Starting the Greenwich Meridian Trail
By: snowgood
Tags: Greenwich Meridian Trail, Meridian Monument, Peacehaven
Last year was good for cycling, but I tackled very few long walks.
I hadn’t intended to walk the Greenwich Meridian Trail, but noticed the marker posts beside Weir Wood Reservoir on New Year’s Day.
In my (failed) quest for Fieldfare and Redwing sightings I ended up walking on the trail for a few hundred yards, and had a “light-bulb” moment.
Could I take on a new challenge?
Today was the first day of my 273 mile quest. The aim is to walk from the south to the north, and hopefully complete the walk in 2 years.
I hope to “free up” the necessary time, and remain fit enough to complete the course.
Today I tumbled out of bed way too late, and pushed the viability of “Walk 1” to the limits of the available daylight.
My “end point” was Lewes Railway Station, and the idea was to take a train to Newhaven, and then bus or taxi to the start in Peacehaven.
After paying £6.50 to park for the day I found I’d arrived just too late to catch the half hourly train.
Plan B came into force.
Right outside the station foyer sat an immaculate Peugeot 508 mini-cab. The pleasant driver quoted me £22, and I hopped inside pronto.
The only issue was that Peacehaven covers a really large area, and neither of us knew where to find the “Meridian Monument”.
The cabbie dropped me off at Friar’s Avenue, which was close enough.
It meant I had a short walk to the west, and a chance to go down to the sea wall before officially starting.
I now know the monument stands near the end of Dorothy Avenue.
You can probably guess from the photo, it was rather windy!
The walk “proper” started at 12:48, some 24 minutes after my arrival in Peacehaven.
Snowgood's Blog 
Hi
I walked the full length of the trail over two and a half years and thoroughly enjoyed it. I originally intended to just walk the first two books but once through London I just had to keep going. Where public transport was available, I used it but local taxis proved essential. In the countryside I found that pubs were helpful in finding taxis and over the entire walk I never had to walk back to my starting point through lack of transport. Good luck with the walk you will enjoy it.
Hilda and Graham heap did a grand job putting it together.
John Hobbs
Good to hear about your walking exploits John – I’m hoping to meet up with Hilda and Graham next month. It was an incredibly addictive experience, I’d like to walk it again, but from North to South. Lockdown held me up a little, but it took me about 7 months (virtually all my walking was at the weekends). Roll on retirement when I can do things like this but in bigger stages. Cheers Stephen