Royal Tunbridge Wells — Wadhurst
Roywad two
Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Roywad here.
Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Roywad here.
By Daisy C on 23 Mar 2023
Description
Through the steep sided hills of the High Weald, this is a very beautiful and fairly remote route. About 60% is off road but, apart from through Wadhurst and T. Wells, these roads are particularly quiet lanes, mostly only for access. The landscape is a mix of small grazing pastures and many small woods, which is typical of the area. A large part uses the Sussex Border Path, which is fairly up and down, with footbridges over the many streams, although the signs for the SBP itself are a bit hit and miss. From Frant to the Tunbridge Wells border follows the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and the High Weald Landscape Trail.
There is one section along a permissive path not shown on OS maps. This is from the pretty village of Frant and down the side of Eridge Old Park towards a crossing point of the busy A267. This can be wet and very muddy in places and apparently tricky to follow when fallen leaves cover the path or bracken obscures the signs, it also crosses a smaller stream. Government funding for permissive paths ended a few years ago so maintenance and access on this path may not persist. If it becomes unusable the alternative is Downs Lane between TQ 5885 3446 and TQ 5953 3342, that's probably fairly quiet and there is a fairly adequate path to there from Frant along the A267.
Frant is the only resting place: 2 pubs, a cafe, sporadic buses, and a station about a mile away. Replacement for TonPad 1 which had an impossible railway crossing. Route was tested before posting at the end of a wet March: glad I wore waterproofs, wish I'd also had waterproof socks or gaiters.
Majority overlaps with Saturday Walking Club route 196. Website may have more news about the permissive path and has detailled route instructions. https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/wadhurst-to-tunbridge-wells/index.html
Through the steep sided hills of the High Weald, this is a very beautiful and fairly remote route. About 60% is off road but, apart from through Wadhurst and T. Wells, these roads are particularly quiet lanes, mostly only for access. The landscape is a mix of small grazing pastures and many small woods, which is typical of the area. A large part uses the Sussex Border Path, which is fairly up and down, with footbridges over the many streams, although the signs for the SBP itself are a bit hit and miss. From Frant to the Tunbridge Wells border follows the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and the High Weald Landscape Trail.
There is one section along a permissive path not shown on OS maps. This is from the pretty village of Frant and down the side of Eridge Old Park towards a crossing point of the busy A267. This can be wet and very muddy in places and apparently tricky to follow when fallen leaves cover the path or bracken obscures the signs, it also crosses a smaller stream. Government funding for permissive paths ended a few years ago so maintenance and access on this path may not persist. If it becomes unusable the alternative is Downs Lane between TQ 5885 3446 and TQ 5953 3342, that's probably fairly quiet and there is a fairly adequate path to there from Frant along the A267.
Frant is the only resting place: 2 pubs, a cafe, sporadic buses, and a station about a mile away. Replacement for TonPad 1 which had an impossible railway crossing. Route was tested before posting at the end of a wet March: glad I wore waterproofs, wish I'd also had waterproof socks or gaiters.
Majority overlaps with Saturday Walking Club route 196. Website may have more news about the permissive path and has detailled route instructions. https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/wadhurst-to-tunbridge-wells/index.html
Status
This route has been reviewed by 2 people.
There are no issues flagged.
Photos for Roywad two
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Information
Route status - Live
Reviews - 2
Average rating -
Is this route good enough? - Yes (2)
There are currently no problems reported with this route.
Downloads - 9
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Geography information system (GIS) data
Total length
Maximum elevation
Minimum elevation
Start and end points
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Grid Ref
TQ5845739197
Lat / Lon
51.13013° / 0.26325°
Easting / Northing
558,457E / 139,197N
What3Words
issued.much.joins
Wadhurst
Grid Ref
TQ6396531855
Lat / Lon
51.06262° / 0.33856°
Easting / Northing
563,965E / 131,855N
What3Words
playroom.direct.quitter
Royal Tunbridge Wells | |
---|---|
Grid Ref | TQ5845739197 |
Lat / Lon | 51.13013° / 0.26325° |
Easting / Northing | 558,457E / 139,197N |
What3Words | issued.much.joins |
Wadhurst | |
---|---|
Grid Ref | TQ6396531855 |
Lat / Lon | 51.06262° / 0.33856° |
Easting / Northing | 563,965E / 131,855N |
What3Words | playroom.direct.quitter |
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reviews
Victoria
24 Mar 2024This route was very enjoyable. There's a variety of landscapes and geological features. Once you reach the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells and cross the gold course, the route becomes residential along quiet roads. I had no access issues; however the route was extremely muddy, which made it difficult at times.
Daisy C
23 Mar 2023 (edited 24 Mar 2023)A picturesque quiet walk with beautiful views and dotted with attractive old buildings. Met less than a handful of people along the way, perhaps that was due to the weather though. Weather forecast said cloudy with 10% chance of light rain and some sunny spells. Hahahahaha. Nope. If it's wet or has been raining recently expect mud. Still worth it even though longer views were hidden by the often dramatically low clouds. I started at Wadhurst Station, some distance from the meeting point, but walked down to the beginning of Tapsell Lane (squirrels 7: traffic nil) so only missed reviewing the first km or so on a busy through the village. A shortcut to the route from the station is to join the SB Path from opposite "The Keys" a short way uphill from the station.
There are plenty of steep slopes up and down into the wooded valleys, green glowing moss, footbridges over rushing streams, oak trees so loaded with lichen they looked like freshly opened leaf buds from a distance, buzzards and rooks and ravens overhead, tiny lambs gambolling damply. Soon will be bluebells, wild garlic and wood anenomes. Please leave a comment if you find my glasses ;-).
The Eridge Park permissive path was easy to find, some non SW reviews say otherwise but bracken or fallen leaves might explain that. If you are coming from Wadhurst the entrance is just opposite the wheely bin hut, northern half was *very* wet but there were herds of deer to make up for it. The George, one of the pubs in Frant, is right on the route and looked promising but I didn't have time as going had been so slow. The Tunbridge Wells section was much greener and quieter than expected.
Not for wheelchairs. For others expect gates, stiles, many roots, steps of earth, plank, root and stone, wooden footbridges with muddy approaches, streams of water deciding the path looks like a good route for them too, 2 small non-bridged streams (strategic laid branches helped), mud and plenty of flowing water generally, muddy and somewhat slippery slopes plus a narrow, but scenic, small muddy ravine with stream and path unnervingly close together. Quite challenging but fun. Friendly local runner said going was very slow that day, a good sign for drier weather walking.
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