Walks around Headley … and over the borders
John Owen Smith

Associated titles: Headley's Past in Pictures; Characters of Headley's Past; Walks through History … at the West of the Weald; Walks from the Railway … Guildford to Portsmouth; The Hilltop Writers by WR Trotter; Shottermill by Greta A Turner; Heatherley by Flora Thompson

Map . List of Walks . Guided Walks . About the Author . Further information . Hampshire footpaths . Download the walks

General map of the walks

Circular walks 1 to 6 start in Headley High Street, and 7 to 12 start at the NT car park in Pond Road, Headley (shown as black dots in the map above). Walk 13 is linear and completes the 'outer ring'. Walk 14 is the Flora Thompson Trail which forms a figure of eight between Grayshott & Griggs Green.

List of Walks

Walk 1 – Four Bridges – (6¼ miles/10km)
Starts and ends in Headley High Street, visiting Trottsford, Cradle Lane, Dockenfield, Huntingford Bridge, Saunders Green, and The Hanger – crosses the River Wey and the River Slea. Bluebells in the woods above Huntingford Bridge in season.

Walk 2 – To Frensham Great Pond and back – (8¾ miles/14km)
An extension of Walk 1, taking in Dockenfield church, Frensham Mill, Frensham Great Pond, Wishanger and Hearn.

Walk 3 – Around Fuller's Vale – (2¾ miles/4.5km)
This short walk starts and ends in Headley High Street, taking a tour past the old workhouse, through coppice woods behind Hilland, past the restored Fuller's Vale wildlife pond, over Headley Hill and along 'The Brae' footpath.

Walk 4 – Down by the Riverside – (5 miles/8km)
Starts and ends in Headley High Street, visiting Standford, following the River Wey upstream through Passfield to Waterside, then via High Hurlands and Ludshott Common to Fullers Vale where it rejoins Walk 3 in returning over Headley Hill to the High Street.

Walk 5 – To the Military railway – (7¾ miles/12.5km)
Starts and ends in Headley High Street, visiting Standford, Passfield Common, Woolmer Forest, the track of the Longmoor Military Railway, Walldown earthworks, the Deadwater Valley and Headley Mill.

Walk 6 – Right round Lindford – (5 miles/8km)
Starts and ends in Headley High Street, visiting Headley Mill, Bordon Inclosure, Broxhead Common and Headley Wood aqueduct. Blackberries on Broxhead Common in season.

Walk 7 – The Hampshire/Surrey border – (6½ miles/10.5km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road, visiting Openlands, Hammer Lane, Whitmore Vale, Barford Mills, Churt, Simmonstone, Wishanger, Hearn, Arford Common and Fullers Vale.

Walk 7a – shorter option of Walk 7 – (5½ miles/8.8km)
A shorter route offered between Hammer Lane and Hearn, visiting Assisi, Plaster Hill Farm, Bacon Lane and Park Lane.

Walk 8 – To Grayshott and back – (6 miles/9.5km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road, visiting Ludshott Common, Waggoners Wells, Stoney Bottom, Grayshott and Whitmore Vale.

Walk 8a – shorter option of Walk 8 – (3½ miles/5.5km)
A shorter return route offered from Waggoners Wells visiting Superior Camp on Ludshott Common.

Walk 9 – Three 'new' villages – (8½ miles/13.5km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road and is an extension of Walk 8, visiting the three villages of Grayshott, Beacon Hill and Churt. They are 'new' in so far as before the 1850s there was virtually nothing other than heathland where their centres now stand.

Walk 10 – Walk with the Devil – (13¾ miles/22km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road, visiting Whitmore Vale, Barford, Frensham Great Pond, the Devil's Jumps, the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead, Nutcombe Valley, Miss James' Walk, Stoney Bottom, Waggoners Wells and Ludshott Common.

Walk 11 – Where Three Counties Meet – (8¼ miles/13km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road, visiting Waggoners Wells, Bramshott Chase, Hammer Vale, Bramshott, Gentles Lane and Gentles Copse.

Note that you need to deviate from the original published route when crossing the A3 at Bramshott Chase due to road improvements for the Hindhead Tunnel. Amended instructions at Point 9 of the walk are as follows:—

9. Turn left along the ridge to enter National Trust land through a gate. Follow the track straight ahead, passing through another gate and a small NT car park. Turn right along the lane here which soon bears left beside the A3 road. Turn right to pass under the A3, then turn right along a track servicing Chase Villas. Follow this past the houses and continue as it enters MoD land and becomes a footpath with garden boundaries to the right until it reaches a lane at Knockhundred Cottage.

10. Cross the lane looking for a footpath through bushes opposite …

Walk 12 – To Conford and back – (6 miles/9.5km)
Starts and ends at the National Trust car park in Pond Road, visiting Ludshott Manor, Bramshott, Conford, Passfield and Waterside.

Walk 13 – The 'Missing Link' – (2 miles/3.2km - linear)
Links Walks 10 and 11 between Hindhead & Hammer, passing through Nutcombe Valley and Critchmere, allowing a complete 'outer ring' walk.

Walk 14 – The Flora Thompson Trail – (10 miles/16km)
Grayshott to Griggs Green [Heatherley to Peverel] and back again.

The Outer Ring – (21½ miles/34.5km)
For the fit or foolhardy! Can start at several convenient points, and proceed in a clockwise or anticlockwise direction according to choice.

Guided Walks

If you would be interested in having the author join your group to guide and interpret one of these walks, please contact me for details of costs.

About the Author

• Walks through History … at the West of the Weald, a dozen circular walks with an historical theme
• One Monday in November, the story of the Selborne and Headley Workhouse Riots of 1830
• All Tanked Up, the story of the benign 'invasion' of a Hampshire village by Canadian tank regiments during the Second World War
• A Balance of Trust, in which we meet the founder of The National Trust, and cover 50 years of history in and around Haslemere and Hindhead, Surrey, from the arrival of the railway to the arrival of the motor car
• Headley's Past in Pictures, a tour of the parish in old photographs
• Characters of Headley's Past, characters of the parish in old photographs
• On the Trail of Flora Thompson, in which the author turns detective to discover the true identity of the people and places Flora Thompson encountered while she lived in east Hampshire
• Flora's Heatherley - a dramatisation of Flora Thompson's time in Grayshott, Hampshire, 1898–1900
• Flora's Peverel - a dramatisation of Flora Thompson's time in Liphook, Hampshire, 1916–1928

For further information on Headley, see the village website

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to share information on the history of Headley. See address details on Home Page