No singing at Godstone

A select group of five walkers met at the Bletchingley Arms on August 25 for the traditional August Bank Holiday walk.  In previous years the walkers had visited the annual bank holiday fair in Godstone and this was one of the objectives of the day.   The five – Dave Bannister, Dick Jones, Hazel Willson, George Taylor, Pete Gillman – left at 2.30pm and headed purposefully south, following the Greensand Way path for a short distance before veering south through woods and then farmland. At one stretch, as they followed the path, the walkers were dwarfed by the towering stalks of sweet corn.

George savours late-summer landscape

After a mile or so the group headed north again, rejoining Greensands Way near Coldharbour Farm and then veering northeast across Tilburstow Hill and striking into Godstone.  At an uphill section Pete seemed determined to prove he was not as old as he looked, pushing out in front of the remaining walkers.  When they joined him at the top of the slope they asked him what he was taking and could they have some?

The silent Godstone five

The fair seemed less lively compared with previous years, most likely due to the notorious Godstone sinkholes that have restricted through traffic for more than six months.  That  did not prevent Pete from attempting to buy some homemade bramble jam.  Sadly the stall only took cash so Pete hurried to the Hare and Hounds where he borrowed a fiver from Banners then returned to buy not one jar of jam but two. 

Hazel dwarfed by sweet corn.

Back at the Hare and Hounds the group were seated at a table on the edge of the drinkers, while a sound system boomed out. In previous years the walkers had staged an afternoon Beer n Ditties, winning applause and free rounds of beer, but this year the depleted group accepted that they did not have the numbers to compete.   After a consoling pint they  headed west once more, striking across Bletchingley golf course and circling past the Bletchingley Arms to reach it from the west.

Light and shade on a late-summer walk

As the group settled into its seats awaiting the food it had ordered, Banners found it difficult to get comfortable and eventually foraged for a more satisfactory chair, while self-diagnosing that he had been dehydrated.  Earlier in the day he had broken two habits of a lifetime: first, driving to the start of the walk and second, drinking beer after arriving by car.  By the evening order was restored and he reverted to his habitual alcohol-free driving tipple.

The group agreed it had been a enjoyable walk on soft ground under mellow sunshine with a lovely mix of landscapes, from woodland to fallow fields full of wild flowers, showing southern England in late summer at its best.

Route taken by Godstone five - a respectable 5.9 miles.