Joyden's Wood

Distance:     2.8 Miles (1.5 hours)

OS Map:      Explorer 162 (Start at grid TQ507714 )

Click map to magnify and click again to magnify further

Park in Summerhouse Drive.  From Orpington, go to Crittal’s Corner (by B&Q), take A223 (past Tesco) to Ruxley Corner roundabout.  Go straight across along Maidstone Road towards Swanley.  At first set of lights, turn left (signposted Wilmington).  Pass Birchwood golf club on left and take first left into Summerhouse Drive.  400 yards along the road there is a public footpath sign on left by a bus stop (the second stop along the Drive, named Squires Way).  Park in road just past or just before, but not at, the bus stop. 

Go down the gravel track into the wood and follow the track round a right hand bend.  At a T-junction, with a waymarked post and a seat opposite, turn right.  Follow the track downhill with the back gardens of houses on your right.  At the bottom, turn left.  Walk down the valley for 530 metres until you reach a path on the right with a red waymarked post (bearing a figure 4), very soon turning right at junction.  Follow the path quite steeply uphill and as it levels out and bears left note the clearly visible remains of the Faesten Dic on your right.  On reaching a broader track with information board opposite, turn left downhill.

At junction of paths at bottom, take the valley path on the left.  At T-junction turn right and follow the track along the valley until you reach some wooden railings on the left and there is a stream on the other side.  Continue until track crosses the stream to join another track – turn left and climb through the woods.  At cross-paths, turn right at a waymarked post.  Follow this path, marked by blue waymarks, down steps to valley bottom.  Turn left along the valley and climb until you see a gate ahead, then take a broad path left some distance before the gate.

On reaching a broad clearing, make for far right hand corner.  Take broad track and after a few metres turn right along Faesten Dic walk (but make a detour left to information board first if interested).  Note wooden sculpture of Hawker Hurricane aircraft commemorating the crash in 1940 of a plane piloted by Ian James Muirhead who survived the incident only to be killed in action two weeks later.

Follow Faesten Dic or red waymarks.  Bear right at dried up pond then take left turn.  Cross broad bridleway, follow section of duckboards and pass pond with seat on right.  At another broad bridleway take path opposite and follow edge of wood (golf course on your right) to corner of golf course.  Take path on right and follow, keeping right at every junction, until it brings you back to the gate at which you entered the wood.  Go through the gate and down the track to Summerhouse Drive.

Points of Interest

Geology

Much of the ground underlying the wood, especially the higher ground, is very pebbly – these are the Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel.  There are also Woolwich Beds of clays and sands and, mainly in the lower parts, Thanet bed of sands.  These are collectively known as the Palaeocene which lies above the chalk of the North Downs and below the London Clay that is found further east.  In places there are hollows in the ground known as deneholes – here people have dug through the sands, gravels and clays to extract the chalk below to make the soils less acid and perhaps also to obtain flints found in the chalk.

Faesten Dic

A defensive earthwork built in Saxon times running for about a kilometre through the wood.  “Faesten” means fortress and “dic” means dyke.

Original profile of the ditch

Public Transport

Buses 429 from Dartford and Swanley (infrequently at weekends) and B12 from Bexley, Bexleyheath and Erith serve the stop or the one on the other side of the road 140 metres to the north.  Depending on service, buses to Bexley can be from either stop.

In addition to the walking routes on our web site we have published three popular walking guides:

Guide to Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk and other walks in the area

Guide to the Kent Coast Path: Part 1, Camber to Ramsgate

Guide to Three River Valley Walks in West Kent: Darent Valley Path, Eden Valley Walk and Medway Valley Walk

Please report any problems with this walk to info@kentramblers.org.uk.

Ramblers' volunteers in Kent work tirelessly to ensure that our paths are as well protected and maintained as possible.  Of course we also organise led walks but most of our members are independent walkers who simply want to support our footpath work.  Please join us and become a supporter too.  You need us and we really need you.