Palmer and Villages Rail Trail (Shoreham Station) Preview

Directions

Leave Shoreham station, walk down the steps on the right and turn right under a railway bridge. Follow the permissive path along the field edge towards the village, bearing around to the right at the bottom. Turn left through the timber gate into the churchyard with an avenue of yew trees.

Information

The grade 1 listed Church of St Peter and St Paul, is a largely medieval church with an outstanding late medieval timber-framed porch.

Directions

Leave the churchyard and continue ahead on the road which soon turns right to run alongside the river. When the road turns left to cross a bridge, continue ahead into Darenth Way following the Darent Valley Path.

Information

The white-rendered Water House was the home of the painter Samuel Palmer when he lived in Shoreham in the early nineteenth century. Scan the QR code on the nearby bench with your smartphone (one of the stop points on the Samuel Palmer Trail) to find out more.

DIrections

The road turns into a drive then a path which follows the riverside to the northern edge of the village. Turn left at a path junction, cross the river and walk by a fence to the end of Mill Lane. Turn left and walk up the road to a T junction.

Directions

Take the footpath on the far side which runs parallel to and above the road and then continues along the side of a field. This permissive path climbs steadily but it is not steep and is the easiest route onto the Downs from Shoreham. Leave the field at the top corner and turn left onto a track. Follow the track uphill past a vehicle barrier, ignoring a right fork. It eventually levels out and soon after some steps on the left, leads to the Shoreham Cross.

Information

The cross was carved out of the chalk hillside in 1920 as a memorial to residents of the village lost in World War I. It is listed as a scheduled monument and maintained by Shoreham Parish Council.

Directions

Follow the path through open and wooded sections past a crossing path. At the end of the track, enter the field through the kissing gate and walk across to the woods on the opposite side.

Information

This field is known locally as the ‘Sound of Music Field’ from which there is a lovely view across to the other side of the valley.

Directions

The next section follows permissive paths on land owned by Sevenoaks District Council through Shoreham Woods. Continue ahead across the field to a stile that leads into woodland. A narrow path leads ahead slightly downhill, soon joining a wider track. Stay on this track past a picnic table and then down to a junction at the bottom edge of the wood.

Directions

Turn right and up a few steps to enter Polhill Bank Nature Reserve. Head uphill through another kissing gate to the top edge of the downland and then along the woodland boundary to a well-positioned seat in the top corner.

Information

Polhill Bank nature reserve is almost four hectares of chalk grassland on a southeast-facing hillside, managed by Kent Wildlife Trust. Many common chalk grassland flowers can be found here such as orchids along with various butterflies, insects and birds.

Directions

Turn left and head steeply downhill. Informal steps have been cut into the hillside but this section may still be slippery in wet conditions. Go through a gate at the bottom of the steep section, leaving the reserve, and continue to descend more gently on a track between fields leading to Filston Lane. On emerging onto Filston Lane, cross the road onto another footpath. Follow this path to the entrance to a field passing a curved wall.

Information

Curved walls such as this one are known as ‘crinkle crankle walls’ or ‘serpentine walls’ and there are very few such examples in Kent.

Directions

Cross onto another path with Sepham Farm to the right. This leads to a T junction at the entrance to a field. Turn right and then left at the corner of the field. Follow this path avoiding all turnings, crossing a small stream (Twitton Brook, a tributary of the Darent) and crossing fields to reach Pilgrims Way West in western Otford.

Directions

Turn left and follow the road down to the bridge over the river where it becomes the High Street. Further along there is a second stream crossing at a higher level.

Information

This stream used to serve a mill to the north of the road. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1924 – an interpretation board here contains more information on the fire and the history of the mill.

Directions

For the centre of Otford and Otford Station, continue along the High Street (the station is past the duck pond heading up the hill). To return to Shoreham station, turn left by the mill stream (signposted as the Darent Valley Path) onto a drive and at its end, continue on a path that leads into a field. Follow the edge of this field initially next to the river, though it soon curves away to the left. At a junction with a surfaced track continue ahead, now on the right edge of the field.

Information

There are more good views here looking west across the valley to the Downs. Much of the valley side is wooded but the more open patch straight ahead is Polhill Bank and further right the sloping field crossed earlier can also be made out.

Directions

At the far end of the field, join an enclosed path with the Darenth Valley Golf Course now on the right. The path ends at a surfaced lane. Turn right and head uphill to the next path junction. Turn left here on a path that skirts around the edge of a cricket ground and then a little further on, crosses a fairway of the golf course before eventually reaching a road. Turn right to return to Shoreham station.

Directions

Head steeply downhill keeping to the left edge of the field. A gate in the bottom corner leads onto a track that runs down to Filston Lane. Cross to Water Lane and when the lane ends continue alongside a stream (a channel of the River Darent) to a footbridge. On the far side join a surfaced track which leads across the main channel by a former mill and climbs out of the valley bottom to a junction with a path on the right. (The main route is re-joined here and followed to the end of the walk).