Graham Pearcey

Walk number 8 (7 miles / 3.00 hours):

• Park at The Star, Kingston Road, Malden Rushett, KT22 0DP. Food is served all afternoon until 10:00 PM Mon-Sat and 9:30 PM Sun (roasts until 5:00 PM Sun).
• With your back to the pub, walk to your right and cross Kingston Road at the first traffic island. Shortly after, turn left at the red arrow (signed Right Of Way Ashtead Common). At the T-junction turn left onto the bridleway following the blue arrow (signed Epsom Common), and proceed for some time without digression, with common land to your left and forest to your right. At four cross-paths proceed straight ahead (the first three are signed Epsom Common and the fourth is signed Christchurch Road). Passing Stew Ponds on your right, continue ahead on the main path (signed Winter Horseride) eventually forking left to Christchurch Road.
• Cross the road to join a bridleway signed Horton Lane. At the entrance to West Park, take the sometimes muddy footpath between two fences, signed Chalky Lane. When the right-hand fence ends, go hard right - signed Chessington Countryside Walk (CDW) - to reach another lane.
• Cross into a small wood, soon emerging through a gap in a fence to turn right onto a wide track, which bears left. Where the CDW turns right, continue straight ahead past the damaged totem pole, and on across a junction with a lane, to pass the Polo Club Car Park.
• Ignore side turnings until a major junction alongside a bench, where you fork left. Reach a T-junction and go straight ahead to cross a stile, alongside a kissing gate, into a field. Turn right and follow the field edge to pass through another (open) gateway, and subsequently go over a stile to cross Bonesgate Stream via a footbridge.
• You may hear dogs in Star Boarding Kennels to your left. Pass the backs of houses, right and left, to reach Green Lane. Turn left. Remain on the left-hand pavement as it proceeds behind trees, and cross Green Lane just before the Star Boarding Kennels to climb steps (signed Public Footpath Garrison Lane).
• The path leads between the golf course (left) and houses (right) to reach a padlocked gate. Here turn right and descend to Garrison Lane. Turn left without crossing the road, and follow the pavement over a railway bridge. You have reached the half way point of the walk.
• Where the pavement forks, take the left fork to cross Kingston Road into Barwell Lane. Proceed some distance but, after passing Chessington (gas) Pressure Reducing Station, look out for a bungalow set back on the right. Here turn left through a gate (it may be muddy here) and, half way up Winey Hill, bear left. Proceed along the grassy brow of the hill, with views to both sides. After passing a viewpoint and small pond, the grassy area is channelled between a hedge and two fences (left) and a woody area (right). The track briefly narrows and may become muddy, but leads to a kissing gate next to a field gate. Proceed through the kissing gate.
• Follow the occasionally muddy path between a short fence (right) and the high security fence of Chessington World of Adventures (CWA) on your left. When invited to do so, go left over a stile proceeding along a wide driveway between the CWA fence and the CWA overflow car park. When this driveway turns hard left, go straight ahead at the yellow arrow to follow a shady footpath to Leatherhead Road.
• Cross and pick up a sometimes wet bridleway signed Ashtead Common. After a while, as you approach the busy Rushett Lane, bear left and cross carefully to go through a metal gate. Take the straight path across the common, through another gate to a pair of signposts right in the middle of an open space. Go straight ahead to reach the Corporation of London sign you passed earlier, where you turn right to retrace your steps to The Star pub.

This route was last walked on 21 July 2010, and the directions were accurate then. Please e-mail me if you find any errors, if you would like a copy in Word format, or if you would prefer a version that starts and ends at Chessington South station.

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