From Blindley Heath to Crowhurst Place

Nowadays, Crowhurst is a quiet place, but apparently things were different in the 16th century. According to tradition, Henry VIII would stop over at Crowhurst Place on his way to court Anne Boleyn, who was living just over the Kentish border at Hever Castle. Even then, Crowhurst Place was not new. The lovely timbered and moated manor may be a spectacular example of what most of us loosely call ‘Tudor’, but it was already half a century old when that dynasty was ushered in on Bosworth Field in 1485.

The Gaynesford family first pops up during Edward III’s reign, when John and Margery Gaynesford received the Manor of Crowhurst from the de Stangrave family. But it was another John Gaynesford – the Sheriff of Surrey, no less – whose dogged pursuit of an heir was to bring him an unbroken run of 15 daughters from his first five wives, eventually fathering a son by his sixth wife. The Gaynesford (later Gainsford) family lasted some 300 years at Crowhurst Place, and it’s worth the short diversion to see their tombs, flanking the chancel of Crowhurst’s medieval church. There’s also a 15th-century brass likeness of John Gaynesford, Surrey’s Parliamentary representative in 1431.

Two hundred years later, one of John’s descendants left an altogether different memorial of his own. We know from the 17th-century parish register that, in those days, it was ‘a loathsom durtie way every steppe’ from Crowhurst Place to the church. Tiring of these muddy pilgrimages, yet another John Gainsford paid £50 to have a stone-flagged causeway laid along the entire route. He got his money’s worth, for the causeway still exists today in places.

By the dawn of the 20th century, Crowhurst Place was bearded with brambles, lonely and unloved. Its saviour was George Crawley, whose comprehensive restoration in 1920 even extended to the brand new mock-Tudor gatehouse on Crowhurst Road. Crowhurst Place isn’t open to the public, but you’ll see Crawley’s handiwork clearly enough from the path, which runs within 100yds (91m) of the house.

Turn right out of the car park, and follow Ray Lane as far as Tandridge Lane. Turn left, pass The Red Barn pub, then turn right up the tree-lined drive towards Ardenrun Farm.

Walk up the long straight drive until it swings to the left. Follow it for a further 80yds (73m) then, just before the private drive to Ardenrun Farm, turn right at a fingerpost on a path beside a metal gate. Continue for another 300yds (274m).

Cross the stile on the left and walk along the field boundary, over a second stile and bear half right, following the yellow waymarks, marked ‘Age to Age Walk’. At the top, turn right at the next waymark – where there are good views behind you – then cross the stile (yellow waymark) and a third field, keeping the hedge on your left, to go through a kissing gate. Follow the well-maintained path straight across the drive to Crowhurst Place. Pass through a kissing gate and continue beside the hedge on your right. Cross a concrete footbridge, then head diagonally across the next field to the junction of two tarmac tracks. There are more good views from this spot. (To visit Crowhurst church, turn right for 700yds/640m, then left onto Crowhurst Village Road. The church is on your left.)

Turn left here, and follow the track towards Stocks and Kingswood farms. Leave the ‘Age to Age’ route, and carry straight along the yellow waymarked track that winds through Kingswood farmyard, past some small industrial units on the right, and onto a surfaced lane, with Stocks Farmhouse on your left.

After passing through the sliding metal barrier that crosses the drive, continue ahead for 22yds/20m and cross over two stiles, on the left, in quick succession. Head diagonally across the next field, and turn left over the stile. Cross a wide concrete bridge and turn left to reach another stile, in a hedge, and a small footbridge. Now turn right, past a broken stile and hug the righthand side of the next field to another stile, again follow the right-hand side of the field and leave via a stile onto Tandridge Lane.

Turn left and, after 55yds/50m, branch off to the right at the entrance to Comforts Place Farmhouse. As the drive swings round to the left, go through a gap beside a large metal gate and continue along the grassy lane to go through a gap next to a gate and reach a four-way cross tracks at Oak Tree Farm. Turn left here, and follow the rough track past Highfield House, down a narrow path alongside paddocks and out onto a lane. Beyond the gates of Sunhill Farm, the road surface improves, and the lane leads back to the A22.

Turn left, and follow the main road for the last 800yds/732m into Blindley Heath and back to the car park.