Vanguard Way
The Vanguard Way is a 106 km or 66 mile way from East Croydon Station to Newhaven via the Seven Sisters, it passes over the North Downs, though the Ashdown Forest and then finishes on the South Downs. It passes near to many towns such as Oxted, East Grinstead and Uckfield before finishing in Newhaven. The route connects with many other routes such as the London Loop, North Downs Way, Wealdway and the South Downs Way.
This route has an interesting and original history having been created by walkers from the Vanguard Rambling Club or drinking club in 1978. The club still exists and maintains an excellent website detailing the history and with lots of downloadable information such as GPX files and PDFs detailing the transport and facilities that can be found along the route. There are not many towns directly on the route but as noted above there are many near to the route which makes for reasonable transport links if you are doing the walk as a series of day trips.
The route is generally well marked with green signposts and router markers on posts with a coloured circular marker with the text VGW set within it. There are plenty of these signposts and markers but there are occasions where you will find that a map is necessary. I used the ordnance survey app, which I found very useful.
The actually walking is fairly relaxed and level though you need to go over the chalk downs so there is some hill walking. The route is mainly on footpaths and tracks though there is some road walking, though this is to be expected as the route starts directly outside East Croydon station.
Sections walked
- East Croydon to Oxted
- Oxted to East Grinstead
- East Grinstead to Buxted
- Buxted to Berwick Station
- Berwick Station to Newhaven
Useful links
The content of external links cannot be quaranteed but was correct at the time of writing