Category Archives: Walking

Lockdown Walk – Wheathampstead (27^th February 2021)

Stretching the word “local” again, this time I chose a circular walk, starting (and finishing – that’s how it works with circular walks…) in Wheathampstead. This time less eventful, but there appeared to be several interesting features…

Devil’s Dyke

The first site of interest is known as “Devil’s Dyke”. Before we look at this any further, let’s talk about the word “dyke”. Surely, it can only be the English language where one word can mean almost complete opposites: according to the Oxford Dictionary it means either “a long thick wall that is built to stop water flooding onto a low area of land, especially from the sea”, or “a channel that carries water away from the land”. How can something be either a wall (that’s what we call a “dijk”), or a ditch…? I sometimes wonder how it is possible we get anything communicated in English…!

Back to Devil’s Dyke: excavations suggest that it was constructed between 75-50 BC, perhaps to protect an “oppidum” (a large fortified settlement in the Iron Age). It is also suggested that Julius Caesar fought the English king Cassivellaunus here; however, there is no evidence for or against that this battle actually happened here.

Part of the land that once was part of the oppidum, defended by Devil’s Dyke

John Bunyan’s Chimney

The next site of interest is “John Bunyan’s chimney”: all that is left of a 17^th cottage where John Bunyan was said to have stayed and preached on his journeys.

According to the information sign, the cottage – except for the chimney – was demolished in 1877. A plaque was then put on the chimney, reading “John Bunyan is said by tradition to have preached and occasionally to have lodged in the cottage of which this chimney was a part“

Cottages replacing cottage where Bunyan stayed and preached

When the cottage (together with 2 adjacent cottages) were demolished, the cottages across the road (photo above) were built instead.

Spring has sprung

Even if it was just end of February, it really felt like a spring day. Of which the following evidence:

Note how the snow drops (left) seemingly grow out of the dead leaves from last year… Reminded me of God’s promise after the flood when Noah and his family were the only eight people to survive in the whole world:

21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Genesis 8:21-22 (KJV)

Verse 22 is what I thought of, but verse 21 is so encouraging in the current time when so many people die with corona.

River Lea

The last part of the walk followed part of the Lea Valley Walk – a long distance walk following the river Lea from Luton to east London where it joins the Thames.

My walk description calls the river Lea “Hertfordshire’s largest river”… but every time I hear such things, I feel a bit like Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, who was told by the prophet Elisha to go wash in the river Jordan to get recovered from his leprosy: he thought the rivers in his own country much better than any of the waters in Israel. The comparison is not exact, but this is not what I would call a river… it’s no more than a trickling stream…!

And finally – sign of the times…:

Lockdown Walk – Sandridge (23^rd January 2021)

Here in England, during lockdown III, we can go for a “local” walk – once a day. But as there is only so much I can reach by just stepping out of my front door, and to keep myself mentally healthy, I decided that a short drive was still “local”. After a look round on the world wide web, I found a nice walk near Sandridge, just north of St Albans. Looking forward to seeing something different than just the village I’m living in, I cheerfully started walking, not knowing that I would actually even have a bit of an adventure as well… ?

Sandridge (in the distance), seen from Heartwood Forest

A nice, cold day – there was even a hint of sleet for a few minutes – great for a nice walk. Nice light, together with some dark clouds makes for interesting (I know… personally choice…) pictures:

Nice light and dark clouds in the background…

The walk was graded easy, but with my lack of exercise during the covid period, I felt my legs, even doing rolling hills like these:

And he (she?) just posed for me, giving me ample time to select the right lens… If all else fails, that may well be my New Year’s cards sorted for this year:

Robin redbreast, posing to get his picture taken

Even if it was nice weather that Saturday that I went out for this walk, we have had quite a bit of rain during the winter months. So some parts of the route were rather boggy…:

And then, I got to this tree… Thought it would make for a nice picture against the blue sky, with a bit of cloud as if it was smoke coming from a far away house, the moon out (just above the tree). So a photo I took. Then checked my phone to see if I was still on the right path, and continued my walk… not knowing what had just happened…

Where the adventure started (in hindsight)…

This was one of the parts of the route with a bit of an incline, and at the top I needed to decide if I was to turn left or right… so I reached for my phone in my pocket. But much to my despair, there was no phone in my pocket! Checked again, checked my bag… still no phone… must have lost it…! What to do, other than retracing my steps to see if I could find it somewhere. All the way back to the boggy patch (see photo above) where I was absolutely sure that I had used my phone… nowhere a phone to be found.

Walking round the boggy patch, thinking what to do next, I then heard whistling and shouting. Looking where the noise came from, I noticed 2 fellow wanderers who clearly were trying to get my attention, as there was nobody else there. And yes indeed – they had found my phone!

You may well wonder why I think that I’d lost it when taking the above picture of tree, cloud and moon… Well – I had a GPS tracker on, revealing the journey my phone had made, and at which point that had diverted from my journey while going on its own journey with the fellow wanderers… (Btw – I’m not even sure I like that tree-cloud-moon picture that much… the berries or the robin are better, I think…)

Anyway – thus reunited with my phone, I happily finished my walk.

The website describing my walk, suggests that the concrete block in the above photo could be part of one of the WW II road blocks, which were thrown up in 1940, and intended to help Dads’ Army (the Home Guards) slow German invasion forces.

And that was the end to a nice walk, across nice country side. With an adventure – not so enjoyable at the time, but all’s well that ends well!

Lockdown Walk – London Colney (25^th December 2020)

After initial excitement of being allowed to visit 1 family over the Christmas period, just a few days before I was to travel to Scotland to see some friends, the government decided that no travel was allowed at all… So – stuck at home… What to do instead?

Well… go for a walk to explore the local area… thoroughly…

Coal Posts

All around the Greater London Area boundary marks, set up by the Corporation of the City of London, can be found like the ones below:

Many of these posts were erected under the London Coal and Wine Duties Continuance Act 1861. A very interesting website, tells me that already since medieval times the Corporation of the City of London had rights to measure and tax all coal that entered the port of London. When in 1666 a large part of the City of London was burnt down in the Great Fire of London, these coal duties paid part of the rebuilding of the city.

Whilst initially duties were levied on coal entering London via the Port of London, with the coming of canals and railways, coal duties were extended to coal entering London via any route – including road – as well. Hence 2 coal posts in London Colney on the roads that lead to London. To begin with, the coal tax area comprised an area within a 20 mile radius from London (or more precisely: from the General Post Office in St Martins le Grand). But in 1861 the London District was redefined to coincide with the Metropolitan Police District. As this area was much smaller, many boundaries were moved, but also – many new coal posts, including those in London Colney, were erected.

All Saints Pastoral Centre

When passing London Colney on the M25 during the time of year that there are no leaves on the trees, a rather grand building can be seen:

As it is in London Colney, I was going to include it in my explorations, but when arriving at the beginning of the road leading to the site I was met with a sign saying that it was private property… However, as there was also a rather large sign saying that it is for sale, I thought I would ignore that and take a look at it anyway… Perhaps a new office… ?

The building looked to me to be rather old, but what do I know about that… apparently the main building was designed in 1899 and built in 1901, originally as a convent for the Anglican Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor. The Comper Chapel is even newer: built between 1927-1963… The whole site was then bought by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, which converted it to a conference centre, after which it was finally sold a property developer. And for sale again (or still?)…

Round the farm to Napsbury Park

Next my explorations led me to a nice path round the farm to end up at Napsbury Park (well, I think it actually goes between different parcels of land of the same farm).

What is now known as Napsbury Park, opened in 1905 as Middlesex County Asylum, designed for 1152 patients with varying mental illnesses: sick, infirm, epileptic, chronic, chronic refractory and working patients. There were separate wings for male and female patients, separated by a common dining hall (largest building with small tower in photo above). A water tower provided water to the different buildings.

During the First World War it operated temporarily taken over by the army. The hospital finally closed in 1998, and is now a Grade II listed park with residential housing, combining some of the existing buildings (mostly converted to apartments) with new builds. More information can be found here.

Bridge over Colne

According to what seems nowadays to be the source of all knowledge – Wikipedia – London Colney was first recorded in 1555: “Colney on the road to London”. The High Street (part of an old coaching route between London and St Albans) crosses the river Colne, originally by means of a ford, but since ca 1777 a bridge carries traffic across the river (unless you go walking with children, who like to cycle across the ford, and then fall in when they loose momentum in the water, and get stuck in the middle…).

Telford Bridge. The original ford is also visible as the largely flooded area between the left of the photo to approximately where the white car is.

The bridge is commonly known as “Telford Bridge”, however, apparently it is disputed that the bridge is actually by Thomas Telford… Nonetheless, a nice looking bridge!

Finally – near the bridge is also the parish church of St Peter, in the church yard of which apparently 7 commonwealth graves (1 from WW-I, 6 from WW-II) should be. A quick walk (it was getting late, and I really started feeling my legs…) over the church yard didn’t reveal much, so perhaps I’ll be back for another look round another time.

GIRL OFTEN KNITS…

… but does other things as well…