# 🥾 Walk 349 - Guildford, Puttenham and Pilgrims Way
The weather forecast of rain for a good part of the ‘walking day’ did not deter Keith, Denise and new walker to the group, Julie, who joined Kathy and Ann for a 10½ mile walk from Shalford church in Guildford.
The rain was heavy at the start and I (Ann) set off at a quick pace, apparently it was the fastest I had been known to walk! I guess I did not want to hang around in the rain........ We made our way to the River Wey, going north from the church, before taking a path through some wooden gates to the river.
Crossing a wooden bridge we headed to St Catherine’s Lock and on into Arlington village, passing the very impressive sports facilities of the Surrey Police HQ. We passed Loseley Park where there was a ‘dog agility’ event taking place in the grounds. Loseley House is part made of stone from Waverley Abbey, with interior wood panelling thought to come from Henry VIII’s defunct Nonsuch Palace. The rain had almost stopped by this point making the walk much more enjoyable.
Heading to Little Polsted and passing Polsted Manor, we continued to the village of Compton, passing both Eastbury and Westbury Manor. After some field walking we crossed the A3, heading for Puttenham were we skirted a golf course before reaching a cricket pitch where we stopped for lunch. There was a small amount of rain at this point and we were lucky to be able to sit on a bench under the trees. In the same vicinity is Frowsbury hill, a bronze-age burial site where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert viewed the mounted troops in 1858.
We picked up the North Downs Way (NDW), also part of the Pilgrim’s Way (a historic route used by pilgrims from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury). We followed a footpath entering woods of mainly red oaks, passing a nature reserve belonging to Loseley Park. The track/tarmac drive took us under the A3 to an arch below the slip road where there were large wooden crosses marking the Pilgrims way running underneath. Reaching the outskirts of Compton we took a diversion to the Watts Gallery (George Frederick Watts; a Victorian painter of symbolic works) which also had a shop and café.
Leaving the gallery, we headed through West Warren, which is dominated by oak and beech trees, and into the woods of East Warren, leaving the NDW for a short time. After Piccards Farm we re-joined the NDW. We descended onto the Portsmouth Road in St Catherine’s, with the ‘Ye Old Ship Inn’ (dating from the time of the pilgrims in 1556). Leaving the main road we headed back to the River Wey, where there is a ‘spewing stream’ going under a tiny rock bridge, with a seat on the other side. After crossing the footbridge we made our way back through the playing field and back to the church in Shalford.
*Thanks to Ann and Kathy for leading the walk, for wrtiting it up and for providing the photos.*
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