- Start: The Angel Posting House, Guildford, Surrey
- End: Denbies Vineyard, Dorking, Surrey
- Distance: 23.24 km
- Time: 08 hours 48 minutes 01 seconds
The last two days could be fairly described as ‘rolling’ in terms of gradient, today however we moved towards the Surrey hills and so face a little bit more of a challenge.
Leaving Guildford this morning, after a swift breakfast of pastries and coffee in Ole and Steen,
we knew that we were in for a slightly harder day. Not just because there were a couple of significant hills, but also because it was likely to be the hottest day of the trip, potentially in the late 20 degrees centigrade.
As we left Guildford we had a lovely view of the ruined St Catherine’s chapel up on the hill.
This was a popular stop off point for Pilgrims despite the climb, but was abandoned and ruined during the Reformation. I had read that Turner had sketched the chapel, but imagined that the view I had seen, bucolic landscapes with livestock etc, would have been what attracted him to this place. Hence, I was surprised to discover what he actually drew!
Clearly, Guildford was a slightly less salubrious place in 1832!
Shortly after leaving Guildford, we entered the lovely Chantry woods,
and then commenced our first climb to the to the top of St Martha’s Hill. Here there was a pretty little church with amazing views across 7 counties, well worth the climb!
Descending, with some great views of the North Downs to our left,
we entered Shere in time for lunch.
Shere has been called the ‘ prettiest village in England’ and certainly on a sunny bank holiday there were lots of people investigating whether that was the case!
We were very fortunate to secure a table at the busy Dabbling Duck cafe for a perfectly acceptable panini, which unsurprisingly took quite some time to arrive.
Before we left Shere we made the obligatory visit to the ‘pretty’ village church.
The most intriguing thing about the church of St James was the Anchorite Christine Carpenter, who was confined to a cell behind this clover leaf window in the 14th Century.
No-one is sure why Anchorites chose to be confined, though it is likely that having a resident Anchorite improved your status in the eyes of Pilgrims and locals alike!
After lunch we continued on our way through some more attractive woodland until we reached the village of Abinger Hammer, apparently so named after a hammer installed at a local iron mill in 1557, it must have been very impressive to change the name of the whole village! The village clock celebrated this connection by having a model blacksmith ring the bell for the hour. We arrived just before 3 pm to shoot this video.
After this, we started the longer climb of the day up to Blatchford Down with amazing views across the North Downs.
What became increasingly clear as we walked along the ridge was that this was considered the front line protecting London in WWII, in the event of invasion from the South Coast. There were pill boxes at regular intervals and this whole ridge would have been alive with the Home Guard between 1939 and 1945. How effective it would have been we will never know.
Finally, we arrived on the outskirts of the Denbies Estate. The Estate was purchased in the 1850’s by the builder Thomas Cubitt, who apparently also built most of Pimlico. His son George made a great many ‘improvements’, rebuilding the main house to emulate Osbourne house on the Isle of Wight ( probably to flatter Prince Albert) and getting George Gilbert Scott to design the church. The house was demolished in 1953 but the church still stands.
The Denbies Estate is now England’s largest vineyard and includes a lovely hotel nestling amongst the vines, which is where we are spending the night.
We were welcomed with a complimentary glass of white wine and followed that up with a lovely meal in the Vineyard Restaurant.
Craig had the burrata and tomato salad followed by a definitely above average burger.
Whilst I had the mackerel rillette and a lovely steak.
All washed down with plentiful amounts of Denbies wine, naturally 😊
Denbies conduct vineyard tours, wine tastings and wine enthusiast workshops, which sadly we won’t have time to experience! But it is a lovely place and would be a great weekend trip.
Tomorrow we have a lighter day, ahead of our ‘Queen’s stage’ on Wednesday. So, we are going to Reigate Hill, only some 15 minutes in the car, but on ‘Shank’s Pony’ likely to take 3-4 hours. Should be fun!
