Chaldon, Happy Valley and Farthing Downs (6 miles)

This is another of my London walks, where I try and visit a high point with views over the capital. This time my target was Farthing Downs, a spur of chalk downland projecting northwards into the Thames Basin overlooking the suburb of Coulsdon.

I started by parking near Chaldon Church: there are parking spaces outside the church and in dirt laybys nearby. There is alternative parking (charge) on Farthing Downs, or next to the Fox pub on Coulsdon Common, and the walk could also be done from Coulsdon South station.

Here's a map of my circular walk, which was more of an ad hoc wander than a planned ramble.

Chaldon is a small village high on the North Downs (I passed nearby on my North Downs Way walk). Its history stretches back to Saxon times. Until the end of the nineteenth century, it comprised just the Church and a few scattered farms. The Church of St Peter and St Paul hides an unexpected must-see marvel, namely a nationally important mural dating from the 12th century painted on the West wall, which earns the Church its Grade 1 listing.

Mural: "The Ladder of Salvation of the Human Soul"

Measuring 11 feet high by 17 feet across, and painted in ochre red, it depicts "the Ladder of Salvation of the Human Soul" between Purgatory (at the top) and Hell (at the bottom). On the upper floor (Purgatory), St Michael weighs the arriving souls. Those found wanting are directed down the ladder to the lower floor (Hell). Here, appropriate punishment is meted out by Demons, for example forcing dodgy tradesmen to walk across a Bridge of Spikes: a practice which should be reinstated here on Earth, now. Stopping as I do at many a country church, I am often minded of Philp Larkin's "Church Going" (1954): "Back at the door/I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence/Reflect the place was not worth stopping for." This is not the case for Chaldon. It is well worth stopping for; the donation is now a fiver via contactless credit card, and well worth every penny. (For another interesting church mural, see this walk from my Ridgeway series.)

I wandered across Happy Valley and stopped for lunch at the Fox Public House on Coulsdon Common. I then walked back along Happy Valley to my ultimate goal of Farthing Downs - there are several paths along the valley to chose from. I then walked out along the spur to the Millenium Cairn viewpoint., from where there are good if distant views of the London 'skyscrapers', including Central London (a few towers just visible over the ridge), the City 'clump' (the Shard, as ever, being the most prominent) and Croydon, with Docklands beyond.

Also visible from Farthing Down are relics of two asylums, namely the imposing water towers of Cane Hill to the West, and Netherne to the South. Many such institutions were built around the periphery of London around the turn of the twentieth century. With the advent of 'Care in the Community', these institutions were sold off and redeveloped for residential use, the towers being converted to premium apartments. (This cycle ride visits the site of several such asylums near Epsom.)

Happy Valley lives up to its name, its slopes being chalk grassland which is managed to encourage wild flowers. Farthing Downs is open grass downland: several Saxon burial mounds have been excavated, although in truth they are difficult to discern. The two areas together constitute a SSSI. Happy Valley is managed by Croydon Council. Farthing Down and Coulsdon Common are managed by the City of London Corporation, one of many such open spaces around London placed under their management by Acts of Parliament in 1878. (Another is Ashstead Common, crossed on this cycle ride.)

I returned via Ditches Lane, which was fairly quiet on this early August weekday afternoon. For much of the way, you can follow a path cut through the woods to the side of the road to form part of the Farthing Downs nature trail. By the roadside, you pass a white cast iron City of London boundary marker post, one of many which were erected to 'remind' carters that duties were payable on goods such as coal being brought into the City.

For more London vista walks see here, for example this walk visiting the high points in Croydon.

For a walk along the nearby section of the North Dows Way see here.