Toys Hill - Mariners Hill - Crockham Hill - Toys Hill

Alison and Clive Gilbert

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This walk was originally compiled by Alan and Janet Love; sadly both are no longer with us. Alison Gilbert has kindly offered to take them over. Alison and Walkingworld would like all these excellent walks to remain as a continuing tribute to Alan and Janet.

Hills abound on this lovely circular walk which starts out at nearly 800ft above sea level. Toys Hill is on the highest point on the Greensand Ridge in Kent, from which, on a clear day, four counties can be viewed: Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey.

We start our walk from the National Trust car park at Toys Hill. The National Trust was co-founded by Octavia Hill, who knew this area well and a woodland is named after her at Toys Hill. We descend gradually to the farming levels below, passing through the Chartwell Farm area where Chartwell, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill can be glimpsed, or indeed visited if you wish. We see some fine houses built to take advantage of the superb views from the Sandstone Ridge.

We pass close to Holy Trinity Church, Crockham Hill, which was built in 1842, entirely of local stone. Octavia Hill's grave (1838 - 1912) is under a yew tree on the right of the church entrance. Opposite the post office is a small public garden with seats, while The Royal Oak public house is a little further down the road, should you require refreshments.

We walk through farms and farmland, crossing some delightful meadows on our gradual ascent back to the lofty heights, finally walking on woodland tracks back to our starting point.

England - South England - Kent - North Kent Hills

6/7/2020 - Brian O'Keeffe

Brilliant walk with superb views over the Weald of Kent. A couple of pieces of information regarding the route. i) Point 12, the white gate is still there but almost turned green due to moss etc. so a little care at this point, ii)point 23 there were no electrified fences when we walked the route and the main gate is no longer there (its actually slowly disappearing into the hedgerow beside the field)! and iii) lastly point 31, a small issue only but when you reach the track junction noted, the route you need to take is a gently bear left, which is a level track. Straight ahead is in fact uphill. A failsafe is simply to follow the black NT arrow on the waymark post! Enjoy

6/14/2009 - Leslie Hawkins

I loved this walk! From point 22, the track has been re-routed but we followed the instructions and still managed to get round (despite some rotten stiles!) Quite challenging uphill at the end but it all adds to it... Thanks

7/30/2006 - Ian Whyte

10. The Post Office is now evidently closed - although it is easy to spot the building which housed it.

1/22/2006 - Stephen Harris

Great walk, we did this in the midst of winter, and erm, it was VERY muddy along a lot of the walk.. added to the fun though. Some good views to be had. The stretch towards the end was a killer mind! and we got a little lost at the end bit but not too bad. Instruction 17 (i think) has duplicate pictures and there was a picture missing of the actual farm drive which held us up for 2 minutes. Other than this a good walk for the energetic walker. 7/10.

11/18/2005 - Tony Owen

Wonderful walk, well planned and described.