West Byfleet Circular
24 February. Twelve ramblers joined the two leaders for this mainly flat circular walk from West Byfleet Station.
The first section follows one end of the nearby Basingstoke Canal to the Woodham Footbridge where it joins the Wey Navigation. The fifteen and a half mile Wey Navigation was built in 1653 forming a series of linking canals with the River Wey from Guildford to Weybridge. We walked this canal section to Murray’s Bridge, passing the old grist mill where the canal widens, in times past to allow the barges to turn.
From here we walked through the outskirts of Byfleet, passing through the churchyard of St Mary’s which was awash with colourful spring flowers, to join the River Wey adjacent to the Grade II listed Byfleet Manor. This site was first recorded in the Doomsday Book, the medieval buildings replaced in the 1540s and reputedly rebuilt using stone from the ruined Newark Priory that we later pass. It was subsequently used as a royal hunting lodge and was rebuilt again in 1686 when it belonged to Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. It has more recently been used in the filming of some TV series, notably Downtown Abbey and is currently in private ownership.
We continued along the Wey and then through Buxton Wood before crossing the M25 footbridge, over the one and only stile on the walk to enter Wisley Common, and then proceeded on a pathway around the edge of Wisley RHS garden, across farmland to Ripley Common, at the end of which was our lunch stop.
Most of the group at this point chose to lunch in the popular Pinnocks Coffee House that was built in 1475 by Arthur Pinnock who ran the local dairy but three of the group tried The Talbot, a coaching inn dating back to 1453, and came back with good reports of the food and welcome.
Two walkers left at lunch while the rest set off with some delay to rejoin the River Wey at Walsham Gates, along the boggyist section of the walk to reach Newark Lock, passing the Priory ruins, and then continued to St Nicholas Church Pyrford along the B367 which, to our advantage, was closed to cars at this point in time. A short stop here to visit this interesting Norman Church with a Tudor bell turret and porch, and some remnants of 12th century wall paintings.
After crossing farmland with cattle safely penned in the large very muddy fields, we crossed a golf course to return to the Wey Navigation at Pyrford Lock. At Dodd’s Bridge we crossed back over the canal to join a wooded lane leading to houses of West Byfleet from where we returned to the station, later than planned but thankfully before darkness descended, all rather tired due to the underestimation of the walk length – billed as 9 miles it turned out to be over 11!
Linda, with thanks to Mary-Jane, Sigrid and Christine M for photos.
