There was once an A2024 heading east out of Chichester, but a WW2 airfield severed that so the B2024 is now all we have.
It's 3½ miles long, starts in Kent, ends in Surrey and comes within a mile of Greater London... twice. It's also a climber, tackling the scarp of the North Downs to terminate at its highest summit. Which is not bad for a B road.
It kicks off in the middle of Westerham, a proper Wealden town with a coaching inn, tea rooms and a historic high street lined by independent traders. This road doubles up as the A25, which used to be dreadful for traffic until the M25 whisked most of it away, of which more later. Much of Westerham's charm is because it never gained a convenient rail connection to London so never fully expanded, but you can get there by London bus from Bromley so I sped in without much difficulty.
The B2024 bears off to the north at the end of Market Place, just past the Co-Op and opposite the slightly pretentious apothecary. It's signposted towards Croydon although the road has no intention of getting that far, instead merging into the B269 at the top of Titsey Hill. The road's immediately residential, and also turns out to be the place where shoppers driving to Westerham park their vehicles, dropping at least 50p into a machine for the privilege. A few nice old houses start things off, the most striking being a converted oast house called The Oast House, but things swiftly get more suburban. Raise your eyes above the rooftops and as the road gently descends it reveals a distant green escarpment above a thick stripe of woodland.
The first point of interest is the town's fire station, a postwar brick building hosting a single vehicle, where I observed the crew engaged in some kind of minor exercise around the back. On the second bend things gets a bit bungalowy, and after that a clear social divide sets in with a few lucky souls in rambling detacheds on the right and the general hoi polloi on the left. Before long the road passes the town sign ("twinned with Bonneval") and the speed limit rises from 20 to 30 to do what you like. The last structure of any significance is the Westerham Pressure Reducing Installation, now an ugly mess of pipes but for almost a century the site of the Westerham Gas and Coke Company which supplied gas to the town. And then the pavement runs out.
I like a country walk but three miles along a semi-busy B road didn't appeal. There was at least a verge but it was a bit mushy and I wasn't sure how far it might continue. Fortunately I'd planned for this in advance and was ready to ride the only bus route that runs the length of the B2024, Metrobus's 595. It runs only three times a day, one of which is early evening, so I made sure I was in town for the first journey at noon. I had to ask for a ticket to Titsey, which I managed with a straight face, and yay it's still only £2 to take an out-of-London bus. We reached the gasworks on the outskirts of town in a jiffy and there, just around the next bend, was the M25. Westerham wasn't gifted a junction of its own so from down here to up there would require at least an 8 mile drive.
Beyond the motorway are recently clipped hedges, sodden fields and insufficient farm cottages to keep a bus service in profit. As the road bends briefly to the north two things happen. On the right-hand side a vineyard appears taking advantage of the lower downland slopes. It's owned by the Squerryesestate, the local Westerham landed gentry, whose brut and rosé have won a number of awards and whose Champagne Experiences are advertised as being helicopter-accessible. The field on the left-hand side looks less interesting but is actually the first field in Surrey because we're about to switch counties. The precise crossover point is at the junction with the Pilgrims Way, a track that was once a walking route to Canterbury following the spring line at the foot of the chalk ridge.
And then the climb steepens, but not too severely because whoever first laid this road had the sense to send it diagonally up the scarp. One further farm puts in an appearance, and another can then be seen down below surrounded by a swirl of muddy tracks. Being winter the view through the trees was increasingly impressive, looking far across the M25 towards the High Chart, but my fellow passengers were nonplussed and continued to stare ahead or down at their phones. The next single track road to join us is called Rectory Lane, but within a few hundred metres becomes Clacket Lane, the minor road after which the M25's southernmost service station is named. There are no other McDonalds within a five mile radius.
The 595 bus runs the full length of the B2024, pausing near the end to make break for a double run to Tatsfield. This is the chief reason why it operates, to provide these Surrey villagers with a link to Westerham or Oxted, not to serve the sparse folk inbetween. I rode the bus to the very end of the road where I was kindly dropped off, but then walked back to the foot of Church Lane enabling me to describe the remainder of the road in pedestrian detail. I recognised this minor junction, and you might too because it's where the North Downs Way long distance footpath crosses the B2024. A few steps led me down through a wood to a chalky footpath along the top of a ploughed field where I disturbed an unflappable pheasant. But I was most taken by the landscape, indeed a shaft of light though showery skies made me audibly gasp.
This is why following an insignificant B road with the same number as the calendar year into the middle of nowhere is in fact an excellent idea, because why else would anyone find themselves beside a circle of stones as the midwinter sun illuminated the rolling Weald? If you need a better excuse to visit try the Titsey Tap Room across the road, a microbrewery of five years' standing offering IPA, pale ale and rotisserie chicken. I fear the Titsey branded hoodies sell well, and I'm mildly suspicious that the head brewer's name is truly Chris Vroom, but alas the big shed is only open to the public from Thursday to Sunday so I missed out. Looks tempting though. And onwards up the hill.
It looks gentle but it's quite some hill - higher than anywhere in Greater London despite being only half a mile from the boundary. A radio mast has been plonked in the middle of a field at the point where the contours hump, and marks the location of the BBC's former shortwave-friendly Tatsfield Receiving Station. At the nearby crossroads is an old wooden bus shelter for the use of people who, because absolutely nobody lives here, must've walked a very long way to reach it. For the road's last half mile a broad verge offers respite from the traffic, or you could take a lower footpath through the trees but after recent weather that demanded intermittent wellies and I'd only brought walking boots.
The B2024 terminates at a mini roundabout on the B269 which is the main road from Oxted to Croydon. A small car park welcomes walkers to the TitseyPlantation and also marks the top of the most breathless climb on the North Downs Way. The trig point which officially marks Botley Hill's 269m above sea level is a short distance along an unclassified road, and a farmhouse inn (welcoming mostly drivers) can be enjoyed just up the Croydon Road. Being here in spring or summer offers more options, to be honest, but the peak of the North Downs is a fascinating spot to have been deposited by the ridge-climbing B2024. The B2025 lurks at the foot of Titsey Hill, a brief connector within the village of Limpsfield, but looks to be a complete disappointment in comparison so I doubt I'll bother B roading next year.
