Walk Report

Fantasia on a Theme of Holmwood, Saturday 19th June 2021
13 walkers, 20.1 miles - leader Gavin Fuller
12 walkers joined the leader for the group's first-ever walk out of Holmwood station to explore the countryside south of the Surrey Hills. Unfortunately even on a previous recce'd route the first footpath went awry as to the correct way, necessitating an unscheduled climb over a fence, and this wasn't the only time the OS Map and reality still came into conflict during the route, despite the leader's best efforts to surmount the issues he'd already found; add in trees falling in the intervening time and plenty of cows present in fields they hadn't been previous and the risk assessment was pretty much null and void! Nevertheless all the group got round without undue mishap.
The morning session took in a couple of churches, Holmwood Common, a couple of gambolling deer, the Woodland Trust property of Hammond's Copse and a number of interesting old properties, before a late lunch at Ockley by the cricket pitch, where a match was in progress to add to the interest. More interesting properties and another cricket match were encountered in the afternoon, including Leith Hill Place, residence of Ralph Vaughan Williams (which inspired the title of the walk), as well as a colony of miniature frogs on one path before an ascent of the south face of Leith Hill to the tower, where unfortunately a long queue prevented people partaking of the teashop, as there was a train to catch. Something of a route march over the last hour of the walk meant that those needing the train arrived at the station just in time for the hourly train back to London.
Photographs by Gavin Fuller; more by Gavin on the group Facebook page.

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