"Everybody needs beauty ... places to play in and pray in where nature may heal & cheer and give strength to the body & soul alike." John Muir
I have recently rediscovered the 60 miles of bridleways & footpaths that wind their merry way through the area known as Hurtwood & Winterfold forest. I say rediscovered because I grew up here but it has been many years since I really walked the land like I used to when I took the family dog out every day.
The Hurtwood is named for the ground hurt it contains. (Photograph below - A hurt berry is also known as a bilberry in Scandanavia and in 'ye olde English' in Southern England it was named a whortle berry).
This area of woodland and forests stretches from Leith Hill to Pitch Hill. The high viewing points look across the valley to the North Downs and the ancient Pilgrims way, a footpath that leads from Winchester in the South over to Canterbury in the East. Our landscape is scattered with medieval churches, monasteries and friaries set in beautiful settings across Surrey. Chilworth has its Friary and Chilworth Manor used to be a monastery. Further across near Farnham there are the ruins of Waverley Abbey.
I enjoy being outside, whether that is for a slow rambling walk, a sedate picnic or a lengthier hike. I am a modern pilgrim, walking not for the sake of pilgrimage to a sacred site but for the purpose of immersing myself in nature. This past Bank Holiday weekend I did loads of walking, spending many happy hours hiking from Farley Green to Peaslake, down to Abinger Hammer and then back across to Shere & up to Blackheath. It is fun to find new footpaths I haven't walked before. One of these is a very steep track that winds it way uphill from behind the church in Peaslake. I discovered that this road leads to a graveyard nestled in the woods. Below is a photo of the gate at the entrance. I love the poignant Bible verse, "I am the resurrection and the life," engraved across the wood.
I found a huge patch of bluebells in the corner of the graveyard. Spotting a few lilac pink bluebells was a point of excitement for me, it is the first time I've seen a different colour of bluebell.
This area of woodland and the villages that surround it has been referred to as a 'little switzerland' for obvious reasons, it looks very like the lower foothills of the Alps. This beauty has been attracting artists, writers and bohemian hippies for centuries. Many have settled here in these hills. There is a sense of coming home about the woods. A place of refuge and comfort.
"Going to the woods is going home." John Muir
Being outside in the Winterfold & Hurtwood inspires all kinds of artistic expression. I remember many years ago coming across 3 men dressed as bohemian gypsies wearing massive Dutch wooden clogs accompanied by a huge carthorse pulling an apple cart. I will never forget them, it was like opening a magazine and finding a glossy full page spread of Bavarian idyll in Surrey, a flamboyant way of dressing when the rest of society were conforming to the fashion for power dressing with shoulder pads and permed hair. Who knows where they started their journey up into the woods or where they were going. Maybe like my friend Fenella they were just exercising their rights to graze their livestock in the woods. Fenella used to put a collar & lead on her goat and walk it up the lane to eat in the rich lush woods.
Not only are the Surrey Hills an area of outstanding natural beauty, they are also a great hiding place for stolen goods and hence the Hurtwood's other name, 'Brandy & Silk street.'
In the 18th century, the British government collected a good deal of its income from customs duties - tax paid on the import of goods such as tea, cloth, wine and spirits. The tax was high, up to 30%, so these items became expensive. Smuggled goods were a lot cheaper than goods which had paid the duty.
Items that carried heavy taxes such as silk and brandy were ferreted away and hidden in the woods before they continued the journey up to London. Cargo could be taken off boats in Shoreham down on the coast at dusk and then under the cover of darkness carried 26 miles across country and up into the Hurtwood to be hidden before the sun rose.
Running up from Shere is an old smugglers road. The White Horse Inn was a well known smugglers den where goods was hidden in cellars below the pub.
It seems that these woods have continued the tradition of lawlessness. In 1963 there was the Great Train Robbery where £2.6 million was stolen( £49 million in today's money.) Some of the stolen goods were hidden near Farley Heath. I read that bars of gold were thrown off the train as it passed through Gomshall and quickly hidden in the woods. They were then buried under someone's front doorstep to hide them from the law and prying eyes! I don't know how true this is but it certainly fits with the eccentric behaviour that the area relishes.
Now the lawlessness continues in different ways. More recently back in the late 80's, early 90's, there used to be 'Raves' held in the woods. These secret parties were hidden and only known about by word of mouth. This was in the days before text messages or computers. A slip of paper with the Hurtwood or Winterfold carpark number would be circulated amongst those who enjoyed a dance in the woods on a moonlit night!
And other ways of avoiding tax also still exist ... For example a huge new modern house built in the woods which is bigger underground than it is above.
So we've had smugglers, tax avoidance, 'Great train robbery' connections, artists, writers and the new inhabitants of the woods are mountain bikers. Following the London Olympics and the bike race along the A25 and around Box Hill there has been a huge surge in day trippers to the area with a new mountain bike centre being established in Peaslake.
"Of all the paths you take in life make sure a few of them are dirt." John Muir
The rules of the land continue to be bent and broken by 'off piste' bikers diverting off the allocated bridlepaths and making their own tracks through the woods. My own deviance is very tame in comparison. It consists of lying down in the bluebells. Straying off the footpath has its benefits.
" One should go to the woods for safety, if for nothing else." John Muir
But I must mention here that I found a deers leg lying in the bluebells and it made me wonder what on earth had killed a deer? It wasn't a natural death, there would have been other body parts around. All I found was a leg from the knee down to the hoof. It couldn't be a fox, a fox is too small to kill a deer. So that only leaves the Surrey panther! A legendary big cat that a few people have said looks like a big dog but is actually a cat. ( We did have a lion living in a tennis court on the Shamley Green side of the heath, but that must have died years ago.)
Here are a few more shots of the beauty of the woods. Below is a Swiss Cottage perched above Peaslake.
Wild garlic growing by a stream.
A bench for sawing logs.
Artists continue to live here. Below is Mary Quant who was a stylish fashion designer in the swinging 60's. She is attributed with deciding to slash hemlines from around the knee to higher up the thigh and thereby inventing the mini skirt.
Eric Clapton used to live near Ewhurst. His house reportedly had a guitar shaped swimming pool. It was here that "Here Comes the Sun" was written by George Harrison. (Released on the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road.)
According to Wikipedia: The song was written at the country house of his friend Eric Clapton, where Harrison had chosen to play truant for the day, to avoid attending a meeting at the Beatles' Apple Corps organisation. The lyrics reflect the composer's relief at both the arrival of spring and the temporary respite he was experiencing from the band's business affairs
... but I like to imagine it was written while watching the sunrise near Pitch Hill.
Music and these hills go together. The famous composer Ralph Vaughn Williams lived on Leith Hill. And today as I write this an Opera house is being built in the woods modelled on the famous 'La Scala' in Milan. The new location for Grange Park Opera will be in the grounds of West Horsely House.
If you go down to the woods today ..... there are still many treasures to be found!
"Hidden in the glorious wilderness like unmanned gold." John Muir
(Me hidden by a piece of bracken.)
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