Box Hill

Many years ago, a friend told me about the National Trusts Box Hill. I can’t remember exactly what she told me but I was excited by the prospect of countryside which was reachable by train from London with hills, woodland, stepping-stones, long grasses and views. Obviously I’d heard about Box Hill from Jane Austen’s Emma but I just thought it was another Pemberley (e.g not real!)

After many years of wanting to visit, finally at the beginning of the month with a backpack full of picnic treats we got the train from Victoria to Box Hill & Westhumble. It takes less than an hour and costs less than a tenner. We walked from the station through the village of Westhumble, noted there was a pub, followed a sign through an underpass, the signs stopped. We scratched our heads and then a friendly local directed us a few ways how to get in, which we completely ignored him and took a different path through a meadow! To be fair to the nice local, we used the information he gave us to get back to the station. 

We spent a good few hours, wandering through woods, trekking up hills, stopping for snacks, gazing at views but we only saw a small fraction of its 1’200 acres – lots more to discover on future trips.

These are some of the sites we saw…

Scones of course served the Cornish way. Spread the jam and dollop the cream!

Oh and P.S – the local pub (The Stepping Stones) was really rather lovely and served us well while we waited for the next train back to London.