In the London Country
Part Two
21 April 2025
ABOVE: Metrobus 6978 (YP09 HWK), a Scania N270UD OmniCity, stands at the Stone Quarry Estate terminus of route 400 in East Grinstead, ahead of the near-two hour journey to Caterham-on-the-Hill. All photographs in this article were taken on Saturday 25 May 2024.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article describing my journey on Go-Ahead Metrobus route 460 from Epsom, in the old 'London Country' area south of the capital. I'm still on that bus, navigating around the small but practical Bus Station at Redhill, Surrey. The 460 now continues to Crawley, and we're currently 16 minutes late. Apart from the Transport for London route 405 from Croydon (red of course), the two-shade blue buses of Metrobus dominate.
ABOVE: Metrobus 6901 (BJ63 UJH), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, at Redhill Bus Station on route 100 (Redhill Park 25 to Maidenbower).
The southern end of the 460 is pretty busy. It's one of three routes that link Redhill to Crawley - clearly an important bus corridor. The service delay has probably added to the number of people boarding at Redhill but we're set for a busy run from this point.
We call into East Surrey Hospital, which is served by at least eight other routes - impressive for a car-centric area like this part of Surrey. Of course, the car park is vast as well...
We take a detour into the village of Whitebushes (presented as one word in some places and as two in others). It is known that the area was populated from ancient times, due to the discovery of an Acheulian handaxe from the Lower Paleolithic Age (the Old Stone Age), and of Iron Age round houses (source: An History of Whitebushes).
From here we continue to the village of Salfords. Salfords Stream runs through the village, and the southern boundary is marked by the Burstow stream - both are minor tributaries of the River Mole. The village once boasted a wooden watermill with two sluice gates, which produced breakfast cereals in the early twentieth century. The trunk A23 road dominates the village (although the M23 motorway keeps a lot of the traffic away nowadays), whilst there is also a railway station on the eastern side of the village.
ABOVE: Salfords Village, looking south along the A23 Brighton Road, at the junction of Honeycrock Lane. The Church of Christ the King is directly in front, on the left.
We cross from Surrey into West Sussex and reach Gatwick Airport, where bus stops on both sides of the dual-carriageway serve the South Terminal and the Railway Station.
ABOVE: A Metrobus Volvo B8RLE Wright Eclipse 3 in traditional livery, that I believe to be 6019 (BJ15 TWU) stands at Gatwick Airport, South Terminal, between journeys on 24-hour route 3 (Gatwick to Bewbush). A Scania N270UD OmniCity stands behind.
And so, finally, into Crawley. Although designated as a New Town under the New Towns Act 1946, the area around Crawley has been inhabited since the Stone Age and was a centre of ironworking in the Iron Age and Roman times.
Becoming a market town in 1202, Crawley's location on the main road from London to the port of Shoreham helped the town to grow, and, when Brighton became a fashionable seaside town in the 17th Century, this brought passing trade, which encouraged the development of coaching inns. The rail link to London and Brighton, opened in 1841, encouraged further development. Today the town is home to almost 120,000 people.
ABOVE: Two Metrobus vehicles are seen in The Broadway in Crawley Town Centre, with 6984 (YP09 HWT, right), a Scania N270UD OmniCity, substituting for a single-decker on route 3. On the left is 6120 (SK19 FBX), a Wright Streetlite DF, on route 2 (Ifield West to Tilgate).
I alight in The Broadway at 1316. We have arrived 22 minutes behind schedule.
After a comfort break, I am back in the Bus Station wondering where to go next. I have in the past travelled on the 273 to Brighton and the 291 to Tunbridge Wells, both of which I would recommend, but I'm after something new today.
And that manifests in the form of route 281, where the 1330 service is just loading up for the journey to Lingfield. A split-second decision - I can make them sometimes - finds me boarding.
This is an 11-year-old Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, but it is immaculate. The front seat legroom is good (makes a change for a Wright Eclipse). We start by passing the main London to Brighton line at Three Bridges, named after crossings over three streams in the area (all tributaries of the River Mole). The railway station stands majestically above the main road.
This is a quiet run. I have the top deck to myself for large parts of the journey, and there aren't many people downstairs either.
We come to the village of Copthorne, which sits on the boundary of Surrey and West Sussex (officially part of the latter). There are stories of smugglers from the south coast stashing their goods in the woods around the village, conscious that it was easy to step across the county boundary and escape any pursuing constabulary!
There is considerable new housing development here, and the bus passes through what looks like a recent addition to the area.
ABOVE: Seen on Worsell Drive in Copthorne is Metrobus 6631 (YN08 DFX), a Scania N230UB OmniCity, working route 281 towards Crawley. In an area that has seen significant numbers of new buses introduced since my visit last year, this-then 16-year-old vehicle is no longer listed as part of the Metrobus fleet.
The twisting nature of the 281 sees it calling into various villages along the way. And how pretty some of those villages are. We come to Crawley Down, in the north-eastern tip of West Sussex, just a mile from the Surrey border to the north, although at this precise moment we are heading almost due south!
ABOVE: The Royal Oak, Crawley Down
As we pass into Felbridge, we are straddling the boundary again, momentarily in Surrey before turning south-east to head to East Grinstead.
ABOVE: On the Copthorne Road, near Felbridge, we find Metrobus 6905 (BJ63 UJN), another Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, heading for Lingfield on route 281.
East Grinstead is the major intermediate town on this route. Standing on the Greenwich Meridian, almost exactly half-way between London and Brighton, its High Street contains one of the longest continuous runs of 14th-century timber-framed buildings in England.
East Grinstead is the major intermediate town on this route. Standing on the Greenwich Meridian, almost exactly half-way between London and Brighton, its High Street contains one of the longest continuous runs of 14th-century timber-framed buildings in England.
ABOVE: I am presuming that these are some of the famous timber-framed buildings - they certainly could be 14th-Century!
A curious fact for those of us with transport interests is that Dr Richard Beeching (1913-1985), the architect of the "Reshaping of British Railways" report that led to the "Beeching Cuts", lived in the area at the time that his report was produced. That didn't prevent the closure of the line from Three Bridges to Royal Tunbridge Wells, which left East Grinstead as a railway terminus from 1967.
Beeching wasn't to blame for the loss of the line from East Grinstead to Lewes, which closed in 1958 - a part of which is now the delightful Bluebell Railway. The town's Inner Relief Road was built along the route of one of the closed railway lines and is named "Beeching Way". It is apparently nicknamed "Beeching Cut" because it is a route that Beeching cut, and runs in a cutting. (My favourite Beeching reference is at the Babbacombe Model Village in Devon, which has a station on its model railway called "Mist by Beeching".)
ABOVE: Metrobus 6786 (GX69 EBG), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, in London Road, East Grinstead, towards the end of a run on route 270 from Brighton.
...And here's a more general view of East Grinstead High Street:
After leaving East Grinstead, we are finally heading north, in the general direction of our destination at Lingfield. We pass through Dormansland, the only village in Surrey to have a direct border with East Sussex (it also borders both West Sussex and Kent).
We finally reach Lingfield, on time at 1441. Several buildings in Lingfield date from the Tudor period, and the timber-frame medieval church is Grade-I listed. The stone cage or old gaol, constructed in 1773, was last used in 1882 to hold a poacher. And, to bring us back to the racing theme that we saw at the start of the day in Epsom, Lingfield Park Racecourse is just to the south of the village.
I alight at the station (the official terminus), but it transpires that I could probably have stayed on for a couple more stops, to the village centre, as buses do a one-way circuit here.
ABOVE: I have just left Metrobus 6912 (BF63 UJU), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, at Lingfield Station.
There isn't a way out of this part of Lingfield by bus without reversing my steps, which I don't really want to do (plus I'd have to wait an hour for the next bus back). I should have gone round to the village, where other options would have been available. But instead, I head into the railway station and take the short-cut back to East Grinstead.
And, after a bite to eat, I find myself ready to travel again, at about the right time for hourly route 400, which will take me all the way back to Caterham, near the Greater London border.
The bus arrives, on time, for its 1604 departure, having originated at the Stone Quarry Estate a few minutes earlier, a location I passed on the 281 trip. This is another Scania double-decker, but this one has audio "next stop" announcements.
The first part of this route heads broadly westwards, and I'm back to Felbridge, where we turn left at the "Star Inn". The Felbridge & District History Group tells us that the site of the Star Inn once formed part of the borough of Heath Hatch. Entries in the Court Book of Lagham from 1561 demonstrate that the brewing of ale and keeping of alehouses and inns in the Felbridge area can be traced back to at least 1560, although it isn't clear whether the Star Inn was one of those early establishments.
ABOVE: The Star Inn, Felbridge
We soon come back round to Crawley Bus Station; quieter now as it's late afternoon and the big shopping rush appears to have finished rushing.
ABOVE: Three Metrobus vehicles are in evidence at Crawley Bus Station. On the left is 6012 (BN14 CVA), a Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse 2. An ADL Enviro200 is parked on the right, whilst a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, still in Brighton & Hove colours having recently been transferred, is behind it.
The bus turns from a westerly heading to a northerly trajectory here. Routes 400, 420 (Crawley to Sutton) and 460 all cover the Crawley to Redhill corridor, broadly by the same routing apart from the 460's detour into Whitebushes.
Just before we reach Gatwick Airport is a major office and industrial park, City Place Gatwick, which looks very attractive on a sunny spring afternoon, with its tree-lined boulevard and modern office buildings.
ABOVE: Metrobus 6958 (YP09 HWD), another Scania N270UD OmniCity, calls at the City Place stop on Beehive Ring Road
The approach to Gatwick Airport is along the A23 London Road, which parallels the Airport's Perimeter Road East and gives a good view of aircraft - if you time it right (which I did...)!
ABOVE: A Lufthansa aircraft descends into London Gatwick Airport
ABOVE: Metrobus 6713 (YX71 OHN), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, seen on the London Road at Gatwock Airport, working local service 422.
It's back past the Hospital, and back through Redhill, after which our northern trajectory becomes an eastern one - we are doing three sides of a square! We reach the village of Nutfield, where around 900 Roman brass coins dating to the Later Empire were found in an earthenware pot along one of the village's roads in 1755.
ABOVE: Nutfield
Then it's over the M23 motorway and into Bletchingley. There are nine buildings in this village that date back to the 16th Century. One that hasn't survived was Bletchingley Place, newly built in 1521 for the Duke of Buckingham, and seized by King Henry VIII. It was given as a residence to Anne of Cleves in 1540, after her marriage to King Henry was annulled. It was demolished by 1670.
ABOVE: Bletchingley
It's a very pretty area, and we're just a few miles away from the Greater London boundary now. Green buses a plenty, including the ubiquitous London Transport / London Country RT, RF and Routemaster classes, would have ploughed these roads until the 1970s.
ABOVE: Godstone Road, east of Bletchingley
We come to Godstone, less than nine miles from East Grinstead as the crow flies, having covered three or four times that distance! Now we turn north for the final run into Caterham. We're back in the North Downs now and cross the M25 motorway once again.
ABOVE: Somewhere in the Godstone Hill area we find Metrobus 6990 (YN18 SCZ), a Scania N250UD ADL Enviro400 MMC, working route 409 (Selsdon to East Grinstead). This is a short to Lingfield
We reach Caterham at 1747, and I leave the 400 at the railway station, bang on time. The bus needs to trek a few minutes further into Caterham High Street, and on to Caterham-on-the-Hill (the town is divided administratively into Caterham Valley and Caterham-on-the-Hill).
We might have crossed the M25, but we haven't yet crossed the Greater London boundary, which is a couple of miles further north. But this is the end of my association with Metrobus for today. I must use red buses from here to get back into Greater London. And red buses look odd after a day of almost universally blue ones!
ABOVE: Transport UK 2402 (SN61 DFO), an ADL Enviro400H, passes Bourne Court in Caterham, at the end of the run from Sutton on route 407.
I've had a lovely day out in the old London Transport Country area, and Metrobus has made a good job of the bus services in this region.
I'll be back at some future point as there's lots more to do!
BELOW: An approximation of the route covered in this article (Parts One and Two)
