Circuit of Stevington, Pavenham and Oakley

We hadn't quite finished the North Bucks Way, but didn't have time both to drive from home to that route and to walk the remaining 10 miles before dark, so we decided to start the John Bunyan Trail instead. If I'm honest, we chose both the John Bunyan Trail and our starting point on it for their proximity to our usual Sunday night accommodation, the Bedford South Premier Inn; and we ended up doing a circuit from a car park between Stevington and Oakley, both of which are on the John Bunyan Trail, simply because of a shortage of parking places elsewhere. However, the resulting walk was absolutely delightful. We'd walked about half of it before, in reverse (from Pavenham to Stevington), when we were walking the Ouse Valley Way in June 2015. The route definitely warranted a second visit (as it would future return trips) and the difference in direction and time of year made it feel quite different. We'd expected a mild but overcast day today, so the bright sunshine was an added bonus. It was rather muddy in places though!

The car park that Richard had managed to find is at the end of the Stevington Country Walk at TL007525, and we found it quite easily. It's quite a small car park, and in checking that I'd parked responsibly I managed to put my foot in a dog mess. Grrr! Things needed to improve and they did. We had an early lunch before leaving the carpark (though in fact we passed quite a few benches, so we could have stopped at one of those) then headed along the Stevington Country Walk, a former railway. There were several other walkers about.

After about a kilometre we reached the John Bunyan Trail/Ouse Valley Way and turned right onto it, with Stevington Windmill coming into view. The windmill is a post mill and is open to the public most days; I don't think it was open today but there were lots of people about.

We passed the windmill and cut through to village. We walked along Park Road and turned right onto Church Road. Stevington Cross is on the junction and apparently some have linked Bunyan's conversion with preaching from here; Stevington was certainly a centre of non-conformist activity, and Bunyan is also to have reputed to have preached in a field at Meeting Farm, to the west of Stevington; however there is no evidence that he actually visited the village!

Meanwhile, we passed Manor Farm and a bench overlooking fields, where we stopped for lunch when we were here on the Ouse Valley Way; perhaps there should be a blue plaque?! We passed the attractive Church and to the north of it, where last time we had battled to find a path through the vegetation, today the problem was mud! We emerged high above the River Great Ouse and continued across meadows, through woodland and then closer to the river. Last time we were here, there had been the sound of a loudhailer in the distance. Today we said hello to several dog-walkers.

We passed a house with a propped up end, which I think I remember from last time, then walked up Mill Lane to Pavenham's High Street. Pavenham has some attractive buildings, but we only walked a short distance along the High Street, before parting company with the Ouse Valley Way and taking a path to the south of the village. The route wasn't always exactly as shown on the map, but it was well signposted, with a different style of signpost appearing occasionally. We passed a farmyard with lots of highland cattle!

The route wiggled its way around woods and back down to the River Great Ouse. We passed a couple of cars and there were more cars visible in the distance - and then we saw the fishermen! We reached the road and turned right, crossing Stafford Bridge and walking into Oakley. The road was rather busier than ideal, but once we'd crossed the river there was a pavement. We turned left and crossed a railway bridge, then took a footpath running parallel with the railway for about a kilometre. We hadn't expected much from this section of the walk, especailly since we were also quite close to the A6. It was the least interesting section of the walk, but actually it was fine. Again we had dogwalkers for company, and in one case just a dog (slowly heading back to its owner, who was waiting by the gate we were heading towards).

We left the route of the John Bunyan Trail at this gate, and turned right to pass under the railway back into Oakley (if we'd turned left and crossed the A6 we'd have found ourselves in Clapham). Our return route to the car park then took us past the Lovell Memorial Homes, a group of almshouses built in 1926 as a memorial to Sydney Howard Lovell, who died aged 13. We then passed the impressive Oakley Church and crossed Oakley Bridge, with indications of both historic and recent flooding. After rescuing the cars and driving the short distance to the Premier Inn, we left one car there and went on to the Bedford "Go Outdoors" to buy new walking boots for Richard.

We returned to this walk on 1st October 2017, looking for a suitable route to follow with two friends. The whole thing turned out to be too long for that purpose, and the path was a bit muddy too, but we nevertheless had a delightful shorter walk, which is described here. We even managed to see a couple of the scarecrows still in place after the Scarecrow Competition, which was judged the day before. The photograph shows the Pied Piper of Hamlin, the winner of the second prize.

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