Green Belt
Relay
Green Belt
Relay
Stage 20 - West Hanger to Ripley (5.6 miles)
West Hanger is part of Shere Woodlands, a designated nature reserve which comprises of Coombe Bottom, Netley Plantation and West Hanger. It is situated on top of the North Downs directly above the pretty village of Shere. The village is on the River Tillingbourne and is a mile away by following Coombe Lane or more directly by a steep footpath.
The area around the car park at West Hanger is popular for picnics, and with wildlife enthusiasts. Close by there is a nature trail, some Neolithic flint quarries, and many remnants left over from the Canadian Army who had a large presence here before the Normandy Invasion in the Second World War. It’s also a good place to start a walk from. Silent Pool, Newlands Corner, St Martha's Hill are just some of the many places close by.
Here we leave the North Downs Way and follows Staples Lane north. The course rolls gently downhill, along narrow lanes, off the Downs. The views of West London and Heathrow Airport to the right and Woking in front are impressive.
On exiting the car park turn left along Staples Lane.
After 0.6 miles, just off to our left, is Old Scotland Farm. It is home to the Surrey Hills Brewery which started production in May 2005. Their beers have won many awards and most have local names, “Ranmore Ale”, “Shere Drop” and “Albury Ruby”.
At 1.6 miles cross straight over the busy A246 (Epsom Road), and go straight on along The Street into East Clandon. Follow “The Street” as it turn left and then right in front of the Queens Head Pub. After just over 100 yards and immediately past the church turn left into Ripley Road.
Clandon derives from the Anglo-Saxon “Clanedune” meaning clear down, or open downland. People settled here where the porous chalk of the North Downs releases water forced up by the underlying impervious clay. It meant a constant supply of water and lush meadow to feed their livestock and grow crops. The Manor of East Clandon is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. However, the lands here were granted to Chertsey Abbey at its foundation in 675. After the Norman Invasion it was held by Norman lords for hundreds of years and during this time referred to as “Clandon Abbatis”. Shortly after the Reformation in 1544, Henry VIII granted East Clandon Manor to Sir Anthony Browne. According to the East Clandon website:
“The Manor itself, which is thought to have been placed close to where Hatchlands now is, was moated since violent times in the early 1300s.”
Today East Clandon is a sleepy Surrey countryside village within the Green Belt. It has about 250 inhabitants, in 110 dwellings clustered around the parish church. There are many old and interesting buildings in the village, of these many are listed and have stories to tell. Luckily, the A246 bypass, just south of the village keeps the majority of the traffic away, thus helping the village to retain its character and charm.
The Queens Head pub dates from the 17th Century and was a former coaching inn. The road down the side of the pub is Back Lane and leads to Cherry Cottage which contains the Clandon Pottery and is open to the public. The footpath from the pottery leads across the fairways of Clandon Regis Golf Club towards West Clandon. The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury in the centre of the village is part 12th Century and a Grade 1 listed building. Next to the church is the "Tithe Barn" which has now been converted to private dwellings and is mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
Hatchlands Park is on the east edge of the village. It was acquired by navel man, Admiral Edward Boscawen in 1749. He pulled down the old house which had stood in the park for many years and in the 1750s commissioned architect Stiff Leadbetter to build the one we see today. It has a naval theme running through its rooms, with much of the interiors designed by Scottish architect Robert Adam, his first commission in England. The current grounds cover 430 acres, were mainly laid out by Humphry Repton (1752 – 1818) and include a small garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll in 1914. Over the years it has been owned by several people who made minor changes. In 1945 it passed into the hands of the National Trust. Today there are many things to see in the house including the Cobbe Collection of keyboard instruments, which has instruments which once belonged to Mahler and Elgar and linked to Chopin, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
Because of its history and beauty the whole village has been designated a conservation area. The East Clandon Website has been set up by the local community. It provides an insight into village life, gives details of many of its buildings and run down of the village’s history.
On the right, 500 yards along Ripley Road, is Home Farm. This was the setting of the 1970s children’s TV series Catweazle. The farm was called “Hexwood” in the series and the current owners open the farm one day a year to the public so that fans of can take a walk around Catweazle’s old stomping grounds.
Follow Ripley Road for 0.9 miles to just under an old railway bridge (at 2.75 miles into the route) - this carries the Guildford to Effingham Junction line. Immediately after the bridge turn right onto a path parallel and below the railway. After just over 100 yards follow the path as it turns left, uphill and away from the railway. Within a short distance at a Y-junction of paths stay left to continue uphill and into the woods. For the next two miles the path is easy to follow as it goes almost in a straight line. However, I will give some notes below so as you don’t get confused.
Continue straight through the woods (Humphreys Copse) for almost half a mile. Then follow the path as it veers slightly left to soon meet a larger track. Veer right to follow the track – this should be quite obvious as to the left the track is signed “Private” – now at 3 miles into the stage.
On exiting the main woods cross straight over. There are stills some lesser woods to our left and right. At intervals, on the left, you will see strange looking obstacles sticking up from the ground. I can only assume they are some type of ventilation shafts.
A short distance to the left through the trees is Send Prison. It was originally an Isolation Hospital and in 1962 became a Junior Detention Centre. In 1987 it was reclassified as a Category C Adult Male Training Prison, and in 1999 was rebuilt and became a closed Female Training Prison. Today it has space to accommodate up to 218 women.
On reaching a lane, cross straight over and go through the gate on the opposite side. A direction marker on a post shows we have joined “The Fox Way”. From here our route follows that of The Fox Way for a few miles to Walsham Lock on the River Wey and 0.65 miles into the next stage.
The Fox Way is a 39 mile circular walk round Guildford’s green belt. It was founded by a Richard Fox in 2005, and I assume it takes its name from its founder.
We have now entered the Ryde Farm Estate. It covers almost 2,000 acres, making it one of the largest in Surrey and is home to a well known hotelier who is also an accomplished triathlete.
On continuing through the estate the sides of the path opens out into fields and you get a good view of the surrounding countryside. We pass a large scaffold structure used for clay pigeon shooting, Ryde Farm with its sprawl of buildings and sports pitches is off to our left and just before going back onto road we pass an old quaint cottage with an impressive wicker summer house in its garden.
Having previously left Ripley Road at East Clandon to go cross-country we rejoin a road with the same name, but this time it’s Ripley Road, Ockham.
At 4.6 miles the path comes out through a kissing gate onto a road. Turn left along the road towards Ripley (along Ripley Lane). After 200 yards, at a crossroads, go straight on.
At the crossroads, Hungry Hill Lane to the left leads past Send Prison to East Clandon; to the right Guileshill Lane leads to the village of Ockham.
If you look carefully to the right, at the crossroads, and just left of Guileshill Lane, on the hill above, you can see what remains of Ockham Park House. It was home of William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace (1805 – 1893). He married Ada Byron (1815 – 1852) in 1835, the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron (1788 – 1824) the romantic English poet. They had three children and lived at the house.
Ada’s mother, Anne Isabella Byron, split with Lord Byron shortly after Ada’s birth, due to his unpredictable behaviour. She deliberately focused her daughter’s education on her own upbringing of mathematics and science and not on English like her father’s. By her late teens Ada was recognised as having a great grasp of mathematics and science. She would go on to meet and discussed the subjects with many great people, including Michael Faraday, Mary Somerville, David Brewster and Charles Babbage. She worked alongside Babbage on the “Difference Engine”. Ada died of uterine cancer and bloodletting by physicians at the young age of 36, but by then was an accomplished mathematician and due to her work with Babbage is credited as being the founder of scientific computing. In 1979 a software language developed by the United States Department of Defence was named “Ada” in her honour. One of her last requests was to be buried next to the father she never knew and who also died at the same age as her. They are both buried at Hucknall in Nottinghamshire.
Ockham is also famous for William of Ockham who was born here around 1285. He was a Franciscan friar, a philosopher, theologian, and political writer. He is renowned for his “Occam’s Razor” and remembered locally by a stained glass window in the medieval All Saints Church next to Ockham Park House.
Follow Ripley Lane for half a mile when it then crosses over the A3 (London to Portsmouth road) and changes name to Rose Lane. Continue straight on along Rose Lane and into Ripley village to finish on the right, just before the High Street, at Ripley British Legion Club.
On the right, just before entering the village of Ripley, is Ripley Court School. It was founded in 1893 in the buildings of Ripley Court, a Queen Anne “gentleman’s” Farm House and one time coaching inn built in 1730.
A pro-celebrity cricket match, organised by David English of RSO Records and rock star Eric Clapton, was held here in 1987. Many professional cricketers and celebrities took part and the proceeds were given to charity. From this David English founded the Bunburys Cricket Club which continues to organise matches all over the country and abroad. To date they have raised over £12 million for worthy causes and also sponsor the Bunbury’s School Cricket Festival. In August 2003 they returned to Ripley Court School to hold the Bunbury’s XI “v” Eric Clapton XI match.
Eric Clapton is no stranger to Ripley. He was born secretly in the back bedroom of his grandparents’ house at 1 Ripley Green on 30th March 1945. He was the illegitimate son of Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 25 year old Canadian soldier stationed nearby. His mother was only 16 at the time and his father moved back to Canada after the war, unaware of the birth of his son. Eric was brought up believing his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister. He was told the truth when he was nine years old. In later life Clapton did try to search out his father, but discovered he had died in 1985.
On 20th March 1991 at 11am Eric’s 4 year old son Conor tragically fell to his death from a high rise apartment building in New York. Eric was elsewhere and Conor was with his mother at the time. The maid had just washed the windows of the flat and left them open to dry. Conor was always glad to see his father and would run to an open door to jump up in his arms. The window went to the floor and it is thought that Conor on seeing an open window ran at it expecting to see his father. Conor is buried in the St Mary Magdalen’s churchyard at Ripley, The boy’s death inspired Eric to write the Grammy winning song “Tears in Heaven”. You can listen to the song on YouTube and also read Eric’s recollection of the tragedy, the events which led to it and the aftermath at the Times Online. On 1st January 2002, Clapton and Melia McEnery’s daughter Julie Rose was Christened at the church. However, the guests were also in for a surprise as immediately after the Christening, Melia and Clapton were married.
Back along Rose Lane on our left and just before the finish of the leg is Chapel Farm. This was once home to Scouts founder Baden-Powell. The current 1st Ripley Scout Group is based in buildings on the land of the farm previously owned by the Baden-Powell family.
Ripley has much history attached to it and many old buildings to see along its wide High Street and narrow side streets. St Mary Magdalen’s dates from around 1160 AD and is believed to have been originally built by Augustinians on the site of an intended priory. However, a better site was found just over half a mile northeast of here next to the River Wey.
The Manor House opposite The Anchor is a Dutch–gabled building dating from 1650. Drake’s is a “Michelin Star” restaurant and is in the old Georgian Clock House on the High Street.
Two sisters Annie and Harriet Dibble ran a tea shop at The Anchor Inn, a 25 mile cycle ride from London. Through their kind hospitality they became very popular with cyclists. Many thousands would visit each year and all would sign the visitor’s book. When they died, Annie in July 1895 and Harriet 15 months later, cyclists clubbed together and paid for a stained glass window to be erected in their memory in St Mary Magdalen’s Church.
For centuries up to when the A3 bypass was built, the busy London to Portsmouth road ran through the village – the Old Portsmouth Road. Ripley was a stopping off point for sailors on their way to and from their ships. Although many of the pubs in the village have closed, some of those still open get their names from these days – The Anchor Inn (16th Century), The Ship (1540), and The Jovial Sailor.
The Talbot Inn on the High Street dates from 1453. It claims to be haunted, has a cosy bar and its own helicopter pad at the rear. A plaque on its front states that Lord Nelson has stayed there.
Ripley is appears in HG Wells novel “The Wars of the Worlds”, in which the Martians invade the earth.
Ripley Farmers Market is usually held on the second Saturday of each month from 9am until 1pm on Ripley Village Green. It is a local farm and produce market with goods sold directly by their growers and producers.
There are many other buildings of note in this pretty Surrey village and I’ll leave it to you to see them if you visit. To read more you can download a detailed history of Ripley from the Send & Ripley Historical Society. Ripley Village also has its own website.
You can also read more about the village and the surrounding in the write up on the start of the next stage of our route.
Copywrite @ Sean. Davis 2009. All rights reserved.