Sevenoaks Running DaySunday May 18th 2014Prepared by Ian Smith, 29th May 2014.403: Sevenoaks to Brasted: RF633I was back at Sevenoaks just in time to swap RFs, joining RF633 for a Brasted trip. Turning in the road at Brasted not being a good idea in modern traffic conditions, we travelled out to Brasted as a 403.We loaded up at the bus station, then headed out towards the War Memorial, where we dived down leafy St.Botolph's Road to Tubs Hill Station. There we met RF226, parked in the layby opposite the station looking distinctly lop-sided as it waited for the service van to change a punctured tyre.
We crossed the hump to Riverhead, then gently climbed up through Bessels Green and trundled along the A25 through Sundridge to Brasted. While we waited departure time at Brasted we met RT3148 coming back from Westerham with a 403. Glorious!
413: Brasted to Sevenoaks: RF633We turned left into a narrow Chart Lane, and climbed a green tunnel up onto The Weald. The climb went on for two miles, rising 135metres (400 feet in RF units). Fortunately there was very little traffic. Two miles of green heaven.
Up on The Chart (a common name hereabouts) we turned left into even narrower Emmetts Lane. Not a place to meet oncoming traffic. We were fortunate, and emerged from the end by the gates of busy Emmetts Garden - a National Trust property. We dropped a couple at the end of Emmetts Lane, and turned right up Sundridge Road to Ide Hill.
We had a couple of minutes to stand at The Cock (a male plough horse, in case you were wondering, despite the newly painted pub sign: someone at Greene King does not know his local history. Still, it could have been worse!).
Setting off from Ide Hill, we carefully descended the hill to the main road, and turned left up Wheatsheaf Hill before forking right. Magnificent beech forest. A little further on we turned off the narrow lane onto an even narrower one: Rycroft Lane. That joined another narrow lane, and widened into White House Road. We soared over the deep cutting of the A21 Sevenoaks by-pass, and turned left, briefly. Oak Lane gets narrow, so we waited a while for Ron to arrive on the Ide Hill service. Eventually we carefully progressed to the Cross Keys, where we met RF146 as it turned out of Ashcroft Road.
Ashcroft Road, skirting round the western edges of Sevenoaks, was another very narrow lane, but led to schools: hence the routing. We climbed over the top of the hill, forked left, then turned into Solefields Road, that led straight as an arrow down to join the main road at the south end of the town. We wiggled our way through the town to the bus station, where we pulled in behinf RF600, which was loading for the next 413 via Brasted. OR1 was also fully loaded again for another trip.
RF28 was next, loading for the 704...
Part Five: Farnborough and back
Photos by Ian Smith. Click on any of them for a larger picture.  Ian's Bus-stop
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