About the walk
A circular walk from Tadworth rail station, exploring the rolling hills of this beautiful area which is dominated by all things equestrian. Enjoy stunning views to London.
Route details
Please note: This walk follows public footpaths and bridleways which cross private and public land. Please respect people's privacy, keep dogs under control, especially walking through fields with livestock and remember the Countryside Code.
If you come across an issue on a public right of way please report it using the online fault reporting form.
- Start and end address: Tadworth railway station
- Car park postcode: KT20 5AE
- Difficulty: challenging terrain
- Distance: 6 miles, 9.5 kilometres
- Type of walk: circular
- Approximate time: 3 hours
- Accessibility: 6 stiles plus several staggered barriers and a kissing gate. Some fields may contain horses.
- Facilities: The Bell pub in Walton-on-the-Hill. There is a pub and village stores in Headley village at walk stage 4
- Ordnance Survey Map: Explorer 146 Dorking, Box Hill and Reigate
Getting there
By train: the walk starts and finishes at Tadworth railway station.
By bus: routes 460 and 480 serve Tadworth station. Take a look at Surrey bus timetables for details of public transport.
By car: the rail station does not have a car park. There is some roadside parking available after 9.30am, but please comply with all the local parking regulation signs.
Points of Interest
Epsom Downs is well-known in local history. Not only does it have a long history of connections with horse racing with the first races being noted in the 1640s, but this period in history is also associated with the discovery and rise to fame of Epsom Salts and its perceived health benefits. Much later in 1913 Epsom Downs racecourse was again in the news for its connections with the suffragettes when Miss Emily Davison ran onto the track to protest in favour of universal votes for women.
Langley Vale Woodland is the largest First World War centenary woodland in the country, owned and maintained by the Woodland Trust. The site had links with the war as a training ground and now the area is a haven for wildlife, with areas of ancient woodland and 180,000 trees planted since the Woodland Trust acquired the site in 2014.
Walk directions
Stages from start point to end of walk
The numbers of each stage of the walk correspond with the points shown on the map.
- Start to Motts Hill Lane
- Stage 1: Motts Hill Lane to Nohome Farm
- Stage 2: Nohome Farm to M25 underpass
- Stage 3: Underpass to St Mary's Church
- Stage 4: St Mary's Church to Hurst Road
- Stage 5: Hurst Road to end
Start to Motts Hill Lane
Leave Tadworth station via the exit on Platform 2 and you will come out onto The Avenue with St John's church directly opposite. Cross over the road and turn left along the pavement passing the church on your right. Follow the pavement up the hill to the road junction. Keep ahead for another 30 metres and then turn right onto the fenced tarmac path signed as a public footpath. At the end of this path you will come to a junction with a residential road. Cross over then turn right along the pavement and opposite Spindlewoods on your right, turn left to join the signed public bridleway. Follow this gravel track which narrows to a tarmac path and leads you to the edge of a section of woodland, Banstead Heath. Just a few paces in you will be presented with a choice of four paths. Take the furthest right-hand path, an unmade track signed to The Bell pub.
Keep right at the first split in the path and left at the second one, which is in effect going straight ahead. Now simply keep ahead on this woodland path and you will come out into the parking area of The Bell pub. Turn right to join the stone track signed as a public footpath passing the small beer garden on your left. Pass through the staggered barrier and a few paces later you will come to another point where the path splits. Take the left-hand path and continue just until you reach a stile on your right. Cross this and continue on this next section of fenced path. At this point you will have views open up to your right and on a clear day, you will have a good view of Epsom Downs Racecourse on the far side of the valley. Cross over the next stile to reach a crossroads with a restricted byway, Motts Hill Lane.
Stage 1. Motts Hill Lane to Nohome Farm
Go straight ahead passing through the staggered barrier to continue on the public footpath. Follow this passing a number of horse paddocks on your right and you will come to a junction with a quiet tarmac lane. Cross diagonally right to reach the next stile. Cross this into a field that may be holding horses. Walk ahead through the wide grass clearing keeping close to the line of trees and hedgerow on your left. At the far side of the field you will come to the next stile. Cross this to reach a T-junction with a tree-lined path, turn right along this path. Stay with this path gradually descending for about a mile. At its end the path bends left to become a vehicle track passing Nohome Farm on your left.
Stage 2. Nohome Farm to M25 underpass
Keep directly ahead on the main track signed as a public footpath to Langley Vale. 300 metres along you will come to signposts on each side of the track marking a junction. Turn left onto the bridleway signed to Walton Road. Follow the main woodland track steadily uphill and you will pass the entrance gate on your left for Langley Vale alongside a Woodland Trust sign. Stay with the woodland bridleway and eventually you will arrive at a junction with a quiet lane. Turn left along the lane and as soon as the fence on your right ends, turn right to join the narrow public footpath between fences. The path leads you between stables and a horse menage to your left and a gallop course to your right. Some way along cross the stile ahead and continue straight on following the fence on your right. At the end cross the next stile and turn left along the tarmac track. At the bottom you will arrive at Hurst Road, turn right and follow the pavement leading you under the M25.
Stage 3. M25 Underpass to St Mary's Church
Beyond the underpass the pavement ends. Follow the lane uphill passing Gasston Stables on your left. Stay with the lane as it bends left and continues uphill for about 300 metres until you reach a vehicle barrier on your left alongside a gate for Wingfield Stud. Turn left to join the signed public footpath here and follow this fenced footpath between paddocks to reach a crossroads. Turn left and you will come to the back of St Mary's Church on your right. Turn right through the kissing wooden roofed gate to enter the churchyard and follow the narrow stone path with the flint church on your left. Leave the churchyard through the gates at the front of the church.
Stage 4. St Mary's Church to Hurst Road
Walk directly ahead passing a pond on your right and following the access lane between properties. You will come to a T-junction with the main village lane in Headley with the flint house opposite and the pub on your left. Turn left along the village road and immediately after the pub building, walk into and along the length of the pub car park. At the far end go ahead down the steps and you will pass the Village Hall and stores on your left. Beyond the village hall walk along the pavement alongside the village road. Keep ahead along this and just after the property called Badgers Run, turn left onto the stone track signed as a public bridleway. Stay with the track as it leads you through sections of woodland and then back under the M25.
At the far side continue on the obvious fenced path ahead passing Great Hurst Wood on your left. The woodland comprises mainly coppiced hazel and has a beautiful show of bluebells in the spring. At the end of the woodland the path bends left to reach a point where it splits in two. Take the left-hand path and follow this uphill for some distance passing the pony club eventing fields on your left. At the top you will arrive at a junction with Hurst Road.
Stage 5. Hurst Road to end
Turn right along the road and as you draw level with the road speed limit signs, swap to the left-hand road edge. Turn left into Ebbisham Lane and just before the entrance gate for Pilgrims, turn right through the staggered barrier to join the signed public footpath between fences. At the crossroads in the path go straight ahead and further along stay with the path as it bends first left and then right. At the end keep right through the staggered barrier and follow the stone track ahead which leads you back to The Bell pub. From this point you will be retracing your steps back to the station. Walk ahead with the pub on your right, just until you reach the second pub door. Turn left here to join the woodland path signed to The Avenue. Keep ahead along this woodland track until you reach the grass clearing with signposts at the far side.
Turn left along the tarmac path and follow it to reach the residential road. Turn right along the pavement and then with the gates for Tanglewood on your right, cross over the road to turn left into the tarmac footpath. At the end of this you will arrive at Station Approach. Turn left along the pavement walking downhill and you will come to Tadworth railway station on your right where the walk ends.
Map
The map shows the walk from Tadworth railway station towards Banstead Heath and the Bell pub. It then goes through fields with the racecourse over to the right to reach Motts Hill Lane. After passing Nohome Farm, signs to Langley Vale and reaching Hurst Road, the route goes under the M25. On the other side of the underpass it continues on to St Mary's Church and Headley village and then back under the motorway towards Great Hurst Wood and Hurst Road again before arriving on Ebbisham Lane, back near the Bell pub and then Tadworth station.
Select the map of the route below to open a more detailed version in a new window that can be printed if necessary, using your browser print tool. Alternatively you can save the image to your mobile device for reference on your walk.