Ridgmont to Maulden
Walked by Sally and Richard, Sunday 26th June 2016
7.7 miles of walking (3.25 hours) almost all on the route of the Greensand Ridge Walk
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
This was another Sunday afternoon walk on a day when we drove over to Bedfordshire from Norfolk in the late morning then, after the walk, stayed at our favourite Bedford South Premier Inn. The weather had been rather wet in the recent past, so the path was sometimes a bit muddy, and the weather forecast was for a dry but dull day, with rain coming across in the evening. However, the occasional sunshine was an unexpected bonus, though because it hadn't featured in the forecast, we didn't have sun cream or sun hats with us. Today's other oversight was to leave my camera in the car parked at the end of the walk in the car park at Maulden Church (TL058381), rather than taking it with us in the car we drove back to Ridgmont and parked on the verge at SP978363 . Apart from this, it was a delightful walk, and there were only a couple of zoomed shots that I'd have been able to take with my camera but which weren't possible with Richard's.
We had discovered last weekend that the Greensand Ridge Walk now goes through Ridgmont, rather than following the route shown on our 2011 Ordnance Survey map, so from the car we only had to walk a short distance past the Rose and Crown Pub and The Firs (B&B and cafe - sadly not open on Sundays) in order to rejoin the trail. We turned right onto an alleyway and descended quite steeply, then right again onto a path just below Lowhill Plantation. We were close to the M1 at Junction 13 and we cut across the field on a path through the crop, then crossed the motorway on a bridge that felt like one of the original ones from when the M1 was opened in 1959. Immediately afterwards we crossed the A507 on another bridge, then we followed a well signposted route across fields for about a mile to Boughton End. A short distance along this part of the route there was a rustling in the crop just to our left and a muntjac deer appeared. It bounded away, not stopping to be photographed!
We turned right by the cottages at Boughton End, then left after some derelict farm buildings, and continued across the fields to rejoin the previous route of the Greensand Ridge Walk near Southview Farm. We passed Jackdaw Hill House and took a path into woodland, with views through trees to our left. The path wiggled about quite considerably, but eventually it became clear that we were on a path between the Millbrook Golf Club to our right and the Millbrook vehicle test track to our left.
We emerged onto a road near the entrance to the vehicle test track and turned right then right again, though the village of Millbrook. There were a fair number of cars about, but also some attractive houses and good views up to the Church. We took a rather overgrown path which climbed. At the top I reckoned that we were emerging by the entrance to the Church and I was right!
A kilometre or so further on, after passing some alpacas, meandering our way close to the A507 and (only obvious on the map) crossing a railway line in a tunnel beneath us, we entered Ampthill Park.It turns out we were lucky - next weekend is Ampthill Festival, and if the notices on the entrances to the Park are to be believed, we wouldn't be able to walk through the Park then. If we'd got this close to the end of our walk (with one car in Maulden) then discovered that we couldn't cross the Park, I think I might have been rather annoyed.
There were excellent views from Ampthill Park down to Marston Vale to the north, traditionally a brickmaking area. Closer at hand, just beneath the ridge, was Ampthill Park House and up on top was Katherine's Cross, marking the site of the Ampthill Castle, visited by Henry VIIII and by Katherine of Aragon around the time of the annulment of her marriage to Henry. The route of the Greensand Ridge Walk isn't well defined on the map and there was a dearth of signposts on the ground (at least in the direction we were walking). We meandered our way slightly to the north through Laurel Wood but emerged from Ampthill Park onto the B530 rather further south than we should have. Almost inevitably, the correct exit from the Park is well signposted in the reverse direction.
We continued north along the B530 for a little while, then turned right onto a concrete drive towards Houghton House. There were a surprisingly large number of cars coming and going, with one stopping to ask if he was on the right route to Houghton House. At the end of the drive there was a car park, so we were quite surprised to discover that Houghton House is one of English Heritage's "visit at any convenient time" properties - i.e. it's free. It's an attractive enough place and we are particularly interested in any places named "Houghton" since this is Richard's mother's maiden name. Perhaps it is the family's pile...or perhaps not! It appears that the house was actually built around 1615 for Mary, Dowager Countess of Pembroke, and it was reputedly the inspiration for the ‘House Beautiful’ in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
Just past Houghton House there was a particularly confusing bit of signposting. We had turned slightly to the right and knew that we wanted to pass to the left of the covered reservoir ahead of us. A sign clearly indicated that we should go through the hedge, so we did, but just before the reservoir our way was blocked, so we retraced our steps through the hedge and continued to the north of it, with some other walkers as we walked through a little farmyard, which gave us confidence that we were on the right route.
Our route had been coincident with the John Bunyan Trail but that had left us at Houghton House and at King's Wood Nature Reserve, the Marston Vale Timberland Trail, which we had also been following, headed north whilst we turned right for the final mile or so to Maulden. This section of the walk felt the least satisfactory of the day; we were walking across rather scrubby land and it felt as if the path had no clear sense of purpose. Just past King's Farm we crossed a road and the route then meandered through the village of Maulden before climbing up to the delightful Church of St Mary the Virgin. We noticed another little building in the Churchyard; this is the Ailesbury Mausoleum. We had parked in the large car park by the Church, but note that this is private and a sign alerts you to the fact that it may be closed for special events. Actually there was a special event today (which we hadn't realised when we left the car there), "Open Church Sunday" (with teas in the Church hall next door) to celebrate the Queen's 90th Birthday. We reckoned that the teas would be just about over, and slipped away before getting in the way of the special Church service at 6pm.