Hi, what with the weather brightning up a little and the days getting a little longer I'd like to clear the cobwebs from my car. I am based in north surrey, any suggestions? I normally go down the A25 or A3. I'd like some dual carrige way and maybe some twisty B roads. All the roads round here are 40 limits and often busy. I know its hard these days. Maybe somewhere down near the coast? The only good bits I can remember are round Romney.
Anyway, looking for some ideas so please hit me with your routes. (oh, Scotland is out of the question although it does have some of the best, and most frightening(!) roads I know off). Please routes only in Surrey/West Sussex please.
Cheers all.
Jim
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Try going down the A3 to Gulford and then follow I think A25 to Dorking, follow signs to London try going back via Effingham and Cobham.
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A3 to 'Ockham Bites', off there round Ripley/Ockham etc etc, then M25 to Chertsey, off there and round Chobham. Suits me fine anyway. :^D
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A3 to Portsmouth, A27 to just past Chichester.,then the A285 to Petworth is a classic driving road, fast and swoopy, few speed limts and no cameras. then the A283 from Petworth to Milford at the A3 is a lovely relaxed drive throught delightful villages like Chiddingfold.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thanks for all the suggestions, I've done the A25/A3 run a few times, I use that route a fair bit anyway and it is a nice ride.
TVM, your route sounds good, I'll pop it in my TomTom later on and have a look. I'm sure I have one of those old fanshioned paper maps somewhere!
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I'm with TVM - I used to use the Chichester/Petworth/Milford road most days on my commute, and there's great fun to be had :-)
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That's interesting - the A3 / A25 circular is one of my regular test drive routes which I use if I haven't used the car much and need to let it stretch it's wheels.
In my case starting from Epsom I go A24 - A240 - A3 - Guildford - A25 - A24. Funnily enough I did this one today; it's 44 miles home to home and took 1h20.
Another of my regular test routes is A24 Dorking - A25 - Reigate - A217 - Burgh Heath - Epsom. This one is 24 miles and depending on the traffic usually takes 0h50 to 1h00.
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OK - Take your marks....
Assume your starting positions in Reigate , take A25 to Dorking, left onto A24 and about 1 mile just after Golf Club bear left signposted Newdigate .
Go past ( or stop at ) The Plough at Blackbrook and follow the country roads to Newdigate go past ( or stop at ) Six Bells, proceed onwards to Rusper Village , past (or stop at ) the Plough or Star or for a really nice Sunday Lunch go to the Ghyll Manor Country House Hotel.
With Star pub on your left hand side proceed towards Horsham , bear right on A264 at the roundabout and then at next roundabout take a left onto A24 again towards Worthing , take slip off dual carriageway to Broadbridge Heath and head towards Five Oaks , at Five Oaks bear right onto A29 and back up to Ockley , in the village of Ockley turn left up to Coldharbour and Leith Hill and find your way back to the A25 and Dorking , head north past Denbies Vineyard to the Burford Bridge Hotel at the bottom of Box Hill.
Take a right , you can stop at the car park at the bottom for a cuppa and look at the motorbikes then head up Zig Zag Hill for a stunning view over the south of England . Carry on along the top of the hill towards Headley and then take a right and right again down Betchworth Hill. Take a left at the roundabout after the level crossing back towards Reigate. If you are still in need of a pint turn right at Reigate Heath towards the windmill and Golf Course then left Bonnys Road , very potholed and visit the Skimmington Castle.
If thats not a good mixture of roads I do not know what is .
Time of the run depends on how much time you spend in eack pub.......
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The A272 from Petersfield to Winchester is not bad, although you want to be on it before the chuggers...say before 9 or 10 on a week-end. Thursley through to Tilford and a few pints in The Barley Mow could be another good idea, but would make the A3 both fast and twisty on the way home. Bikers love it partly for that reason. Yorkshire Moors is the best in England that I know - Hemsley is full Sunday mornings with bikers swopping notes before swooping over the clear, no-hedge bends.
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Helicopter, was waiting for your last coment - there used to be some really good pubs in that area, as well as going a little further over to Abinger, for the pubs and the roads. Does the Punchbowl near Ockley still do the best steak sandwiches?
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I have not been in the Punchbowl at Oakwoodhill for quite a while. Nice pub. I might just give it a try again , its only half an hour from me .
I was embarrassed a few years back when I took SWMBO for a birthday meal meal there and forgot my credit cards. We had a slap up meal with wine and then I found I didn't have my cards or enough money on me to pay so I had to borrow from her to pay for her birthday meal. She was not amused.
The Punchbowl used to be a haunt of Oliver Reed who lived in Ockley ( well all the pubs around Dorking and Ockley were a haunt of his !)
ISTR that he got banned from there ( or was it possibly the Cricketers in Ockley ) for racing a friend to climb up the chimney of the huge open fireplace and covering everything with soot ........
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For anyone interested in taking a drive there I attach a link - it still seems to get good reviews for the food so I may just take a drive there myself at the weekend.
www.horshampub.co.uk/punchbowl.html
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A drink with Oliver Reed! A life enhancing experience ... although it was probably the drink that killed him. I understand that his final sessions in Malta were monumental. Were the best British actors all extreme boozers?
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When we were at Farleigh Wallop, which is a village south of Basingstoke , they used the Keepers Cottage as the Admiral Benbow in Treasure Island.
As locals we were allowed to watch and saw Chalton Heston,who's son was directing or something,Christopher Lee and others.
I was not around when Oliver Reed was filming ,but, he and his mates drank the local pub , the Fox, dry ,taps and optics.
Must of been a hell of a night.
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Not in Surrey, but i can recommend the B4011 between Thame & the A41 near Bicester Oxfordshire, a very quick road between the market downs that goes through a section of Buckinghamshire, plent of fast corners too.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I think Olly Reid was probably the most noted boozer of his generation and he did end up being banned from numerous pubs in the area around his home . He was amusing when he had a couple but an absolute nightmare when he got drunk.
Quite a few British were extreme boozers - I also remember seeing Richard Harris , another legendary drinker in the Coal Hole in the Strand a few times not long before his death ( looking more like God than God with his long white hair and beard)
Talking of legendary drinkers , George Best used to live not far from me at one time and was , despite his liver transplant a patron of lots of North Surrey pubs , the trouble is he used to drive there and back.
He lost his licence a couple of years ago before his death.
The younger generation of pop stars seem to be taking over the mantle but problem these days is combining drugs and driving not drink.
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I got drunk with Ollie about 1980 in the Prince of Wales in Westcott. We ended up falling down the stairs to the gents, I broke my wrist, and he broke out in a grin,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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In my youth I did a bit of market research interviewing. Around 1960 when living in Wimbledon I did some door-to-door interviewing in my neighbourhood there the afternoon, which could get responses from housewives and retired people (in those days). One of these afternoon respondents was a young, charming and very quiet and well-behaved Oliver Reed - it was his real name - who gave his profession as 'actor'. That explained why he was in on a weekday afternoon. Of course the interview was very boring, but that particular respondent was as good as gold.
There was no sign of hell-raising tendencies, mid-afternoon intoxication or any of the bloodshot eyeballs/broken veins side-effects of these things. I myself then and later had more than a nodding acquaintance with booze and so forth, but in the mid-afternoon we were both on our best behaviour. Just as well really because I can't stand tiresome drunks even when I am being one myself.
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