Not every great day out starts with a car. Sometimes it begins with a friendly bus driver, a changing view from the window and the sense that you are being carried into somewhere special. This week we focus on Episode Four of Ambles & Rambles, the Leith Hill Place journey, which begins on the Surrey Connect on-demand bus from Dorking Deepdene and celebrates car-free routes into the Surrey Hills National Landscape.
Ambles & Rambles is a free four-part podcast series from Whistlestop Arts. Visit whistlestopart.org/amblesrambles to discover the full series, episode details and route information.
Driver Tony explains how the Surrey Connect service works and how it helps people reach rural places more flexibly, while artist-in-residence Gemma Driskell joins the conversation, bringing a creative perspective from the very start. Like the Frensham to Bourne, Devil’s Punch Bowl and Shalford to Chilworth episodes, it shows that travelling without a car can be practical, enriching and full of unexpected encounters.
At Leith Hill Place, Luna and Annalees move through woodland trails, parkland and the wider setting of this historic site before exploring the house itself. Catherine McCusker from the National Trust shares stories that connect the house to the Wedgwoods, Charles Darwin and Ralph Vaughan Williams, while also reflecting on its continuing role as a place for visitors, creativity and wellbeing.
That sense of Leith Hill Place as a living cultural landscape is deepened through the episode’s focus on contemporary art. Regular guest, Ali Clarke from Surrey Hills Arts introduces the Incubate residency programme, which supports artists in creating work inspired by the Surrey Hills. Gemma Driskell reflects on how working at Leith Hill Place has influenced her sculptural practice and strengthened her connection with the natural world. This creative thread complements the art-and-landscape connections heard in the Frensham to Bourne episode, while the heritage setting echoes the historical richness of the Shalford to Chilworth walk.
The episode also shines a light on wider community creativity through the Growing Together initiative and its Create the Landscape strand, featuring activities from poetry walks to clay workshops, forest bathing and music sessions. Musician and producer Jack Kingslake describes working with Waythrough participants to turn shared sounds and ideas into a final collaborative composition.
Warm, thoughtful and full of fresh perspectives, this episode presents Leith Hill Place not simply as a heritage destination but as a place where nature, art and community all meet. Together with the other new Ambles & Rambles episodes, it helps reveal the Surrey Hills as a place of many stories, reached and enjoyed in different ways.
Ambles & Rambles is commissioned by Surrey Hills National Landscape and funded by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Access for All programme, in partnership with Surrey Hills Arts and Surrey Hills Society, and supported by the Southeast Communities Rail Partnership.
Join Luna and Annalees for gentle, uplifting audio walks through the Surrey Hills National Landscape, with local experts sharing their love of the countryside, community and cultural heritage. Listen to all four new Ambles & Rambles podcast episodes, visit whistlestopart.org/amblesrambles.
