Sole Street circular
Saturday 5 October. I have to start with the weather, because earlier in the week the forecast for our walk was bleak, dark clouds and rain with not a flicker of sunshine indicated. Fast forward and it couldn’t have been any more different. Ten of us started out by sunshine and despite some clouds appearing every so often we had good weather all along the way.
The morning took us across fields, through woods and open countryside, with steady up-hills that afforded us lovely views and I don’t wish to dwell on the number of stiles we negotiated before entering a section of the Kent Weald Way. The footpath used to go through extensive meadows with rows of shrubs along the edges. However, since I last led this ramble some six years ago, large swathes of these meadows have been replaced by vineyards, managed by the Silverhand Estate [*] with many of the vines laden with ripened grapes at this time of the year.




Lunch stop was a picnic in Luddesdown – benches in the church yard provided a perfect spot before we made our way to The Golden Lion pub for a drink. Since the vine plantation a large building has been erected behind the pub which holds the wine cellars. Although it was open for wine tasting I thought it best to ignore such offers on this occasion. During the short time we were in the pub, it got rather busy not only with people but also dogs, of various breeds. I can’t remember ever having seen so many dogs inside a pub.
The afternoon took us through and past more vineyards, interspersed with woods before we made our way to the village of Cobham which, although a relatively small place, has three pubs. One of them is ‘The Leather Bottle’ – it dates back to 1629 and, it is claimed, was one of Charles Dickens’s favourite ale houses and featured in his ‘Pickwick Papers’. Just across the road from it is the Cobham Parish church of St. Mary Magdalene which prides itself of interesting brasses.



As the trains are only hourly on weekends, to catch the 16.32 we had to choose either to have a quick drink in the pub or a look around the church – some chose the pub others the church. After our short break I hurried us along (something that I regretted later) by winding our way through large orchards with the apple trees still carrying red-cheeked fruit.
Finding the precise exit points within the orchards isn’t that straight forward (from my previous experiences) but, luckily, we didn’t get lost and arrived at Sole Street station 20 minutes before our scheduled departure time only to find that it was delayed by a further 15 minutes. Well, it could have been worse except that for a few in the group, who expected to get off at Denmark Hill instead of Victoria, that option was no longer available as the train got diverted just before London.
Sigrid with my thanks for your convivial company and to Catherine for additional photos.
[* Silverhand takes its name from King Ludd – a first century King of the Trinovantes, founder of London and God of Protection and Prosperity. Losing his hand in battle, he was stripped of his rank and position until a ‘silver hand’ was made for him. (Extract from the Silverhand Estate’s website history page)]