Westoning to Houghton House

There had been heavy overnight rain and the weather forecast was insistent that there would be more rain this afternoon, so we got up early and left home in Norfolk around 8am, so as to get the walk completed soon after lunch before the rain appeared; it goes without saying that the rain didn't arrive until the evening! As usual, I left home slightly before Richard, and when I got to the parking area for Houghton House (TL037392) there was a little digger working nearby, with the workmen's van in the parking area. I was worried that they might be planning to dig across the parking area whilst we were out walking, but they assured me that they'd soon be done. It was nevertheless a bit complicated when they decided to more the little digger just as Richard arrived. Leaving that confusion behind we drove through Ampthill and Flitwick to Westoning; there were signs indicating that the A5120 was closed ahead, but fortunately that was only to the south of Westoning. We parked the car at the Recreation Ground in Westoning (TL035327) and we were off. We passed Westoning Clock Tower, discovering from a plaque on it that Westoning has had a number of names over the years, including "Weston Inge".

We turned right and walked up past some impressive houses and the Church (on a rather narrow road with rather a lot of traffic - Churchgoers perhaps?) then out of Westoning and onto attractive scrubland, complete with horses and with woodland beyond. We walked through the woodland and over the River Flit, then past Priestly Farm and some lovely bullocks, with rather fluffy coats. Flitwick was now to the east of us and we were approacjing Steppingley. We'd seen the Church in the distance, but we had to take a slight diversion to take a closer look.

We left Steppingley on another minor road with rather a lot of traffic and began to wonder if this was a result of the A5120 being closed. Anyway, we soon turned right past a modern pumping station and crossed open countryside to woodland on the outskits of Flitwick. We walked through the town and out into open countryside on the other side, where we found ourselves on a route shared by the 5-mile Two Moors Heritage Trail (linking Flitwick Moor with Maggots Moor). We joined Maulden Road and crossed the busy A509, then took a path across rough ground to a playing field on the outskirts of Ampthill. I got stung by nettles on the path, but the playing field provided a convenient space on which to sit for lunch.

The path takes a route through the residential streets of Ampthill, but it is not well signposted, so we took a slightly "alternative" (i.e. wrong!) route before finding the (correct) path through to Church Street, close to the centre of the attractive little town. We turned right down Church Street, past Georgian(?) houses. The Marston Vale Trail turns left through Church Square, but after admiring the pretty almshouses and church we continued along Church Street for a while before turning left onto Gas House Lane just after a modern housing development. The path climbed into attractive undulating countryside and there were good views back the way we had come. We passed Lodge Piece Farm and a covered reservoir, and turned left through a farm yard to emerge close to Houghton House.

Before returning to the car we went to visit Houghton House (an English Heritage property, but free!). The house was built early in the 17th century for Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, as an elaborate hunting lodge, and it is thought to have been the inspiration for "House Beautiful" in John Bunyan’s "The Pilgrim’s Progress". Bunyan visited the house to mend pots and pans when he was a tinker (well, so I'm told...). The house is now ruined, but this was not purely as a result of natural decay: it was dismantled in 1797, with the "ruins" left as a "feature" to be viewed from Ampthill Park.

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