Tunbridge Wells Circular -1

10th September 2012 - Tunbridge Wells Circular leg-1

The Tunbridge Wells circular walk is a 26 mile walk through the High Weald countryside that surrounds Tunbridge Wells and we found it to be a wonderful path through some terrific and varied countryside. As its name suggests its a circular path typically running 4 to 5 miles radius from the centre of Tunbridge Wells and it happens to pass Richard House! We decided to complete the walk in two "halves" of about 13 miles each (but somehow it turned out to be 14.5!).

The weather forecast for the day was dry with initial cloud cover but due to break around lunchtime into sunny spells and that is exactly what it did.

The cricket green at Southborough, one of the UK's earliest Cricket Grounds. Southborough was for many years the centre of Cricket Ball Manufacturing and well over 100 small cottage factories produced hand sown cricket balls in the village. See...
http://southboroughcc.hitssports.com/pages/page_4777/history.aspx

We set out at 9-30 and walked anti-clockwise through Southborough woods and out to Langton Green. In places this path merged with the Wealdway we had walked a few months back.

We passed the "George and Dragon" in Speldhurst far too early for a stop and the path by-passed "The Hare" at Langton Green so we stretched out heading for Groombridge. Generally the path was well "Way Marked" but every so often a sign was missing and we had to revert to map reading (and swearing!)

"The Crown" at Groombridge was our chosen refreshment stop today and very nice it was too.

 Below the very pretty green outside the Pub.

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Fed and watered we set forth with the path taking us through Groombridge Place, a very posh country house.

After a short detour as we missed a turn-off on the path we headed out of Groombridge and on towards an area on the map called Harrison Rocks.

We spent some time looking for Harrison to see if he really did "Rock" but eventually came to the conclusion he had moved on leaving this wonderfully named rock outcrop for us! Actually what we were seeing was a a notable example of a periglacial tor landform, developed in rocks of the Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation of the Wealden Supergroup of early Cretaceous age !
See link here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison's_Rocks



 

To the lay-person it means a pile of rocks left behind as a terminal moraine from the last Ice age.

The walk and scenery had been very good so far but from here onwards it was exceptional, through some wonderful "High Weald" countryside. We eventually reached our end station at the Village of Frant where we caught a bus back home.

This was a really nice walk and if the second half circuit is as good we will be extremely lucky.

On this walk we saw more wildlife than usual including a smooth snake (rare in the UK and completely harmless) and several sets of Roe Deer. Also several sightings of hawks circling overhead looking for their dinner.

Stats for the walk were ..

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (min)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)	Max speed (mph)
10/09/2012	27533	14.5	341	1739	2.6	2384	2190	5.1