Dorking Classic Bus Running Day

Sunday 2nd September 2007

Prepared by Ian Smith, 17th September 2007

Part Five: 412: Surrey Greensand: RF486

Dorking to Leith Hill

Having been to Leith Hill (Leylands Road) last year on a GS, I wanted to get there on an RF. So after a leisurely lunch I made my way down to RF486, which earlier had been wearing blinds for the 93 from Putney Bridge. I think it had deputised for missing RT113. Now it was sporting blinds for the 412 to Holmbury St Mary. We loaded up at the stop, and spun round the roundabout to head back through Dorking. Of necessity we followed the one-way system round past the site of Dorking Garage, where we passed brand new Arriva 3979, an E200 Enviro Dart, on the 465. I gather that these red buses are based in Horsham!

We continued west out of Dorking, up through suburbs and out to West cott, where we passed the thatched bus shelter. The A25 twisted up a cutting through the Greensand Ridge to reach Wotton Hatch. A little further on we turned off onto the narrow lane to Abinger Common, and climbed up through the woods. There was no traffic behind us as we threaded our way up through the rock cutting, and Peter twice stopped the bus for me to take pictures of this strange place to find a London bus ON a route.

We carefully continued up through the narrowest section, where one has to watch for overhangs, and continued up to the clearing at Parkhurst Corner. Our route today was straight up, on the Leith Hill road. This went uphill in a green tunnel of trees for another mile, to reach the apparently isolated terminus of Leylands Road.

Leylands Road emerges from the wood to join the "main" road. Ashes Farm is hidden in the woods to the west, and there is a cluster of houses hidden down Leylands Road. A bridleway goes off through the trees to the summit of Leith Hill. The Leith Hill carpark, for visitors to this high point of Southern England, is a half-mile further on. So why did the buses cme here?

RF486 was reversed into Leylands Road (Crew operation permitted a reversing turn), and photos were taken.

Leith Hill to Sutton

We completed the turn, and rolled back down the long mile to Parkhurst Corner, where we turned left onto the steep, narrow, twisting lane down through the woods to Holmbury St Mary. At the bottom we turned right, past the pair of stops where the modern service buses wait to cross so that they do not meet on the narrow bits. We pulled up at the church, further down the village, just by the Royal Oak pub where an RF used to be outstationed every night.

We continued on down the road through the straggling village, to reach the hamlet of Sutton, where we turned right to reach the Vounteer public house. Here was the terminus of the 412, again requiring a three-point turn with the RF on the triangular junction.

Sutton to Dorking

The blinds were turned to show Dorking Station as the destination, and we reboarded for the return trip - via Abinger Hammer rather than Parkhurst Corner, to avoid the rigours of the steep twisting climb up the narrow lane.

So we turned right out of the Sutton spur, for the short run down to meet the A25 at Abinger Hammer. We headed east then, back along the main road, past Wotton Hatch and down through the twisting cutting to Westcott. Back in Dorking we met another of the new Enviro Darts, 3977, heading for the old bus station. Peter and Steve decided that as they had plenty of time before they were next needed that they would continue to the destination stated on the front, ie Dorking Station. I thought that was a good idea. At the Pippbrook stop we pulled up behind RTL139 on the 93.

It was then that I noticed that BN61 had slipped out of the bus stance to stop behind us, ready for a trip on the 412. Now that was a trip that I really wanted to do, so I jumped ship, and headed for the BN...

Part 6: 412: BN to Sutton: BN61

All photos by Ian Smith (unless otherwise indicated). Click on most of them for a larger picture.

Back to Ian's Bus-stop Part 4 Part 6: 412: BN to Sutton: BN61