Distant Day Out - Oxted

Sometimes you decide to go to a place because you look at the train fare, realise it's relatively low to what you might have expected, and choose to head off. That's why I went to Oxted, though I will admit I didn't spend all that much time there. Is half an hour enough? I'm not sure, but I did get a blogpost out of it, so it can't have been that little!

Oxted hasn't been all that populous an area for most of its history; whilst they did find an iron brooch dating back to the 3rd or 4th century, as in this paper, the place has been a village for most of its history. In 1831, it had merely 959 residents. Yet nearly 200 years later, it's 13,000 strong. This is due in part to the railways, as is often the case, which accelerated the growth of the town.

Oxted station

Part of the eponymous Oxted line, Oxted is the penultimate place - next to the neighbouring town of Hurst Green - before the line splits in two, and services run to either East Grinstead or Uckfield. Of the seven stations from South Croydon to Hurst Green on the Oxted line, it's...Oxted which has the largest patronage - the only station with more than a million passengers annually.

 

The station opened in 1884, and from the outside, with the entrance facing the high street, it looks splendid, with its cottage-esque feel with the sloped roof and the blossoming plants surrounding it. It's quite picturesque from this perspective, and indeed you even get some wonderful tiled mosaics on the corridor walls in the leadup to the platforms. 

Oxted station was the site of suffragette action in 1913, when Harold Laski, future chairman of the Labour Party, planted a bomb which set off in the men's toilets on the 4th March. Whilst the toilets were badly damaged, the bomb itself wasn't successful at hurting anyone, and Laski was only determined to have done this after his wife confessed so, a few years after his death, in 1950. Notably, the bomb attempt took place one day after Emmeline Pankhurst, a prominent suffragette, was arrested.

Oxted high street

As you might have expected, the high street is a blend of shops everyone knows, as well as local businesses and restaurants. There's a large Morrisons down the road, though that's not blogworthy. Tandridge Council are centred here; not in the village of Tandridge, that would be absurd, not even in the largest settlement Caterham. Yet that doesn't stop the buildings here from looking rather splendid, with their timber-framed Tudor-esque architecture, like with this stamp shop. 

 

It might be somewhat clear by now, having wandered around the centre for a bit, that Oxted is a fairly wealthy and well-presented place. MyLondon says "rich Londoners are snapping up all the homes" there, that's clickbait for you. Either way, the North Downs aren't too far from the high street either, and Oxted itself is almost cut off from other surrounding areas. The M25 blocks it from northerly Woldingham, and Godstone and Edenbridge are similarly separated by bands of forest. Yet that doesn't refute Oxted's rather cosy, ornate look.

 

Master Park

Not too far from the station and high street lies St Mary's Church, which is interesting as it's actually quite far from the old Oxted village which predated the railways. The church stems from the 12th cenutry, though there may have been inscriptions dated to 1040 AD - however, these have since been lost to time. The church underwent restorations in 1637 and 1719, with the latter due to a lightning strike, and the most recent effort was in 2018.

 

The church itself is quite lovely, with its quaint architecture shadowing the graveyard in the church's grounds, and it is worth a look if you're in the local area. It's also active to this day, though that's the same for most churches.

Taking a walk down the connecting footpath, I ended up in a forested area, with a dried up channel alongside some small wooden bridges which connect houses to the ground. I'm not sure what the body of water here is, if there even was one - Google Maps marks a river here, Open Street Map doesn't. 

 

Either way, the footpath borders Master Park, the local greenspace for locals to frolic in. There's a playground and white paint outlining a football pitch, along with a cricket pitch and various benches. The park's been here since 1923, though it had intially been allowed for recreational use by the Hoskins Master family by 1920; Charles Hoskins Master, former High Sheriff of Surrey, merely formalised the process with a trust deed in 1923. In the years to come, the park has been used for a cricket fête, as the site of an air raid shelter during World War 2, and in 1976 the British Legion celebrated their 50th anniversary here with a tug-of-war match. It is a wonderful little space, prime for dogwalking and just enjoying the fresh air and the various trees which are planted here.

 

A25 and the River Eden

Beyond this, I wasn't particularly sure what else to do in Oxted. I wandered down to the main road, the A25, which later passes through Godstone, Redhill, and Guildford. To the directly near east lies Limpsfield, a small village where various classical musicians - composer Sir Thomas Beecham amongst them - are buried. I didn't visit Limpsfield and now I regret that, and so perhaps I'll sort out a second post on Oxted later.

Either way, the River Eden flows through Oxted, and at this point is relatively close to its source, which is in nearby Titsey. As time goes on, it gets wider and flows through Edenbridge, before meeting the Medway at Penshurst in Kent. Over here, it's somewhat obscured beneath a road bridge and tree branches which got in the way of my camera lens, but it's still wonderful to see either way. 

 

Admittedly, my trip was somewhat unceremonious. The walk I've described is incredibly brief, and the part where I saw the river was very near to the aforementioned Morrisons. I could have persevered on to Hurst Green, mentioned how Keir Starmer grew up there, but I think that might be worthy of its own post - ditto Limpsfield, and also Holland.

Yet when you see that the regular train fare is far lower than you may have expected, sometimes it's an opportunity you cannot refuse...