Coulsdon South to Banstead Downs
In spite of GWR’s best efforts (cancel trains, don’t put the trains on the departure boards, change the stops the trains stop at, reinstate trains but on no account tell the passengers what is happening and don’t answer the phone!) I managed to get to Coulsdon South station at about twenty to eleven in the morning on Bank Holiday Monday 26th August ready to tackle Section 6 of the London Loop.
The sun even came out, on a Bank Holiday! My walk started by passing under the railway and road bridges and then climbing through residential streets on what seemed an ever upward trek without an apparent top. On the way I passed over the Tattenham Corner Line as a Southern train passed under the bridge which was good timing.
I continued to climb, passing into the London Borough of Sutton before leaving the roadside verge down a sunken bridleway which had a half-hidden cast iron boundary marker for the former Carshalton Urban District Council part way down the hill. The bridleway climbed to a small rise near some paddocks with a comprehensive selection of “No” signs and CCTV cameras. This spot afforded some distant views of London's towers, cranes, and the Wembley Stadium arch just about visible through the haze. A few yards further on I spotted the two radio masts of Crytal Palace over the treetops and the Woodcote Smallholdings, built for soldiers returning from the Great War.
The Loop turns south west through the open space of Carshalton Road Pastures before crossing Carshalton Road and turning north to cross the famous Mayfield Lavender Fields.
The path runs through the middle of the lavender fields which the farm makes a good deal from not only growing the plants but by charging people to come and look at them. By this time of year the blooms are well past their best though. At the far side of the field I waited for a couple to cross the stile who were stopped in their tracks by a sign saying there was a £5 entry charge. Nice try, it’s a public right of way. I wonder how many they catch with that? There’s no sign at the other side of the field where I came in. Here’s a photo because they also have a sign up claiming that you need their permission to take photos too.
I crossed Carshalton Road into the rather more welcoming and much more attractive space of Oaks Park. The park was laid out in the 1770s by the Earl of Derby as the gardens of his house there. The park has been much modified since as was the house before it was demolished in the 1950s leaving only some of the outbuildings and stables. The Oaks estate lent its name to the horse race started by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1779 and run annually at the Derby meeting at nearby Epsom Racecourse. According to legend, as recounted on an information board in the park, Lord Derby and Lord Bunbury tossed a coin to decide which would get to name another race, Derby won the toss else we might have had the Epsom Bunbury, and by extension the Kentucky Bunbury races. It’s a very pleasant park with a number of separate spaces, ideal to stop and eat your picnic lunch whilst walking section 6 of the Loop. So I did.
Fortified with cheese and ham sandwiches I resumed my walk along a wiggly path through the trees out onto a track, Fairlawn Road and then left onto a narrower path called Freedown Lane which passed a new development site and led up past HM Prison Highdown, glimpsed through the trees lining the path. Lining the other side of the path were many patches of brambles so my now empty sandwich box was soon filled with blackberries instead. The crumble will be worth the pricked fingers 😀
At the end of Freetown lane I crossed Sutton Lane onto Banstead Down. The rest of Section 6 runs across the down and its huge golf course. I had expected this to be busy with it being a Bank Holiday Monday but it was almost empty. Perhaps the members of Banstead Downs Golf Club mainly play on “work” days?
Running through the middle of the course and across the Loop is the most substantial obstacle on this section, the “Mad Mile” of the A217 Brighton Road, a fast dual carriageway without a controlled pedestrian crossing of a footbridge. I had to wait for several minutes before a gap in the speeding traffic long enough to get across occurred. There appears to be no suitable alternative route to avoid taking your life in your hands else I’m sure the Loop would take it.
Once across the road there’s just one more fairway to cross - also deserted at the time - before reaching the end of Section 6 in the woods at a fingerpost that marks the start of Section 7 and it also points the way to Banstead Station for those calling it a day here.
It was 1320 and I wasn’t stopping yet, planning to complete Section 7 to Ewell from where I had a ticket to get the train home. I pressed on to further “adventures”.
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