Cloudbusting

LETJOG PEAKS Nos 2 & 3: Betsom’s Hill, Kent (251 metres), and Westerham Heights, Greater London (245 metres)

Walk Date: Tuesday 21 March 2023

Local ironstone, excavated from the Titsey Estate, has been incorporated into this ‘Coccolith’ artwork on the ridge of the North Downs near Clarks Lane Farm

Kent’s summit is Betsom’s Hill, a rounded hilltop on the North Downs ridge overlooking the pleasant town of Westerham. This peak has a prominence of only 15 metres, as it is joined along the tops to Botley Hill, a higher point over the border into Surrey. However, nearby at Westerham Heights on the northern slopes of Betsom’s Hill, another of the ‘Ceremonial Counties’ of England, namely Greater London, also reaches its zenith. Accordingly, and whilst exploring the chalk ridge of the North Downs, today’s 13-mile LETJOG Peaks walk covers two ‘County Tops’, preceded by a diversion to the higher Botley Hill.

The route (in the thin dark blue line) starts out in Westerham and follows a clockwise direction through Titsey and up to the summit of the North Downs at Botley Hill before tracking the watershed to Kent’s highest peak at Belsom’s Hill and the adjoining top of Greater London on Westerham Heights

Today I had the good company of my friend Roger Morgan, resident of Kent, who knows these parts much better than me; we met in Nepal in late 2019 whilst trekking up to Everest Base Camp, and it is a pleasure that through this LETJOG Peaks venture we have been able to catch up for a day’s walk together. Thanks for joining me Roger, and for bearing with me on the occasionally tricky navigation!

Major General James Wolfe, remembered mainly for his actions and death at the Battle of Quebec in 1759, was born in Westerham and is commemorated by this statue in the centre of the town

In the drizzle, and after crossing the M25, our path took us up through the rolling fields at the foot of the Downs . . .

. . . towards the scarp slope and the crest above . . .

. . . and up to the leaning trig point of Botley Hill: at 267 metres this hilltop is the highest on the North Downs and is located just over the border into Surrey (although the highest point in that county falls further west and is another walk for another day)

Onto the North Downs Way for a few miles . . .

. . . and over a footbridge where a shoe had been lost . . .

. . . within the aforementioned ‘Coccolith’ . . .

The less than glorious top of Kent is, I read, the only County Top in private ownership and to which public access is not possible, so this view from the gate has to suffice . . .

. . . whilst the tatty sign for these stables off Westerham Hill lies on Greater London’s peak . . .

. . . so we took our ‘summit shot’ nearby, at a slightly more scenic location

Descending the Downs – vines in the under-cliff

. . . and a well-earned cuppa back in Westerham

As a footnote and as far as Greater London is concerned, the 245 metre contour of Westerham Heights was surpassed in 2012 with the completed construction of The Shard at London Bridge. At just under 310 metres this structure is the tallest building in the UK (although surpassed by the Emley Moor transmitting station near Huddersfield), and the partially outdoor viewing gallery on its 72nd floor, at 244 metres, is almost exactly the same height as the county’s topographical summit on the North Downs.

Springtime arriving near today’s two **LETJOG Peaks**

My Blog heading ‘Cloudbusting’ is taken from the title of a 1985 number from ‘Hounds of Love’, the fifth studio album by Kent-born songster Kate Bush. Acclaimed as one of England’s most creative singer-songwriters, Bush spent her early days in East Wickham in the London Borough of Bexley so would have known this part of the North Downs from a young age. Her writing of ‘Cloudbusting’ was inspired by Peter Reich’s 1973 memoir, recalling his father’s attempt to alleviate drought by inducing rainfall via the use of a ‘cloudbuster’ machine. Given the morning drizzle and the day’s grey skies I doubt that Reich Senior would have struggled with his contraption today over the North Downs!

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