Letchworth Garden City to Streatley
Walked by Sally and Richard, Sunday 13th November 2011.
Approximately 13 miles on the Icknield Way Path plus 2 miles from home to the station and a short diversion to Galley Hill
Click here for photographs taken on today's walk
I had wanted to complete the Icknield Way Path during the autumn (mostly for the autumn colours) and the next three days provided our best opportunity to do so. As chance would have it, I'd been through a very busy and stressful time at work, so I was also looking forward just to getting a break. It also provided an opportunity for me to try out my new rucksack. Today's weather was lovely - slightly misty, but dry and sunny and quite mild - amazing for November.
We were however aware that it would be getting dark soon after 4pm, so we caught the first Sunday morning train south. We arrived in Letchworth just as masses of scouts etc. were arriving for their Remembrance Sunday parade, and we were walking by 10am. We took a path alongside the railway and then cut through modern housing back to the road called 'Icknield Way' and followed this to the outskirts of Letchworth.
We cut across a patch of scrubland, crossed a busy road and took a path to the north of Hitchin, with misty views. We crossed the East Coast Main railway line by a footbridge and continued to Ickleford, which was much more attractive than I'd expected it to be.
We crossed the busy A600 and followed a narrow road, with upmarket houses, and being passed quite regularly by cars. When we got to the end of the road we discovered that the cars were parking here, and for the next few miles we were definitely in dog-walking and horse-riding territory. We followed attractive paths to the pretty village of Pirton and stopped for an early lunch. Pirton is an excellent lunch stop - there are two pubs, but we restricted ourselves to sitting on one of the many benches and eating our sandwiches.
Beyond Pirton we climbed steadily, with lots of people walking towards us. Some were probably just heading to Pirton for lunch but perhaps there was also an event of some sort taking place - many of the walkers were carrying similar printed instructions.
We reached the B655 and followed it a short distance to the Hertfordshire/Bedfordshire county boundary, then took a track that continued to climb, past Deacon Hill on the right. I'd imagined that we'd be walking across open countryside, but I was wrong - we were on a delightful slightly sunken track, with hedges on either side, and towards the top of our climb, near Telegraph Hill, we reached attractive woodland. We descended to a road with lots of cars parked (presumably belonging to the other people who were about). We followed the road for half a mile or so, then the road turned to the left whilst we continued onto a track straight ahead, past more parked cars.
We had made much better time than expected, so we turned off the path, crossed a golf course and climbed to the top of Galley Hill. It was lovely. What surprised me the most was that there was no real clue that we were so close to Luton. We sat down for a while to eat apples and admire the view, then we returned to the main Icknield Way Path before descending and crossing fields to reach the A6 and Streatley.
We reached The Chequers soon after 3pm. Landlord Colin welcomed us and his wife Gorry showed us to our room, above the entrance to the pub. The bar was busy and remained so during the evening - Gorry was dashing hither and thither making sure that everyone was happy. We had a pleasant meal and then returned to our room. The music from the bar was a bit of a nuisance during the evening, but it didn't prevent us falling asleep before 10pm.