🥾 Walk 95 - Tilford, Crooksbury Hill and Waverley Abbey

On Saturday 29th March, the picturesque village green at Tilford in Surrey was the starting point for a very sunny and pleasantly warm (15°C) walk for fifteen ramblers, fourteen of whom were regulars with Berkshire Weekend Walkers and one of whom was a visitor from another group who lived locally.

Although the forecast promised uninterrupted sun for the rest of the day, some of us still packed fleeces and waterproofs in addition to sun glasses and sun hats, not quite trusting the good old British weather.

Leaving Tilford, we crossed over the River Wey before heading north east along well marked footpaths towards Crooksbury Common. The first part of the walk was a very gentle and steady ascent through beautiful coniferous woodland.

The ascent to the top of Crooksbury Hill was somewhat steeper, but we were rewarded with wonderful views over southwest Surrey, east Hampshire and across to the South Downs when we reached the top and this was to be a very pleasant location for our picnic lunch today.

After descending Crooksbury Hill, our next stop was for refreshments at the Barley Mow pub in The Sands, where we enjoyed sitting outside in their garden and basking in the glorious sunshine.

From the pub, we then walked north-west along a short stretch of road to meet up with the North Downs Way. We followed this path through the lovely nature reserve at Runfold Wood and beyond until it crossed another long distance path, the Greensand Way. Here, the Greensand Way follows the meandering River Wey, which surprisingly still showed signs of flooding from several weeks earlier.

The path also passes Mother Ludlam’s Cave, a small cave naturally carved out of the sandstone cliff by a spring and which is the subject of a number of fascinating local legends involving a white witch and her cauldron! Along both paths, there were several very informative boards telling us more about this very attractive area and the local wildlife and vegetation.

Before heading south back to Tilford, we made a small detour to visit the remains of the church and monastic buildings at Waverley Abbey, passing the elegant Georgian Waverley Abbey House on our way.

The abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 and the group spent some time exploring the site and appreciating the scale of the ruins, particularly enjoying the vaulted ceiling of the lay brothers’ refectory.

On arriving back in Tilford, most of us couldn’t resist further refreshment at our second Barley Mow pub of the day, sitting outside in the sunshine on the edge of this very quintessentially English village green. This added the finishing touch to a very enjoyable 9 mile walk!

Thanks to Sue for leading this walk and providing the write-up.

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