Banstead and the Chipstead Valley

The fight for London’s countryside is nothing new, and the battle for Banstead Commons had the ingredients of a good Victorian melodrama – an evil Baronet, who was defeated in the nick of time by the fickle hand of fate.

Meet Sir John Hartopp MP, a Yorkshire baronet. In 1873, Sir John bought the Lordship of the Manor of Banstead, together with a huge area of land that included the Banstead Commons. You’ll be walking through Park Downs, a part of his holding, to the north of Holly Lane. Most of the Commons were subject to grazing and other rights. This could have thwarted Sir John’s plans for a housing development on Banstead Downs, and the sale of minerals from Banstead Heath. In practice, the rights were all but extinct, but Sir John began to consolidate his position by buying them up for himself. Determined to see some return on his investment, Hartopp raised his game. In 1876, he built a row of houses on Banstead Downs, and enclosed a part of Banstead Heath. The locals were furious, and formed the Banstead Commons Protection Society. They enlisted the help of the newly formed Commons Society, as well as the Corporation of London and the area’s largest landowner, the Earl of Egmont.

In 1877, the protesters began court proceedings to challenge the enclosure of the heath, and a hugely expensive case dragged on until 1884. Just as a compromise seemed certain, fate intervened. Sir John’s solicitors suddenly became insolvent, and Hartopp himself was dragged down with them. It strengthened the protesters’ hand – but it delayed their ultimate victory until 1889. Realising that the future was far from secure, the commoners went on to petition for an Act of Parliament to protect the Commons. The result was the appointment of the Banstead Commons Conservators in 1893, and the Conservators continue to manage the area to this day.

But that wasn’t always the result. When you cross over Holly Lane, you’ll notice some mature houses on each side of the road. By coincidence, their story also begins in 1893, when Charles Garton bought the Banstead Wood Estate. He was destined to become Chairman of the Parish Council, and the last of the area’s big, patriarchal landowners. When Charles Garton died in 1934, the land on each side of Holly Lane was sold for development, and Banstead Wood House itself formed the basis of a new hospital. You can still see the hospital’s tower from Park Downs, but in 2008 a new chapter in the estate’s history began when it was sold and redeveloped into an elegant gated housing complex of more than a hundred homes.

Leave the car park by the kissing gate at the top left-hand (southeast) corner and follow the waymarked gravel path. After 80yds (73m), join the public footpath signed towards Perrotts Farm. Just beyond, ignore the main track and fork left, waymarked Banstead Countryside Walk (BCW), just before the sculpture of a lion. The path climbs steadily through a tunnel of trees along the woodland edge. Look out for the old beeches on your right, nuzzling against one another and joined at the roots; these may once have formed part of an old boundary hedge.

Continue straight along the permissive path, between fields below and to your left, and an open area above and to your right. The path bears left to a four-way junction; turn right to hug the fence running along pasture below to the left, signed ‘Banstead Woods on BCW’. The path starts to climb deeper into the woods, passing some very large beech trees

At a three-way fingerpost, turn left signed BCW. The path drops a little before rising again to reach a redundant stile in the corner of a field. Follow the field edge, keeping the woods on your right, to reach the buildings of Perrotts Farm.

Cross the stile here and the farm road, and take the footpath through a gate towards Holly Lane. Follow it between fields before arriving at Ruffett Wood. Walk the length of the wood, on your left-hand side, and past a redundant stile. At a three-way fingerpost, keep ahead signed to Holly Lane on the BCW. The path crosses the grandly named Chipstead Road – little more than a track. Pass the next redundant stile, before bearing right to soon meet Holly Lane.

Cross Holly Lane and continue along the public footpath, with hedgerow trees on your left and a field on the right, sloping down to the road. At the corner of the field, turn right and then left into the trees at a fingerpost signed to Park Road, soon emerging onto the Downs on a grassy track, and head along the edge of Park Downs. Keep straight on at the information board, and cross over Park Road and follow the waymarked BCW. Turn right down the permissive footpath from the path, alongside fences on properties on the hillside, and reach the meeting point of Park Road and Holly Lane at an information board. Cross the roads back to the car park where you began.