The North Downs Way. Kev Reynolds

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      Puttenham is a trim village with some pleasant houses and cottages as you pass through. Keep ahead along The Street to reach The Good Intent pub, and maintain direction towards the parish church of St John the Baptist. As the road veers left around the church, note a sign on the left indicating the approach to Puttenham Camping Barn. Continue along the road as far as a T-junction (SU 934 479), where you turn right and walk beside the B3000 as far as the Harvester pub/restaurant. Here you cross the road onto a gravel drive leading to a golf course.

      Puttenham Camping Barn is an attractively restored listed barn that was converted to provide simple wardened accommodation for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. With places for up to 12 people, it has self-catering facilities, and showers heated by solar panels. The Camping Barn is listed in the Independent Hostel Guide, but advanced booking is essential (www.puttenhamcampingbarn.co.uk).

      After passing the clubhouse continue ahead. After a while pass a barn, then the way forks. Take the main left branch (the right-hand option goes to a cricket pavilion) and shortly after this it forks again. This time take the right branch (the left branch goes to Greyfriars Vineyard), in effect continuing straight ahead along the edge of the golf course. After a while you pass houses, then the way narrows to enter woods. At a staggered crosstracks keep ahead; the track is now little more than footpathwide and it takes you out to a metalled lane which goes beneath the A3 and a second road bridge adorned with two large wooden crosses.

      Turn left at a T-junction, and in a few paces leave the road by the entrance to Watts Gallery. Refreshments are available at tearooms here. The North Downs Way now journeys along a sandy track whose banks are honeycombed with rabbit warrens. After passing between barns the way narrows and rises through woodland. At a crosstracks continue ahead with the Loseley Estate's nature reserve on the right. Leaving trees behind the way cuts through deep sand, and coming to a junction of paths you briefly veer left on a track, then right on another track rising between fields and woodland. Large aerial masts can be seen on the ridge to the left.

      The Watts Gallery is dedicated to the work of George Frederic Watts (1817–1904), the highly successful 19th-century painter and sculptor who came to Compton with his second wife, Mary Fraser-Tytler, who was also an artist. (His first short-lived marriage was to the actress Ellen Terry.) The gallery, designed by his friend Christopher Turnor and begun when Watts was 83, contains more than 200 of his works. South of the gallery along Down Lane, on the way to Compton, stands an extraordinary red-brick mortuary chapel built in 1896 by Mrs Watts with a local builder and a team of villagers.

      Entering woods you eventually come to a T-junction of tracks and turn left. After about 30 yards the track, which has become a narrow surfaced lane, turns right and leads to Piccard's Farm, after which it reverts to a track once more. About half a mile beyond the farm come onto a road and bear left. This leads to the A3100 opposite Ye Olde Ship Inn. Bear right, then take the next turning on the left, which is Ferry Lane. The lane slopes downhill, and over a railway bridge the slope is a steep one between houses. At the foot of the slope lies the River Wey on the southern outskirts of Guildford. For overnight accommodation and all facilities, turn left and follow the towpath for about ¾ mile to the centre of town. Bear right to cross a footbridge, and on the east bank of the river turn left for about 20 yards, then bear right when the path forks. Soon enter Shalford Park and cross straight ahead to the A281 (SU 999 483) which you reach by a bus stop (where services into Guildford can be picked up).

      The River Wey on the southern edge of Guildford

      GUILDFORD

      The county town of Surrey, Guildford has a conspicuous red-brick 20th-century cathedral which overlooks the nearby University of Surrey, and the keep of a Norman castle built on the east side of the river. In the High Street stands a group of 17th-century almshouses and a very fine Guildhall with a famous clock overhanging the road, while the Angel Hotel boasts a wooden gallery and a coaching yard. In the Middle Ages Guildford prospered through the wool trade, but when that trade began to decline it was replaced by the opening of the River Wey Navigation in the 17th century. Today the town is largely divided by the A3, and spills east and west into the surrounding countryside, but its heart is graced by the River Wey which hints at a rural atmosphere. The town has all facilities, including B&B and hotel accommodation (www.guildford.gov.uk or www.guildfordcommunity.org.uk).

STAGE 2

      Guildford to the Mole Valley (A24)

Start	Guildford
Finish	the Mole Valley (A24)
Distance	13 miles (21km)
Maps	Harveys North Downs Way West 1:40,000 OS Landranger 186 Aldershot & Guildford and 187 Dorking, Reigate & Crawley 1:50,000 OS Explorer 145 Guildford & Farnham and 146 Dorking, Box Hill & Reigate 1:25,000
Refreshments	Newlands Corner
Accommodation	Albury (+ 1 mile), Shere (+ 1 mile), Gomshall (+ 1 mile), Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel (+ ¾ mile), Ranmore Common, Dorking (+ 1 mile)

      This stage is more strenuous than the first, for almost as soon as Guildford is left behind the North Downs Way makes the ascent of sandy St Martha's Hill, a splendid viewpoint from which, it is claimed, six counties can be seen. The way crosses the hill and descends north before climbing onto the Downs proper and reaching another noted viewpoint at Newlands Corner. Thereafter the eastward trend resumes along the crest of the Downs, much of it through woodland, but emerging now and then to gain a wide panorama. At the end of the day the path slopes down to the Mole Valley above Dorking, passing a large vineyard and with Box Hill looming ahead as the next obstacle to be crossed at the beginning of the next stage of the walk.

      

      From the A281 at Shalford Park cross with care and continue heading east along a residential street, Pilgrims’ Way. Rising gently the road curves slightly left, with a row of lime trees on the right-hand side. When these end veer right along a surfaced drive which soon ends in a small car park. Continue ahead, pass to the left of the white-painted Chantry Cottage, and enter Chantry Wood on a rough track. This mostly edges the wood, with NDW waymarks at path and track junctions. At the end of an open but fence-lined section, come to more woods, and at a crosstracks you maintain direction. The track has now narrowed to a bridleway. Eventually join a stony path and continue ahead, still within the woods.

      The Pilgrims’ Way refers to the route commonly thought to have been taken by a penitent Henry II following the murder of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, and subsequently walked by countless pilgrims and recorded in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The route is 118 miles (190km) long, and links Winchester with Canterbury. Today much of the Pilgrims’ Way is paved road, but there are long stretches of footpath and trackway too, some of which have been adopted by the North Downs Way.

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