Photo: allen watkin from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0Reigate is a market town below the North Downs, with Priory Park by the town centre and walks on Reigate Hill and Gatton Park above it.
Reigate is a market town below the North Downs. Priory Park, on Bell Street at the edge of the town centre, is a park of historic interest with lakes, a café in the pavilion, tennis courts, a skatepark and a playground with a sensory area and a splash area, which is turned off in winter. The play area closes on Tuesday mornings for maintenance. The council has recorded 13 bird species of national conservation concern in the park, including kingfisher and kestrel. Above the town, the National Trust looks after Reigate Hill and Gatton Park, with fort open days and guided walks. Surrey County Council publishes an easy two mile circular walk around Gatton Park, parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, starting from the National Trust car park on Wray Lane, where there are toilets and a café kiosk.
Reigate station is managed by Southern and has step free access to all platforms, some by ramps or streets, with 58 parking spaces. Redhill, next door, has a larger station on the main line. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council runs pay and display car parks at Bancroft Road, Bell Street and Upper West Street, with the Town Hall and London Road car parks open at weekends. Charges apply from 8am to 6pm, two hours costs £2.80, and parking is free on Sundays and bank holidays. Every council car park takes RingGo. The Wray Lane car park is run by the National Trust and charges non-members.
Photo: Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0A park of historic interest off Bell Street in Reigate, with lakes, a sunken garden and plenty of wildlife. Families come for the playground with sensory and splash areas, the skatepark and the café in the pavilion.
Photo: Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0A lowland heath on the western edge of Reigate with heather and acid grassland, designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve. Bronze Age burial mounds, between 3,000 and 5,000 years old, survive on the heath as scheduled monuments.
Photo: Gaius Cornelius, CC BY-SA 4.0A chalk escarpment on the North Downs with views south across the Weald, linked along the North Downs Way to the Capability Brown landscape of Gatton Park. Reigate Fort, built in the late 1890s to help defend London, sits beside the path.
Photo of Redhill: Peter Whatley, CC BY-SA 2.0Part of the Redhill and Earlswood Commons, one of the largest areas of public open space in the borough, with two large lakes, ponds, wetland and grassland. It is a Local Nature Reserve, and the Lower Lake is recorded as early as 1363.
Photo: Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0A historic parkland laid out by Capability Brown with Edwardian gardens, on a private estate owned by the Royal Alexandra and Albert School and opened by the Gatton Trust on monthly open days. Visitors enter through Gatton Hall, where refreshments are served in the ballroom overlooking the park.
A family farm estate near Redhill with a farm shop and butchery, garden centre and gift barn, set in 150 acres of pasture, ancient woodland and lakes. Its Discovery Land is a waymarked family nature trail through woods and meadows and around the lakes, with seasonal themes.
A 21-hectare wetland reserve along the Redhill Brook, part of the Nutfield Marshes, a chain of wetlands restored from old sand workings between the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge. A footpath crosses the site, and in winter the brook can flood it into one large lake.
Photo: Peter S, CC BY-SA 2.0Open heathland, chalk downland slopes and mixed woodland with a wide network of tracks for walking, cycling and riding. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with heather, gorse, deer and heathland birds such as stonechats and woodlarks.
Photo of Reigate: allen watkin from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0Reigate Business Guild closes Church Street for its Christmas fayre, the town's busiest day of the year, with food, drink and gift stalls and a tombola. The day ends with the Christmas lights switch-on.
Discovery Land's outdoor play trail gets a Halloween makeover as the character Brother Hay opens a School of Trickery. Children complete trick training stops through woodland and meadows to earn a trickster rank.
Priory Farm has grown pumpkins since 1986 and this year planted 65,000 seeds across 12 acres, with 27 varieties. Visitors can drive to the field and pick their own, or ride out on a tractor and trailer from Discovery Land.
A sports and social club bonfire night near Redhill, with a bonfire, fireworks and a disco afterwards. Food and drink, including alcohol, are sold on site.
Held on the Saturday nearest 5 November, Brockham's village bonfire is built by hundreds of volunteers over many weekends and raises more than £20,000 a year for local causes. The day builds from a charities fair to a torch procession, the lighting of the bonfire and fireworks on the green.
A family farm estate near Redhill with a farm shop and butchery, garden centre and gift barn, set in 150 acres of pasture, ancient woodland and lakes. Its Discovery Land is a waymarked family nature trail through woods and meadows and around the lakes, with seasonal themes.
Photo: Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0A park of historic interest off Bell Street in Reigate, with lakes, a sunken garden and plenty of wildlife. Families come for the playground with sensory and splash areas, the skatepark and the café in the pavilion.
Photo: Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0A lowland heath on the western edge of Reigate with heather and acid grassland, designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve. Bronze Age burial mounds, between 3,000 and 5,000 years old, survive on the heath as scheduled monuments.
Photo: Gaius Cornelius, CC BY-SA 4.0A chalk escarpment on the North Downs with views south across the Weald, linked along the North Downs Way to the Capability Brown landscape of Gatton Park. Reigate Fort, built in the late 1890s to help defend London, sits beside the path.
Photo of Redhill: Peter Whatley, CC BY-SA 2.0Part of the Redhill and Earlswood Commons, one of the largest areas of public open space in the borough, with two large lakes, ponds, wetland and grassland. It is a Local Nature Reserve, and the Lower Lake is recorded as early as 1363.
A 21-hectare wetland reserve along the Redhill Brook, part of the Nutfield Marshes, a chain of wetlands restored from old sand workings between the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge. A footpath crosses the site, and in winter the brook can flood it into one large lake.
Photo: Peter S, CC BY-SA 2.0Open heathland, chalk downland slopes and mixed woodland with a wide network of tracks for walking, cycling and riding. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with heather, gorse, deer and heathland birds such as stonechats and woodlarks.
