CMVC
History and Heritage
Information
Members
Choir walking group
Walking through Narnia
Seven walkers who gathered at the Kingswood Arms ready for a 12.30 start on November 27 were disappointed to learn that dinner was off the pub menu. Over 100 golfers had already eaten breakfast there ahead of a charity day at the nearby club and were due to return and exhaust the kitchen's capacity before nightfall. Undaunted, the group adopted Plan B, namely to drive back to the Rambler’s Rest halfway stop after the walk.
The wardrobe.....
A tale of three pubs
Our late autumn walk from the Old Bell in Oxted on Monday November 6 was preceded by fevered negotiations with a miserable Mine Host, who had to be persuaded to accept a booking for a dozen or so diners in his deserted pub at 5pm. Fortunately former landlord Martin Perkins gave him the guvnors’ masonic handshake and clinched a deal.
Enjoying the late autumn weather
The most excited walker during the negotiations was Phil's German Shepherd Suki, who was trying to herd the group together and get us started. She persuaded us to head off westwards along a short stretch of the A25 then turn into the manicured grassland of Tandridge Golf Club.
Ups and downs around Downe
The walking group broke new ground again as ten members left the Royal Oak in Green Street Green, near Orpington, on Monday 23 October and set off up into the High Elms Country Park. As we crossed High Elms Golf Course, Martin Perkins reminisced, through a golden haze, about some of the wondrous golf shots he had played there.
The ten starting walkers in the autumn High Elms woods
Retracing fateful steps
On September 25, nine walkers gathered at the Whyte Harte Hotel in Bletchingley and set off southwards. They soon were in the area where innumerable on- and off-road ambulances assembled on that fateful winter solstice day in 2015 when Martin Perkins broke his ankle.
The walkers pause for thought
The parish with no beer
Navigator Dave was keen to take the group to the beautiful Marden Park, an area in which he had run for many years, but this required some creativity due to the dearth (i.e. zero) of pubs in the parish of Woldingham. The solution was to meet at the familiar White Lion in Warlingham, from where the group drove a few miles to the Gangers Hill car park on the crest of the North Downs to start the walk.
The walkers at Marden Park (photo Mike Pardon)
Scaling the Surrey heights
The group's next outing, on August 11, consisted of a dramatic ascent of Box Hill in Surrey. Trevor Watkins' young miniature dachshund Dasher was a new addition for the start of the walk from the Stepping Stones pub near Dorking. Trevor and Dasher valiantly tried to scamper along behind the main group for the first section across the River Mole water meadows but were hampered by short legs (Dasher's, not Trevor's).
Drama below Box Hill - the impassable Stepping Stones