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Age to Age Walk (map)
The Lingfield and Crowhurst Age to Age Walk was launched in September 1995. It was devised by Heather and Peter Francis, who are both local Tree Wardens. Heather and Peter took their theme from that for National Tree Week in 1993, which was on "Trees for All Ages".The walk takes you on a seven-mile circuit around two of the most notable old trees on the area. On its southern loop, the walk crosses the Wildlife Area.
The first age
The starting point - the first "age" - is the 400-year-old hollow Oak in the centre of Lingfield, at the junction of Vicarage Road and High Street. Its location is ringed in red on the map at the bottom of the page.
Next to it stands St Peter's Cross, dating from 1473, which marked the boundary between two manors. To this cross was later added a village lockup, The Cage. This was built in 1773 and was in use until as late as 1882, when it held a poacher.
The Oak leaf on the walk's waymarking badge, shown above, symbolizes this tree.
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You can see the cross, cage and tree (in full vigour) in this photograph. The tree also appears in the photographs shown and linked to on this page.
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Second Age
The other twig on the walk's waymarker is for the Crowhurst Yew. This stands in the grounds of the 12th century St George's Church, Crowhurst. (Note that this is Crowhurst in Surrey. Crowhurst in East Sussex also has an old Yew tree but that's a very long walk away.)
This huge tree is the other "age" of the walk and is on its northern loop. There is no certainty about how old the tree is, claims ranging between 1,000 and 4,000 years. If the latter is correct, you will 'age' by a millennium a mile on your way there!
Fortunately there is a good public house, the Brickmaker's Arms, not too far away. There you will find a range of elixirs of life to help put the spring back in your step. There's a choice of pubs in Lingfield for when you return.
In early 2002, The Tree Council chose this Yew as one of its "Fifty Great British Trees". There is a photograph and longer description of it on the Web site of the Ancient Tree Forum. The Crowhurst Yew is also featured in Thomas Pakenham's 1997 book, Meetings With Remarkable Trees.
For a discussion of the problems of dating Yew trees, and of their role in British folklore, read this article in At The Edge. At the head of it there's a drawing of the Crowhurst Yew by Lonsdale Ragg. He was the translator in 1907 of the controversial forgery, The Gospel of Barnabas. (See here for more on it.)
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An extract from the brochure for the Lingfield and Crowhurst Age to Age Walk. Email us if you'd like a copy of the brochure sent to you.
The red circle shows the start of the walk, by the boundary Oak in Lingfield High Street.
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