Leith Hill, Surrey - Hills, Mills and Gunpowder Cake

Several bus companies provide weekday buses at Holmbury St Mary at erratic intervals & via innumerable routes.  They are:Metrobus 22 (Dorking) Arriva 32 (Dorking) Coach Etcetera 25 (Guildford - two a day) Carlone Service 545 (Cranleigh/Guildford -Weds & Fridays,but different routes) Carlone Service 599 (Thurs - from Cranleigh )Countryliner 25 (Cranleigh -two a day).

This is the gist of complex situation at Feb 2013. Advise research before attempting bus travel!

The nearest train station is Gomshall (5km/3miles north of Holmbury St Mary) on the First Great Western line between Guildford, Dorking and Reigate. (www.nationalrail.co.uk tel 308457 484950).

By road the start location is on the B2126 about 4km/2.5 miles south of the A25 at Abinger Hammer, between Guildford and Dorking. Parking is possible at the roadside.  Alternatively there is a car park at Friday Street so the route could be started from there.  There is a signpost to Friday Street on the A25 about 2km/1.5 miles east of the B2126 turning. The car park is just before the village and you then walk downhill along a path and the road to join the route at Friday Street pond.

He that in Winter should behold some of our highest Hills in Surrey clad with whole Woods … might without the least violence to his Imagination, easily phansie himself transported into some new or enchanted Country. John Evelyn, Sylva

The Surrey Hills were one of the first landscapes to be designated an area of outstanding natural beauty following the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949. This tranquil corner of the county, where, as William Cobbett reports in his 1822 journal Rural Rides, “the nightingales are to be heard earlier and later in the year than in any other part of England” and “the first bursting of the buds is seen in spring, and no rigour of seasons can ever be felt,” deserves special protection.

The area rises as the Hog’s Back, a narrow chalk ridge just west of Guildford, and sweeps east to Kent along a row of smaller undulating hills creating a natural barrier between London’s urban sprawl and the North Downs.  Winding among these densely forested hills is the Greensand Way, a Ramblers-inspired long distance path which traces a seam of greensand rock from Hindhead to Ashford in Kent.  Leith Hill rises abruptly from this greensand ridge to a height of 294m/965ft above sea level, making it the highest point in southeast England.  Its rapid elevation from the south opens up a superb panorama over the North Downs, the forested clay slopes of the Weald and the chalky South Downs beyond – and on a clear day some thirty miles to the English Channel.   Our route, however, approaches Leith Hill from the north, along a gentle section of the Greensand Way winding through the beech and fir-combed hills; and the vista it leads to belies the minimal effort. “Should the atmosphere be clear, the view is such that can scarcely be matched elsewhere, at least a dozen counties being visible, as well as a glimpse of the sea,” was how the celebrated nineteenth-century guidebook writer, Walker Miles, described it. 

However, this calm backwater was not always so pleasantly wooded. It was dominated for over four centuries by the industrious Evelyn family who played a remarkable role in shaping the landscape of the Surrey Hills. One generation desecrated the area, another redeemed it.

[1] With Holmbury St Mary bus stop (one stop after the Royal Oak) on your left, walk a short distance along the road then turn left into Pasture Wood Road. Walk past Bulmer Farm on your left and a minor turning on your right. As the road turns left take a right turn onto the Greensand Way.  Follow the Greensand Way through Pasture Wood for approximately 20 mins until you reach High Ashes Farm.

Go past the farm and turn right at the fingerpost and continue on the Greensand Way, but take the first left to cut a corner and rejoin the Greensand Way 5 mins later, where you turn left up the hill to a road. Cross the road, turn right and then turn left onto a footpath.  Turn left again immediately, ignoring the wide main track. After approximately 2 mins turn right and after another 1 or 2 mins take the right fork, following a sign to the tower. After a further 2 mins fork left and continue on the upward path following more signs to the tower. The path joins a wide track which leads up to an open space and Leith Hill Tower (TQ139431).

(A) Leith Hill at 294 metres (965 ft) is the highest point on the Greensand Ridge, and is the second highest point in south-east England, after Walbury Hill near Hungerford, West Berkshire.  Leith Hill Tower, an 18th century Gothic tower, stands on the summit with panoramic views northwards to London and the English Channel to the south.  

[2] From Leith Hill, with the tower on your left, walk downhill on the Green Trail to a crossroads where you turn left along the Greensand Way again. There is now a pleasant descent through the woods lasting approximately 20 mins, passing a crossroads at Whiteberry Gate, past Warren Farm to the track junction.

[3] For an optional 15 min detour to the source of the Tillingbourne and Brookwick Copse, turn right towards Tilling Springs (signposted), and then left at a finger post, passing across the bridge over the Tillingbourne and uphill to a staggered gate. Turn left downhill just before the gate and follow the poorly defined track passing through holly and bracken of Brookwick Copse which eventually becomes marshland.  Use the boardwalk provided then follow the path uphill again to rejoin the Greensand Way at Pond Cottage.  There are some fairly steep ascents and descents in this short detour and it can be muddy in places.

(B) Against great opposition, Brookwick Copse was taken from the common land and enclosed by George Evelyn to power his mill at Abinger Hammer. 

If you’re not taking the detour, continue along the Greensand Way past Pond Cottage down to a road and riding stables at Broadmoor. Turn left up the road to Broadmoor and turn right on the path next to the Parish Council notice board. Bear right at the first fork and left at a second fork and press on uphill to a T-junction. Turn left and across two small roads and past the sign for the Wotton Estate. Continue through the woods past  Severalls Copse (National Trust) down to the road, turning left to the mill pond at Friday Street.  Circle the pond round to the left and up to the Stephen Langton pub in Friday Street.

(C) Friday Street features a huge man made pond, a hammer pond used to power a large waterwheel.  Its pub is named after the thirteenth century Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, a member of the baron's council which forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 at Runnymede.  It is claimed Langton was born in Friday Street.  

[4] Carry on with the pub on your left up the lane and take the first right (unmarked footpath) at the gate into the woods of Abinger Common. Push through any overgrowth and climb the short steep woodland track which soon levels out. Continue (westerly), ignoring another path leading backwards, to reach a fork where you turn left (ignoring a small path to your R) to reach a five-way junction. Take the second right down through the woods, crossing another path (ignore the downhill path going slightly right here).  Continue for another 5 mins ignoring small paths to right and left until you emerge on the road. Abinger Common bus stop is to your right (buses to Guildford and Dorking). To your left is a small green with a well, built by William John Evelyn (1893), and Goddards house, designed and built by Edwin Lutyens in 1898.

[5] To continue back to Holmbury St Mary, cross the green and follow a well defined footpath through Pasture Wood, which starts nearly opposite the red phone box.

(D) Pasture Wood is one result of the drive to reforest the Surrey Hills started by John Evelyn in reparation for the damage done to the local environment by his ancestors.  

Ignore all turnings left and right and stay on the main track, which undulates through the woods. Pass a plantation of large conifers on the right and stay on the main track until it narrows and starts to descend. Here bear left to leave the main track and head steeply downhill on a narrow forest path to a kissing gate (about 15 mins).  Continue straight ahead across the path junction turning left on the main road to reach Holmbury St Mary and the Royal Oak pub. Continue along the maIn road to reach the starting point at the next bus stop.

You reach Leith Hill within an hour of setting out. The view from the summit is indeed impressive, but you’ll need to fork out a modest sum to the National Trust, and ascend a further 20m/65ft to the top of Leith Hill Tower for the clear 360-degree view of over a dozen counties, which may include a glimpse St Paul’s Cathedral, and as far north as the Chilterns.

Originally named “Prospect House”, this Gothic folly was constructed by Richard Hull in 1766, possibly in an attempt to reclassify the hill as a mountain (ie over 1000ft). Hull was an eccentric gentleman who lived at the foot of the hill at Leith Hill Place, and insisted on his death that he be buried upside down beneath the tower, believing that the world would be “overturned” on judgement day. It seems his wish was fulfilled, as during restoration in 1984 his remains were discovered thus arranged, six to ten feet beneath the tower’s base. He was left undisturbed and is there to this day.

However, it was the Evelyn family of Wotton and their domination of the Surrey milling industry from sixteenth century onwards that had a more lasting impact on the surrounding countryside. Over 400 years ago, George Evelyn learned the secret formula of producing cheap saltpetre during his military service on the Continent. The Evelyns were rewarded by none other than Queen Elizabeth I when she granted them the monopoly for the manufacture of gunpowder.

George wasted little time, and soon a number of large gunpowder mills, but also iron and paper works, sprang up along the banks of the river Tillingbourne.  Many “hammer ponds” – artificial basins – were gouged along its course to power the waterwheels. The powder industry literally boomed. Indeed explosions were a frequent occurrence: one unfortunate worker was blown clean over the mill at Chilworth. Production became so intense that by the seventeenth century many of the surrounding hills had been stripped bare to supply the voracious mills with fresh timber and charcoal. William Cobbett in 'Rural Rides' described local production as, “carrying into execution two of the most damnable inventions that ever sprang from the minds of men under the influence of the devil! Namely, the making of gunpowder and of bank-notes.”

The last of the mills was decommissioned after the First World War, but their legacy is found in the sleepy Surrey mill hamlets of Broadmoor, Friday Street, Abinger Bottom and Abinger Hammer – each depended on a watermill for its existence.  Most of the hammer ponds are now used for growing watercress or farming trout, but our route passes the beautiful undisturbed pond at Friday Street which served a mill constructed by George Evelyn shortly after he purchased Wotton Manor in 1579. Also the short detour to the source of the Tillingbourne skirts the site of Brookmill and Brookwick Copse, which was enclosed by George Evelyn, despite bitter opposition at the time, to supply the mill at Abinger Hammer. 

However, it is George Evelyn’s grandson, the celebrated diarist John Evelyn, we have to thank for the abundance of coniferous branches shading the route today. He described the damage done by his family as “epidemical”, and was determined to make amends. This, coupled with his passion for ecology, led to the publication of 'Sylva or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber'; the first work devoted to the importance of tree conservation, which he delivered to the Royal Society on 15 October 1662. John Evelyn was perhaps also the first true environmentalist. A year earlier he published 'Fumifugium or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated', which was a direct plea to Charles II following the Interregnum to nurture London’s green spaces: “In a word, as the Lucid and noble Aer, clarifies the Blood, subtilizes it and excites it, cheering the Spirits and promoting digestion; so the dark, and grosse (on the Contrary) perturbs the Body ... And therefore the Empoysoning of Aer, was ever esteem’d no lesse fatall then the poysoning of Water or Meate itself.”

Sylva and Fumifugium were the first such works to make clear the connection between the quality of the environment and the wellbeing of the individual. It was this revelation that sparked a profound  shift in attitudes, which ultimately led to a programme of reforestation in the Surrey Hills. You can take comfort from this if you lose yourself among the spider web of paths of Abinger Common and Pasture Wood on the return leg to Holmbury St Mary.

Walker Miles - If you look east from the top of Leith Hill Tower you’ll see St Nicholas‘ Church at Godstone, where a distinctive sarsen stone marks the final resting place of “Walker Miles”.

Born in Camberwell in 1853, Edmund Seyfang Taylor become proprietor of the family’s printing and publishing firm, Robert Edmund Taylor and Son.  It was through this publishing firm that he began to produce his meticulously written walks guides – most notably the 'Field- Path Ramble's series – under the nom de “pun” Walker Miles.  Even though Walker only lived to the age of 54, he published more than forty guides – thirty volumes of 'Field-Path Rambles' alone. He edited several outdoors journals and founded one of the first Ramblers groups, Forest Ramblers, in 1884. His prolific life and works saved many public paths from neglect. The plaque at the top of the tower was provided by members and friends of the Federation of Rambling Clubs (now the Ramblers) in, “grateful memory of Edmund Seyfang Taylor (Walker Miles) whose Field-Ppath Rambles helped to make known the byways of the countryside”.

Terrain: Wide well maintained bridleways to Friday Street, then narrower forest tracks.

Maps:  OS Explorer 146.

Visitor Information: The North Downs Way and Greensand Way.  www.ramblers.org.uk/info/paths. 
Surrey Hills AONB. www.surreyhills.org.
Leith Hill Tower (National Trust) www.nationaltrust.org - check opening times and admission prices before you leave.
Leith Hill Musical Festival (choral music, April. www.lhmf.co.uk (tel 301403 240093)

Eating & Drinking: Holmbury St Mary, Friday Street, Abinger Common

Sleeping: Holmbury St Mary, Leith Hill, YHA Holmbury St Mary

This route originally appeared as route number 26 in Walk Britain - Great Views in 2009 and was checked at that time by Mole Valley Ramblers.