A nice sunny Saturday morning with no other commitments once the fortnightly shop is complete must mean a walk is on the cards and today the walk was planned so as to visit the locally listed buildings in Southgate. Our 7 mile, 3 hour, walk kicked off from near Ifield golf club and we headed to Ifield Station, crossing the railway by the footbridge and then following the path of the old Gossops Green Lane all the way to the footbridge next to Snell Hatch Cemetery. In the pre new town days this was the site of a level crossing and we noted that the current bridge is being replaced with a new one.

We then walked down the path alongside the proper railway to the mini railway in Goffs Park and headed up the hill to Goffs Park House before moving onto Goffs Park Road, where we were looking at Masons Hall, via Goffs Manor. After taking a long walk down Goffs Park Road to the Brighton Road we then climbed Hoggs Hill and crossed into new town Southgate via the footbridge, making our way past Southgate Primary school and emerging at the back of Southgate Parade.

After a browse around the outside of St Mary's church, we cut through Baker Close, using the alley by the allotments that leads to Malthouse Road near the St Catherine's Hospice, and headed northwards to East Park at the rear of Crawley Railway Station. We then returned to the Brighton Road, passing the old Imperial Cinema and Nightingale House before turning west along Springfield road, exploring the old early Victorian railway workers 2 up 2 down cottages along the north eastern end of West Street, before comparing them to the larger properties along the rest of the road, where the higher ranked workers would have lived, and the near mansions at the western end of Springfield Road.