Capehor one

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Part one of a two-leg walk from Horsham to Dorking - CAPEHOR One. 21-08-2023.

In general, I found this to be a reasonably good route. Well marked on the map and signposted. The first section from the station to the A264 is through quiet residential streets using several twitten cut-throughs. I'd make one minor change at Amundsen Road when you emerge from the recreation ground. You can head straight ahead to reach the little bridge over the brook.

Crossing the A264 is at an official crossing place with a refuge in the central reservation of the dual carriageway. But you do have to wait for a gap in two lanes of traffic travelling at 70 mph.

Once over the walk quickly becomes more rural, the traffic noise starts to fade away as you head into the woods beside the fenced-off clay pit. This is the nicest section of the route, though there are several sets of steps up and down steep wealden ghylls. Once I got to Friday Street I decided not to take the diversion across to Kingsfold but took the path from Blackfriars Farm to the small hamlet of Friday Street to pick up the official CAPEHOR route again on the Sussex Border Path. Up until about three years ago, there was a pub in the village, The Royal Oak, but this has now been demolished and replaced with a couple of houses.

Around about Lower Gages Farm, you cross from West Sussex into Surrey and also pass right beneath the Gatwick flightpath, so aircraft noise is pretty constant. It is also at this point that the path becomes less well way-marked and more overgrown. After crossing the drive to a house called Taylors, I entered a field planted with 2m high maize (photo #8). The footpath is directly across this field, but there was no path cut through the crop. I had to make a diversion to walk up Rusper Road to pick up the route at Pleystowe Farm. From here into Capel, the paths were all well marked and all well used. As a destination, Capel is an OK village with shops, a pub and is on a bus route from Horsham to Dorking. The church is a Victorian rebuild c.1865, pretty and nicely maintained but with little historical interest.

As previous reviewers have mentioned, the paths look to get very muddy in the winter. There were cows in a couple of the fields which were behaving themselves when I passed through. There are some nice sections to this route, if you don't need a pit stop, the diversion to Kingsfold can be cut out. 40 minutes of urban walking at the Horsham end means the route is probably more satisfying South to North. Overall, not much of a wow factor. Unsuitable for wheels.

I have just walked this route and found it very enjoyable, however there are a few points I would like to note regarding the route.

The first part of the route takes you through a mainly residential part of Horsham. I have lived in Horsham over 20 years and it was lovely to find and walk some new 'twittens' as part of this route. NB A 'twitten' is the Sussex terms for an alleyway or narrow path.

As the route leaves the residential area you have to cross the very busy A264 dual carriageway. There is however a dedicated crossing area which is on a straight section of the road.

The route then moves on to pleasant farm land. Due to the very dry weather in the last month there were no problems with mud, but it is easy to see how the Wealden clay could be a problem on this walk in wet conditions.

As the route goes past the clay pit the path crosses a number of streams and there were a couple of incidences where the path split in different directions, potentially they were just different paths going to the same place but I found these a bit confusing however I ended up in the right place, so possibly this isn't an issue. There are number of steps on this section of the route so anyone on a bicycle or pushing an off road push chair would find this part of the route difficult.

The Horsham to Dorking railway line has to be crossed twice on the route. It isn't a busy line and the crossing places had a good visibility up and down the line.

Kingsfold is about half way through the walk and is good place to stop and have a pub lunch at 'The Owl' pub.

The route after Kingsfold goes through more farm land and I encountered sheep with their (now quite grown up) lambs, cows and horses. After crossing one stile the cows all crowded around it and it could be scary for anyone not confident around farm animals.

After passing 'Lower Gages Farm' one of the stiles was completely overgrown and the route could only be continued by crossing a low barbed wire fence, which appeared to have become the alternative way to pass the stile.

After passing through 'Nightless Copse' there was a trig point (which may be of interest for any trig point baggers reading this - number TP2200 Clarks Green Farm).

The route ends in Capel which has a couple shops where drinks/snacks can be bought and also has a pub, 'The Crown', which could be a good alternative spot to stop for a drink/lunch/dinner etc.

Capel is on the 93 bus route which links Dorking to Horsham. Weekdays buses run hourly and at the weekends they run two hourly. Trains to London are available at both Dorking and Horsham stations. The nearest station to Capel is Ockley, but this is good couple of miles out of Capel and is not on the bus route.

I would recommend that the walk is completed following a dry spell of weather. The ideal time would be late spring (late April/early May) as the route passes through quite a few bluebell woods.

I walked from Horsham to Capel.
"Weald Clay - Mudstone. Sedimentary bedrock formed between 133.9 and 126.3 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Yellow, found on the surface, absorbs water quite readily so becomes very soft in the winter."
The above FYI because if walking this route in winter you will become very familiar with it. I found this walk quite exhausting, the clay is very slippery to walk on and very sticky when standing still, I only fell over once and was lucky not to have my boots sucked off many times. Walking stick or poles are necessary to give stability and to help climb 100% (45°) inclines. You can't get into a walking stride when walking gingerly over this clay. This walk will be an entirely different experience when dry in mid to late summer.

A section of suburban street walking heading North out of Horsham takes you past colleges and through quiet housing estates. Once across the A264 it becomes more rural. There are beautiful mature woods that undulate up and down small steep valleys, narrow bridges, and steps are in some places but not in others. Past the quarry extracting the yellow and underlying grey clays to make bricks. A diversion takes you to Kingsfold along field edges and across fields, the path is not always clear. Kingsfold is half way and The Owl pub provides refreshments. You cross the railway twice, steps and stiles on either side of the rails. There short sections of very quiet roads to walk along, a relief to walk on something firm. More undulating farmland and through farm yards takes you to Dairy House Nature reserve. Down hill to Capel High street with shops and beautiful church. Ockley station is 1.5km away through the church yard and through fields.
Narrow muddy paths, steps, stiles and very steep parts make this unsuitable for wheels.
A better walk in summer I think, probably a 4*.
Would I do it again in spring? Yes. There are acres of bluebells and when they come out it will be breath-taking. Just go prepared for mud.

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