Sevenoaks circular 22nd March

There were 12 of us on the train down from Charing Cross. The weather forecast had steadily deteriorated over the week and we were resigned to 35% chance of rain all day.

We headed up the hill Knole Park. Owned by the Sackville family the massive house with its extensive deer park never fail to impress. The park was closed to traffic because of Netflix filming and so was much quieter than normal. A few of the deer were taking advantage. The weather was if overcast which brought out the soft greens and browns of the parkland. We exited Knole and followed the path through woodland to Godden Green.

A series of lanes took us to Stone Street where we crossed the road into what had been lavender fields when we last passed this way in 2023. Sadly, these have been abandoned leaving a depressing landscape of flapping black plastic. Things change even in the countryside. When I first did this walk 20 years ago, there was an apple orchard here and a flourishing pub in Stone Street is no longer.

We passed some restored hop pickers lodgings and were soon at Ightham Mote where we had our picnic. The service in the otherwise excellent café was rather slow and some of our group abandoned the queue. Apart from visitors to Ightham Mote itself, there are many more walkers than there were 5 years ago. Some of us reflected on how nice it is to see more groups of young people. Not many of us had been inside the house itself. It’s well worth a visit. It was built before the invention of the corridor, and the layout, with the rooms being interconnecting, makes it difficult to adapt for modern living.

We headed back to Knole House, on an undulating wooded route via Rook’s Hill and Carters Hill. The weather was gradually improving and we enjoyed the fine views to the south. White Rocks Farm had opened a shop, all automated and refrigerate; some of us bought eggs and cheese.  

At Knole House, the café was closed and failing to find a tearoom in the town, we fell into a historic pub at the top of the High Street. This was a great choice for the beer drinkers, but sadly they had taken out their coffee machine so the others had to make do with tea.

Having had a pleasant day’s weather, we were surprised to arrive home and hear tales of thunder and lightning and torrential rain in the late afternoon.