Saturday 28th October St Paul’s Walden - Hitch Wood led by Beryl.

This 7 mile walk started from the village of Whitwell and had 3 walkers.
Leaving the village we crossed the river Mimram and continued up to The Bury, before walking down the driveway to cross the Whitwell Rd.

Beryl between 2 Tonys

Walking up the hill and through the avenue of trees, stopping and looking back offered a good view of the main house.

 

Continuing on towards Norton Street Lane, we headed towards East Hill farm where we had a short break next to the duck pond.
Past Middle EastHall farm we joined Shirley Green Lane heading on for Langley End.
Once again crossing the Whitwell Rd, we entered Hitch Wood where we stopped for a well earned picnic break.

We were then off once again heading towards Stagenhoe house, which is right under the flight path for Luton airport and very noisy when the planes flew over.
Leaving Stagenhoe behind we made our way along the tracks to Chalkleys Wood and Little Bury Wood, past the Whitwell living theatre.
Stopping at Emily’s tea shop for another well earned tea break, we were nearly back at Whitwell.

 

Crossing the river once again, one of the walker’s could not resist, and just had to jump in and clean their boots off.

 

Now heading back through the village, we were soon at our cars for the end of a very enjoyable walk on a nice bright sunny autumn day.

Track of walk, walked in anti-clockwise direction

Thursday 26th October Woburn to Woburn Sands & back led by Tony M

This 7 mile walk had 9 walkers & followed Tony's usual route from Woburn car park, past Marylands to Horsemoor Farm. We then ascend the hill to the reservoir where we stopped for a water break. We then carried on to cross Longslade Lane and entered New Wavenden Heath near a flock of brown sheep.. We followed the track parallel to the lane to the car park picnic area where we stopped for a coffee break and photo..

We then continued through the wood, past the sand pit to descend to Sandy Lane & hence down into Woburn Sands where we crossed the main road to the Fir Tree pub. There we met 4 non-walkers who had driven directly to the pub. After lunch we followed the usual route back to Woburn including the decent of the 84 steps. We passed Birchmoor Farm where the Duke's Range Rover HOW3N was again parked.. We continued to Birchmoor Green where we observed the miniature railway in one of the cottage gardens. As it is no longer possible to cross the brook into the playing fields we continued to Newport Rd & hence through the village to the car park. 

Track of walk, walked in clockwise direction

Sunday 22nd October at 3pm: John Bunyan

 

Today we had something different. 

A speaker from The John Bunyan Museum in Bedford came to Harlington church to talk about John Bunyan's life, works and links to Harlington.

 

Some of us had a short leisurely walk around Harlington first, looking at the Blue Plaques and Hilary kindly told us about them. 

We stopped to look at plants for sale to raise money for brain tumour.

After the talk we chatted enjoying tea coffee and cakes.

Thursday 19th October Clophill - Old Church led by Richard W.

This 3 1/2 mile walk started from Clophill village green and had 7 walkers.
Leaving the village green we made our way out towards Back St passing the Stone Jug, which unfortunately was closed so no early refreshment stop!
Continuing on up to Kiln Farm, we joined and walked down the road before entering the field that would lead us round to Great Lane, for a bit of road walking, before rejoining the footpath.
 

Crossing the bridge taking us up the hedgerows past Pedley Wood and continuing on to St Mary's Old church.

Stopping for the obligatory coffee break, we were soon refreshed and on our way, past the Eco lodges, then down to the edge of the apple orchard, where we were met with a diversion to the original path, which we followed through the field and out on to the road
Past the Village Hall, we were now on Old Church Lane heading back into the village.
Walking along the High St we were soon back at the village green for the end of a very enjoyable walk.
On an overcast but very humid morning with a slight warm breeze at times.

Track of walk, walked in clockwise direction.

 

Thursday 12 October Graveley - 7 miles led by Brenda

 

We had 11 walkers on this walk and everyone managed to find a parking space in the High Street at Graveley.
It was still raining as we started the walk but thankfully not as heavily as it had been on the drive to Graveley. We followed a footpath along the edge of a couple of fields, turning left to walk in a north easterly direction, towards Manor farm, the last few yards being on the road. From Manor Farm the footpath went between two fenced fields until we reached a road. We left the road to have our coffee break in the wood where there were logs for us to sit on, by now it had stopped raining. Continuing along the road we reached Tilekiln Farm and the footpath, the only animals here appeared to be chickens. Again, the footpath continued along the edge of fields until we reached Warren Green and entered Weston Park walking through the park to Damask Green.

In Damask Green we turned left by some houses to walk south westerly, passing some fields which had been planted with fruit trees a couple or so years ago but not looking very healthy now. We stopped for lunch in How Wood where there was a seat and some tree trunks to sit on. After lunch we continued along this path, slowly down hill, with views of the Graveley Pick Your Own Farm, and, if it had been a clear day, nice views of the countryside. We eventually reached Graveley Church

before walking back to the main road and turning left back to the cars

Track of walk, walked in anti-clockwise direction

Thursday 5th October Ardeley walk led by Richard W

 This 7 mile walk started from the Church Farm Shop car park in Ardeley and had 13 walkers. We left the car park and walked along the road that we have driven along a few minutes previously before turning left towards Bennington

Soon we passed a large house where we posed for a group photo.. We then followed a woody trail.

Leaving Bennington we followed a trail westwards before turning north towards Walkern.

On the outskirts of Walkern we came across an exercise area where we posed for a photo.

We soon stopped for a coffee break before walking through Walkern where the pub was closed. We left Walkern and headed back to Ardeley and our cars.

Some members decided to stay on and sample the farm cafe.

Track of walk, walked in clockwise direction.

Thursday 28th September Harlington - Sharpenhoe led by Tony P

This 7 mile walk started from Harlington Village hall and had 17 walkers.
Leaving the village hall, we made our way down towards Harlington spinney, passing the site for the new village housing.

Leaving the spinney we continued along past Dyers Hall farm, before crossing the Sundon Rd, making our way down to the Bottoms and the tracks leading us below the Sundon Hills county park.

 

Reaching our point for a coffee break we stopped for well earned refreshments 

 Making our way towards the Moleskin Hills 

Now walking below the Sharpenhoe Clappers, some of the usual suspects were in front of the leader and yet again we are off in the wrong direction.

Once grouped back together we proceeded on towards Sharpenhoe village, before turning into and walking through Bury Farm 

Once through the farm, we were back on our old friend the John Bunyan trail 

And now the pace quickened in a race to get a position on the log to have our picnic lunch 

 Once refuelled we continued onto Mill Farm before coming out at Lovett Green

Some walkers thought about getting the bus back to the village hall, best of luck with that, the service was cancelled in 2017.

As the farmer had not reinstated a path across the field we walked around the boundary before we started our assault walking up the short trail of Bunyan's Oak, then through Horsehill spinney, we were soon back on the Barton Rd leading us back to the village hall for the end of our walk, on an overcast, humid and at times a very blustery day.

Track of walk, walked in anti=clockwise direction