Warrington to Turvey

It is not much more than four miles along the A428 from one end of this leg of the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk to the other, but we walked twice that distance. This is partly because the path loops around to the north of the A428 in order to follow Milton Keynes' boundary with Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire as closely as possible, but more especially because the path wiggles a fair amount, presumably because of a lack of public rights of way closer to the boundary. The most extreme example of the wiggling is south of Heron Wood near Bozeat and the A509, at the northern-most point of the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk. Here the path heading north and the path heading south cross a field boundary just a couple of hundred metres apart, but rather than walking along the field boundary, we crossed a muddy field of brassicas, up to a point and then back again at an angle of no more than 45 degrees to our outbound route.

It had been an exceptionally mild December, and it was dry and mostly sunny whilst we were walking. However there had been a lot of rain in the previous few weeks, resulting in a path that was really muddy in places. The signposting wasn't great and in the early wiggly part of the path we occasionally had to find a route across a field with not a lot to go on. We were staying in Sherington so didn't have a long drive; we left one car in the long lay-by on the A428 on the Bedfordshire/Milton Keynes boundary near Turvey (SP937524) then drove back to the lay-by where we had parked last week, also on the A428 but now on the Northamptonshire/Milton Keynes boundary at Warrington (SP886556). We were walking soon after 9.30am.

We crossed the road and headed down a track by an attractive house, then through the wood that's marked as Old Pastures on the map, passing piles of wood and a lookout tower. We emerged at the far side of the wood into lovely rolling countryside and a field of newly sprouting wheat plants. Our route across this field was marked by tractor tracks, and we looped around to the north of "The Lodge", crossing a bridge over a stream and then passing through the field boundary mentioned above. We could see the finger post which marked our return route just a short distance to our right, but the route was clearly straight ahead towards Heron Wood, not along the field boundary. Just before the wood we turned sharp right, initially along another field boundary, but then across several fields of the little wheat plants with no obvious paths visible on the ground. Amazingly we found what must have been almost exactly the right route, which took us to a track and then to the A509 near a water tower and Northey Farm.

From this point the route was more obvious, initially down a narrow footpath, then around behind the Farm and onto a track. We cut across to the Three Shires Way and turned left onto this route, along the edge of Threeshires Wood. The path was well-walked and extremely muddy! The three shires here are Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghhamshire (here in the form of the Milton Keynes Unitary Authority) and we were very close to all three counties. At the end of the band of woodland we turned right and into Bedfordshire; I think that's the end of our exploration of Milton Keynes' border with Northamptonshire.

The path followed the edge of the wood and then headed back into open countryside. We met a couple of dogwalkers and we overtaken by a jogger who continued straight ahead as we turned to the right on a more definite track. After a change of map (from Explorer Sheet 207 to Sheet 208), we took a footpath past horses near Harrold Lodge Farm, which brought us out onto a road a mile or so from the village of Harrold.

We turned right and walked past Tollgate House, back out of Bedfordshire and into Milton Keynes. At Snelson, the road turned to the right (towards Lavendon) but we carried on straight ahead, stopping for lunch (eaten sitting on our waterproofs on the ground) and then walking through a curious woodland arch.

We carried straight ahead on a path which eventually led to Cold Brayfield. We were up above the River Great Ouse with good views to Turvey House and Turvey Church and a wind farm somewhere in the distance ahead of us. In Cold Brayfield we turned left onto the A428, soon being joined by the Ouse Valley Way. We walked past the car and into the centre of Turvey, where we sat for a picnic last time we were here (on a sunny spring day a few months ago, whilst walking the Ouse Valley Way). We collected the other car and drove back through Olney to Sherington.

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