Avenue House Service Team
     
     
   
1968 - 1969 - 1970

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Although there is a record of where the first three hikes took place and who attended, there is unfortunately no detailed record of the route taken and only a small number of individual memories worth recording.

As mentioned in the introduction, the first hike of the Avenue House Venture Scout Unit took place over the Whitsun weekend of 1968.

Leith Hill TowerThe participants were  Graham Beevor, Rowland Jackson (Bruno), Phil Knowles, Riki Nisi and Roy Turner.

The destination was Surrey and the key landmark on route was the Tower at Leith Hill, the highest point in South East England. The top of the fortified Gothic tower is 1029 feet above sea level.

Apart from the tower itself, there are only a couple of other recollections of the hike. One comes from Phil, who says:

‘I certainly recall our struggling up the hill
with our packs, through the wood, using the
roots of trees as hand and foot holds. Somebody suggested it was the quickest way up, but it

was also the steepest!’

The other is from Graham who recalls Roy complaining about his progress up the hill – he was taking three steps forward and then slipping back two. He did however; get little sympathy from everyone else who had hiking boots with a proper tread.

Although the full Venture Scout programme included trips in 1968 to Scotland and in 1969 to Switzerland, it was not until December 1969 that the next hike occurred, this in fact being the first ever Winter Hike.

We went back to Surrey with a target of climbing Box Hill, one of the best-known summits of the North Downs and 634 feet in height. The participants on this occasion were Graham Beevor, Peter Cox, John Haworth, Graham Hicks, Roland Jackson (Bruno), Phil Knowles and Phil Morecombe.

We took the train down on the Friday evening and spent the night camping at Walton Firs, a National Scout Camp located near Cobham. On the Saturday the weather turned cold and our route took us through Stoke D’Abernon, Fetcham and Bookham.

As the sky got darker we came across a cricket field and decide to pitch the tents by the boundary. We cooked our meal and after clearing up stored some of our gear in the score hut, thereby providing a bit of extra room in the tents.

After some refreshment at a local pub we returned to the tents and tried to settle down for the night. The two Grahams and Bruno shared one tent while Phil M & John and Phil K & Peter paired up. It was not until that night however, that we finally realised the real disadvantage of camping in winter – the cold. None of us had got much sleep and in the morning someone shouted that it was time to get up. The response from Phil and Peter’s tent of ‘But we’ve only just found out how to keep warm’ will live in the memories of many of us forever.
Again Phil K recalls the event:

‘The Saturday night was bitterly cold and we camped on the edge of the cricket "Stepping Stones" over the River Mole
field behind a pub. Next morning the water in the billies was solid and we had to
melt ice to get a cup of tea. The tents were so frosted they stood up on their own
when we took the poles away. Peter and I shared a tent and, having spent an
uncomfortable night with towels, pyjamas, etc wrapped around our heads and
fully-dressed, we got out of our sleeping bags and laid on top of them, thereby
achieving better insulation from the cold ground and giving rise to the immortal
quote!’

After breakfast we packed up our gear and headed south on our way to Box Hill. We eventually joined the North Downs Way and turned east. The path, that would lead to the top of Box Hill included, at the lower edge, the ‘Stepping Stones’ over the River Mole.

 

Map of the Box Hill areaFrom then on it was a climb up the hill to the viewpoint, where we were able claim that we had achieved our goal.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately the experience of Box Hill had not put us off hiking, but then again the next hike to Hastings was not in the middle of winter but over the Whitsun weekend of 1970.  Nevertheless there were only 3 hikers, namely Graham Beevor, Peter Cox and Phil Knowles.

We caught the train on the Saturday morning to Marden Station in Kent and hiked from there in a mainly southerly direction.

A houseAs we passed the entrance to Benenden School, the only real point of interest on route, we had a brief conversation about Princess Anne having been there. It was then on to Newenden where we spent the night.
Map of Hastings
In the morning we crossed the River Rother, entered East Sussex and continued south.

As we approached Hastings on the Sunday afternoon we were ahead of schedule but not far enough to actually return home a day early. An inspection of the map revealed a possible campsite – a small wood close to a small lake. So, just after Silverhill we pulled off the road and made camp out of sight from the locals.

On Monday morning there was little else to do but to make our way down to the station and catch the train back to London.