Royston to Letchworth Garden City
Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 15th October 2011.
About 16 miles, 15 miles on the Icknield Way Path (The Walkers’ Guide to the Icknield Way Path gives this distance as 13 miles but I think they're wrong!).
Click here for photographs taken on today's walk
This section of the Icknield Way Path takes a broad sweep to the south between Royston and Baldock, across higher ground than so far on the Icknield Way Path, and it was delightful. People go on about the unattractive section through industrial estates in Letchworth, but even that was OK. It was a gloriously sunny day October day, reminiscent of when our son Michael was born 26 years ago to the day (as was the mist first thing in the morning). And, unusually for recent times, the trains all ran nearly to time.
We caught the 8.04 from Downham Market to Cambridge, then changed onto the stopping train to Royston. We were in Royston soon after 9.15 and had a quick look round the town, photographing the 'Royse Stone', originally at the base of Roisia's Cross at the junction of Ermine Street and the Icknield Way, signifying that this was Roisia's Town, later 'Royston'.
We left Royston to the west, turning off the road onto Therfield Heath at the Heath Sports Centre - lots of little boys playing football and lots of dog walkers. I'd been looking forward to Therfield Heath, which joins onto the gallops visible from the A505 and the train between Royston and Baldock, but we crossed the common land quite quickly (the route wasn't entirely clear, but we managed to emerge at the right place). However, we continued to climb after leaving the common, now on a slightly sunken hedged track (which looked like ancient Icknield Way), through agricultural land (complete with poppies - in October!) to an undulating summit at around 165 metres, back on the same ridge that we left by way of Heydon Ditch on the previous leg of the walk. We walked into the attractive village of Therfield.
The route remained on the higher ground as we negotiated a complicated network of ancient hedged tracks, past Duck's Green, Hawkins Wood, Collins Green and then on an attractive diversion to Notley Green and back, presumably because there is no public access through Philpott's Wood.
We reached the delightful village of Sandon. All Saint’s Church was founded in the 9th Century under the auspices of 'Sandon Bury', the Manor of Sandon. The current building dates from the 14th Century, and its tower was propped up by brick buttresses in the 18th Century. Inside there are brasses commemorating a 15th Century lord and lady - he shown in armour and she with a butterfly headdress. As we left the Church around midday, large numbers of visitors were parking on the green, and they asked us if there was a pub in the village - they had come for a service (funeral?) at 1.30pm, and had hoped to have lunch first. The guidebook had alerted us to the fact that both pubs in Sandon have closed, and we were able, from the map, to direct them to neighbouring villages that still appear to have pubs - but we could only vouch for the Fox & Duck in Therfield as still being open. We sat on the green to eat our picnic.
After lunch we continued to Roe Green, another pretty village. There are no direction signs on the green itself though there are boards giving the route at either side and a lady also advised us. Basically you head straight across the green, but the pond shown on the information board didn't seem to be there on the ground. At the hamlet of Redhill we had to walk round a crop field because there was no obvious route across, and after looking at the church and well at Wallington, we took the route of the Hertfordshire Way (which we had been sharing for a while) rather than the Icknield Way Path through the village, since this enabled us to pass the cottage where Eric Blair (George Orwell) lived, getting inspiration for 'Animal Farm' from life in the village.
We took the road out of Wallington, then followed an undulating track for a couple of miles, with good views to the lower land with Baldock and Letchworth in the distance. When we were nearly at Clothall (with its Church just visible through the trees) we turned right onto path towards Baldock, crossing agricultural land, with the higher land through which the A505 passes by tunnel on our left-hand side. We crossed the A505 on a footbridge near the tunnel, then followed a path between access land and mobile homes down to the town centre. We passed Tesco then walked down High Street (attractive but rather busy) and stopped for a cup of tea at an Italian Cafe on Whitehorse Street. We sat outside and had quite a long wait because they were very busy, but it made a nice break.
We walked around the Church and down Pond Lane, then across Norton Road and into a residential area (West Avenue and then Hopewell Road) looking for the way across the A1(M). A helpful man directed us to an alleyway to the north of Hopewell Road and this took us to a footbridge across the motorway. We didn't get the route quite right on the other side, but what we did was fine - straight ahead on a footpath and then pavement through an industrial estate, then right and across the railway, and left onto a road called 'Icknield Way'. This took us past Norton Park and through residential Letchworth (the first of the 'garden cities', planned by Ebenezer Howard in the early 1900s). We cut off a corner down 'The Quadrant', then turned left by the Spirella Building and back over the railway to the station and town centre. We had a quick look at the shopping centre before catching the 16.51 to Cambridge and then the 17.35 home.
