebo. An enclosed track here takes you onto a road.
23. Cross the road into a farm drive and continue ahead.
24. Just after the first set of farm buildings, turn right into a farm yard. Then take the first left and then take the first opening on the right.
25. Emerging from here, join a farm track going left, past what look like large wooden chicken sheds.
26. Follow the track as it turns right downhill and takes you into a field below. After crossing into this field, aim half left across it. You should see a pond to your left at the end of the field. About 30 paces to the right of the pond, go through a rusty gate into the next field.
27. Head to the left corner of a copse, hedged in before you. As you bypass the copse, you should see a pond within it, to your right.
28. Continue ahead to a gateway about 30 metres from the far left hand corner of the field. There is a big metal creep feeder just beyond it. Keep ahead here, with the hedge to your right.
29. At the bottom, go over a wooden gateway and then over a footbridge. Continue ahead after the footbridge, keeping the fence to your right. Cross another stile and keep going ahead.
30. Soon, you go through a kissing gate on the right. Keep to the left hand fence. Don't be tempted to walk along the nicely mown grass strip running parallel to your right. This is a private airstrip and you might just end up as fertiliser.
31. Just behind the tennis court, turn left between two wooden fences, and then as it bends right, follow the footpath alongside a long brick shed and a green corrugated iron building.
32. Go over a stile beyond the shed and continue into the field with the hedge to your left.
33. Just past a gateway on your left, make a detour slightly to the right to go around the pond before you and then resume your way downhill, still with the hedge to your left.
34. Cross a stile in the bottom left hand corner of the field into a road and turn right to cross over a bile (Louise charitably called it lime green) coloured bridge.
35. Follow the road under the railway bridge, and just beyond that, follow a footpath sign to the right into a field.
36. Turn left in the field and follow it's boundary as it curves to the right. Three quarters up the field, go through a green metal gate on your left and enter an enclosed wide grassy track.
37. At the end of this long charming track, cross over a stile and continue ahead, passing to the left of a barn and then some farm houses and an old oak barn to your left, before reaching the road.
38. Cross a stile to the road and then cross the road. Just to the left is a tiny path into the wood, which takes you to a main track after about 30 metres.
39. At this point, turn left along the main path. This takes you back to point 5, with the small pond now on your right.
40. Turn left when you reach the main track and head back to the road. Cross over and turn right for 10 paces before entering the small wood again over the stile.
41. Go through the wood and over another stile into the rough meadow. Cross it heading West.
42. Over the next stile, head half right towards the green gate. Cross that and you are in the field above the Royal Oak. Retrace your footsteps from here to the pub.