Sidswa four

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Sidswa here.

This route was tested as an alternative to SidSwa 3 after very wet or prolonged wet weather when it's possible the bridleway at Parsonage Lane will be very wet to the point of being impassable. It has more road walking and you can hear the rumble of the A20 for most of the southern half, where SidSwa 3 is sheltered by small hills.

It starts in a similar way, going through Foots Cray Meadow but heads south along the River Cray for a while. Where it crosses the busy A223 / North Cray Road there is a small shop and a takeaway. Then it heads south east along a footpath between housing and some small horse paddocks towards Ruxley. It comes out onto Maidstone Road. Cross soon, near the entrance to Ruxley Manor Garden Centre, the next crossing will overshoot the turn off. There are two food outlets in the garden centre. Next is a some pavement walking beside busy Maidstone Road until the turn off onto quiet Old Maidstone Road, and shortly onto Cookham Lane under the A20 (practically a motorway here). This is gated halfway along and so there's next to no traffic. After a km or so you get to the little hamlet of Hockenden (where there may be a farm shop, although perhaps only for butchery) and then walk along Hockenden Lane for about 350m. This isn't a great bit of road walking and there have been cars passing every minute or so when I've crossed it and stopped to take photos.

Unfortunately the nearby off-road alternative through Swanley Golf Course and Chapman's Lane is unviable. At the Golf Course it is blocked by several years of bramble growth and a huge patch of Japanese Knotweed, although there is an unofficially sanctioned way around to the west, just past the next tee through "the old golf course". But on the farm track which bypasses the eastern part of Chapman's Lane (a hollow-way blocked at one end) there is also a lot of mud in winter, especially on the small hill where the tractors churn it up and make it very slippery, and that defeats the point of this route.

Where the route turns off Hockenden Lane towards Swanley it joins Slow Ways route ChiSwa 1. It's a simple and pleasant walk on tracks through farmland up to the path beside the rail tracks from the gates of a small quarry (no real signs of active use). The route goes through a pedestrian underpass of the A20 just on the edge of Swanley, one time I passed a crowd of young locals hiding out from the rain. Beyond that are a few short residential streets and you're at the back entrance to Swanley Station. You can walk across the train line through the concourse here without needing to pass through a ticket barrier. Although Swanley is (just) in Kent they can use the TfL / Oyster pay-as-you-go tap in card system here.

There may be some puddles and slightly muddy paths, there are small gates and anti motorbike constrictions. There are bus stops on North Cray Road and Maidstone Road

This route was tested as an alternative to SidSwa 3 after very wet or prolonged wet weather when it's possible the bridleway at Parsonage Lane will be very wet to the point of being impassable. It has more road walking and you can hear the rumble of the A20 for most of the southern half, where SidSwa 3 is sheltered by small hills.

It starts in a similar way, going through Foots Cray Meadow but heads south along the River Cray for a while. Where it crosses the busy A223 / North Cray Road there is a small shop and a takeaway. Then it heads south east along a footpath between housing and some small horse paddocks towards Ruxley. It comes out onto Maidstone Road. Cross soon, near the entrance to Ruxley Manor Garden Centre, the next crossing will overshoot the turn off. There are two food outlets in the garden centre. Next is a some pavement walking beside busy Maidstone Road until the turn off onto quiet Old Maidstone Road, and shortly onto Cookham Lane under the A20 (practically a motorway here). This is gated halfway along and so there's next to no traffic. After a km or so you get to the little hamlet of Hockenden (where there may be a farm shop, although perhaps only for butchery) and then walk along Hockenden Lane for about 350m. This isn't a great bit of road walking and there have been cars passing every minute or so when I've crossed it and stopped to take photos.

Unfortunately the nearby off-road alternative through Swanley Golf Course and Chapman's Lane is unviable. At the Golf Course it is blocked by several years of bramble growth and a huge patch of Japanese Knotweed, although there is an unofficially sanctioned way around to the west, just past the next tee through "the old golf course". But on the farm track which bypasses the eastern part of Chapman's Lane (a hollow-way blocked at one end) there is also a lot of mud in winter, especially on the small hill where the tractors churn it up and make it very slippery, and that defeats the point of this route.

Where the route turns off Hockenden Lane towards Swanley it joins Slow Ways route ChiSwa 1. It's a simple and pleasant walk on tracks through farmland up to the path beside the rail tracks from the gates of a small quarry (no real signs of active use). The route goes through a pedestrian underpass of the A20 just on the edge of Swanley, one time I passed a crowd of young locals hiding out from the rain. Beyond that are a few short residential streets and you're at the back entrance to Swanley Station. You can walk across the train line through the concourse here without needing to pass through a ticket barrier. Although Swanley is (just) in Kent they can use the TfL / Oyster pay-as-you-go tap in card system here.

There may be some puddles and slightly muddy paths, there are small gates and anti motorbike constrictions. There are bus stops on North Cray Road and Maidstone Road