41 miles (66Km) walked 1518m climbed

The Pilgrims Way follows a 850 year old route from Winchester to Canterbury with roots believed to stem from the fatal stabbing of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in 1170. The total length is 138 miles but even in the 21st century with SatNav it isn’t always easy to find the route so heaven knows how many extra miles our forefathers ended up doing. Our group has split it into sections three to four days segments. In 2024 the walkers covered 30 miles from Winchester to Alton (Hampshire), last year we walked 35 miles from Alton to Box Hill (nr Dorking) and this year segment was 41 miles from Box Hill to Wrotham in Kent.

Much of this section was quite remote and needed careful planning to identify start and end points each day with sufficient reliable parking on the route itself rather than the additional off-route walking to get to the towns or larger villages with plenty of parking. This also allowed us to equalise the daily mileage – they were almost identical each day.

Our schedule was:

Friday 24 April – Box Hill to Merstham station

Saturday 25 April – Merstham station to Gangers Hill

Sunday 26 April – Gangers Hill to Chevening Church

Monday 27 April – Chevening Church to Wrotham

This years intrepid walkers were Shirley, Sarah, Bernie, Sue and myself:

Day 1 : Box Hill to Merstham station : 16.7Km walked, 499m climbed.

Having driven down from Suffolk first thing today was not as leisurely as we would have liked and our walking was a little more ‘purposeful’ than we might have liked. The stepping stones across the River Mole were a quaint way to start although they diverted our attention from the hill that immediately followed. The route climbed and dropped along the North Downs crossing valleys offering vistas over the continually humming M25. The only village we came near to was Betchworth and we skirted the edge of Reigate and Redhill staying in the foothills of the North Downs.

Day 2 : Merstham station to Gangers Hill : 15.9Km walked, 386m climbed.

We had decided today would be more leisurely and include some culture to drown out the background noise of the M25, Gatwick Airport and mainline trains. Our cultural experience began in Merstham itself where we walked down Quality Street named after JM Barrie’s play of the same name and the frontage of one of the shops at the time was on the original tins of Mackintosh’s Quality Street chocolates launched in 1936 to coincide with the film of the play. Merstham Church was a stunning early stop:

Much of the route was again through relatively remote countryside providing both seclusion and views:

We made a very interesting detour to Chaldon and visited both there church which had a stunning mural depicting the Pilgrims story and shortly after a visit to the Harrow Inn which had memorabilia referencing its role as Home Guard headquarters during World War 2.

Day 3 : Gangers Hill to Chevening Church (St. Botolphs) : 16.8Km walked, 311m climbed.

Despite the distance this was a slightly easier day because there was a very long section of quiet road – about half the route – which made for relatively easy walking. There was still a couple of bracing climbs but plenty of interesting sights along the way such as Titsey Park and the point where we crossed the Greenwich Meridian – quite unassuming for such an important global marker:

Turn around and the M25 sits in the distance – it really is there! Promise!!

Chevening House is the country residence of the Foreign Secretary – most recently noted for David Lammy’s ill-feted fishing trip with US Vice President J.D. Vance. Nothing much to see as we passed through except for what Sarah and Sue adamantly believe to have been an MI5 agent checking us out although what they remembered was his cologne…..

Day 4 : St. Botolphs Church Chevening to Wrotham : 16.8Km walked, 322m climbed.

Despite the climbing involved today was overall the latest day with some relatively easy walking. Sadly for Sarah and Sue the musky MI5 agent was nowhere to be seen in Chevening so we advanced at speed through the delightful sunny countryside meandering between and around at various stages the M25, M26 and towards the end the M20. There were interesting routes under, over and along these busy 21st century ‘Ways’ that felt like we were in the wilderness but always with the background hum of traffic which thankfully some of us were able to block out.

It was all countryside except for a short section through Otford where we stopped for a coffee and a fabulous (for me!!) piece of brioche bread pudding which set us up for the only proper climb of the day which of course led to a memorable downhill to the last section of Pilgrims Way trackbed:

Finally we finished this year’s section in Wrotham and remarkably found ourselves starting to think about the next section – 46 miles for Wrotham into Canterbury and – if we time it well – a Pilgrims service in Canterbury Cathedral.

We had quite a trip – 66Km/41.4 miles walked and 1518m climbed which is higher than Ben Nevis. In the modern world of AI, smartphones and driverless taxis if you ever want a re-boot try a four day segment of the Pilgrims Way.