Old Bexley to Petts Wood
Looking for a shortish Loop section to do in October as the daylight hours reduce and one which wasn’t too involved to get to and from by train I settled on this section through former-Kent. It’s mostly green with few road bits, follows a pleasant stretch of the River Cray for a while and later on is mostly in woodland. It was a very nice walk and that was helped no end by having picked a brilliantly sunny Friday on which to do it.
Section 2 starts right alongside Bexley railway station, up Tanyard Lane and through the arch under the Dartford Loop Line before emerging to run along the edges of first Burnt Ash Hockey Club and then Bexley Cricket Club.
Then it climbs gently up between the open fields of Upper College Farm, which is a landfill site in an old gravel working but you wouldn’t guess from looking at it. The cattle in the adjacent field were all lying down so obviously hadn’t got the memo about the weather forecast. Down the other side of the hill I took a left past Bexley Pumping Station into the woods to a narrow footbridge over the River Cray where I had to wait for the oncoming gaggle of schoolgirls armed with compasses, maps, and sheets of A4 and with “Sir” trailing along at the back. There were several of these groups out doing some sort of field work or map reading exercise and they couldn’t have picked a better day for it.
What followed next was a really pleasant walk alongside the clear flowing waters of the River Cray through Footscray Meadows, relatively peaceful save for the chattering of the schoolgirl groups, to Five Arch Bridge over which they passed leaving me to carry on to Pennyfarthing Bridge meeting only the occasional rambler or dog-walker. I’d have paused for a picnic lunch along here but the only benches were in the shade and therefore still too damp for comfort.
Crossing Pennytfarthing Bridge, so called because it has one large and one small arch over the River Cray, I passed All Saints Church and out onto the first significant bit of road walking of the section, through Foots Cray village centre. As I crossed the busy crossroads of the A211 and A224 roads in the middle of Foots Cray I got a phone call from an old work mate. I sat on a handy bench by the traffic lights to talk with him and congratulate him on his recent transfer into idle retirement and so that’s where I ended up having my picnic lunch. Not the most scenic spot but at least it was a dry comfortable seat. Fortified by ham sandwiches I continued through the streets of Foots Cray, now sans jumper as it was actually warm enough for shirt-sleeves, emerging onto the recreation ground and past Cray Wanderers FC then between some allotments and the backs of the houses to enter a small woodland. The path climbed through this to emerge into Sidcup Place park.
The way ahead to follow the Loop isn’t too clear on the ground at this point (it’s not the obvious path in the above photo) but it’s vaguely up, along the right hand side of the open space, trough the line of trees and then sort of head right-ish towards Sidcup Place house. If there are any Loop way marks here I didn’t see them which was actually unusual along this Section. Anyway I found the large London Loop Sidcup Place information sign and turned left then right to pass the grand house and walled gardens to reach the A222 Chislehurst Road.
A short way south along the Chislehurst Road lie the obstacles of Queen Mary’s Hospital, Frognal and the roaring A20 Sidcup Bypass trunk road. Fortunately here the way marking is good as the route makes it’s slightly tortuous way down ramps, up steps, over bridges etc. to get to the far side of the road to Dover but once across you reach Scadbury Nature Reserve and delve into Little Wood.
I continued through the woods making a short loop off the main route to see Scadbury Moated Manor House, seeing few other walkers and the odd
bear. Scadbury Manor goes back to the 13th century taking its name from the de Scathebury family who later sold it to the Walsinghams, wealthy London merchants close to the royal household. This is the Walsingham family which provided Henry VIII with a head gaoler and Elizabeth I with a spymaster. After the civil war they were a bit skint despite staying on the winning side and sold the estate on.
There’s a history of Scadbury here.
Crossing the busy A208 St. Paul’s Cray Road, not without some risk to life, I entered Petts Wood. Part of Petts Wood is owned by the National Trust and contains a couple of interesting memorials, the better of the two being the sundial memorial to Chislehurst builder William Willett who campaigned for the introduction of Daylight Saving hours, the idea having occurred to him while riding near Petts Wood on a summer morning in 1905 when he noticed how many of the window blinds and shutters were still closed well after sunrise. The sundial is “set” to GMT+1 (BST) and the Latin inscription translates as "The hours Do Not Count Except In The Summer” or “I only count the Summer hours” depending who you ask. Daylight savings was introduced in 1916 due to the need to save energy during the Great War but by then Willett had died of the flu.
The other memorial is to Colonel Francis Edlmann a former owner of the land who helped protect it from development and eventually led to it being sold to the NT by subsequent owners and namedas the Edlmann Memorial Wood. On the far side of the wood the Loop turns right alongside the Chatham Main Line railway before crossing the Kyd Brook on a wooden footbridge. The Kid Brook here being just a tiny stream running between the trees before ducking into a culvert under the railway.
Next follows a high footbridge accessed, slowly at this point, via many steps to cross the Chatham Main Line railway followed by another to cross the single track Chislehurst to St Mary Cray Line and then a little way into Towncourt Wood I came to the entrance to Jubilee Country Park and the end of Section 2.
London Loop Section 2 ✓
Another half a mile brought me to Petts Wood station, the train home and a welcome fish and chips supper.
