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Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 23rd May 2020
6.4 miles (3 hours including breaks), 3 miles progress on Chiltern Way Northern Extension
For photographs of this leg of the walk click here
We reached Hitch Wood something just over four months ago, though so much has altered that it feels like a lifetime. At that time we thought that we were nearly at the end of the Northern Extension and if all had gone to plan we'd have completed it by the end of January. Initially the difficulty was that Richard's Mum was ill and - sensibly in the circumstances - Phillip and Anne-Marie came to stay. We were also dealing with water coming through ceilings in both Denver and Simpson. We had the Denver house re-roofed in February and eventually we realised what the problem in Simpson (a leaking toilet cistern in the flat above) and that was fixed too. We managed to get away for a short break in Warwickshire in February (walking from Lower Shuckburgh to Leamington Spa and from Leamington Spa to Kingswood Junction on the Grand Union Canal Walk). This gave me a much needed break from work, which was manic.
We had to move a staff development meeting from the Kents Hill Park Conference Centre close to the Open University campus in MIlton Keynes because they were being used a quarantine centre for UK nationals returning from Coronavirus-struck China. Then the virus hit the UK. The Open University campus closed and I retreated to Norfolk; Diana's residential home closed its doors to visitors and, from 23rd March to 13th May, the country was in complete lockdown. We enjoyed our local walks from home, but travel further afield was forbidden.
Eventually, we were allowed to drive an unlimited distance for exercise, though it remained important to social distance. So it seemed reasonable to return to the Chiltern Way to complete the Northern Extension. We only took one car, so it took us two legs to complete the Extension, on each occasion walking "there and back" and returning to our flat in Milton Keynes (which we hadn't been to in more than two months) in between the two legs.
Thus it was that, eventually, we returned to Hitch Wood, which we'd realised when when we were last here is quite well known as a bluebell wood. Since we'd expected to be walk today's leg months ago, we'd thought we would be far too early for bluebells. As it was, we were nearly too late, and understandably - as everyone else was also taking advantage of the easing of lockdown and maybe hoping to just catch 2020's bluebell display, the little car park at TL197239 was full when we arrived around 10am after driving from Norfolk (and it was pretty busy each time we drove past during the next couple of days). We found alternative parking at the junction of the B651 and the minor road to Langley (TL197235), conveniently close to the route of Chiltern Way Extension - so we could follow the route from our parking place, starting by walking the short distance back to the point we had reached in January. However, when got out of the car, the heavens opened - so we got back into the car until the rain had stopped. We had occasional drops of rain on the walk, but it didn't come to anything apart from when we were in Whitwell; it was sunny but with a stiff breeze.
Rain over, we climbed a short distance up the minor road on which we had parked and turned left onto the route of the Chiltern Way Extension. This took us initially through woodland, with occasional views to to our left down to the pretty valley and Hitch Wood beyond, then into more open countryside with views to Stevenage to our right. Another wooded path took us to the impressive houses in the hamlet of Langley End. The official route of the Chiltern Way Extension forks right onto a track down to the road. We forked left onto a track which descended quite steeply to reach the road immediately opposite the little car park at Hitch Wood.
We crossed to the wood, wondering if we would be able to find a route through it so as to join the Chiltern Way Extension at the point where it crosses the B651 close to the entrance the Stagenhoe Estate. From the map of woodland walks just inside the wood it looked as if this should be possible, if a bit complicated, but we didn't manage to find the route on the ground. However we enjoyed our circuit of the wood; the bluebells were just about over, but in certain lights there was still a blueish tinge to the undergrowth. We then retraced our steps to the road on which the car was parked, but on this occasion we crossed straight over the road and continued on a footpath across a large field. This eventually brought us down to the B651 where we turned left.
Almost immediately we passed the impressive gates of Stagenhoe, with statues of stags on top of the gate posts. Knowing that the Queen's mother was reputed to have been born somewhere around here, we wondered whether this was the place, but later research revealed that Stagenhoe was actually the family seat of the Earls of Caithness and its most famous resident appears to have been Sir Arthur Sullivan who rented the house around 1889 and composed The Mikado here; Stagenhoe is now a Sue Ryder Home. We continued along the road for a short distance then took a path which led across a field, past The White House and on to the pretty parish church of St Paul's Walden. The Queen Mother was christened here and about half a mile further on we got views to St Paul's Walden Bury, owned by the Bowes-Lyon family and childhood home of the Queen Mother (it isn't clear whether she was actually born here). In the vicinity of the house we passed an attractive avenue of trees and a walled garden.
Whitwell, perched on a hill the other side of the Mimram Valley, came into view and we descended past an attractive dead tree and grazing horses. We crossed the pretty river (a chalk stream, famous for watercress) and emerged onto Whitwell High Street. It wasn't clear where to declare as the end of today's walk, so we carried on for a while, taking a footpath on the other side of High Street which climbed and then turned to the right whilst the route of the Hertfordshire Way (which we had been sharing all day) turned left. We soon reached a recreation ground. On seeing that this had both a bench (making it a good place to stop for lunch) and a carpark (making it a good place to start tomorrow's walk), we stopped for lunch and then set off on the return leg to the car. We decided to follow the road rather than the footpath through Whitwell which meant that, most fortuitously, we were walking past a bus shelter when the heavens opened for the second time today. Again we were able to take shelter, and the weather was pleasant for the rest of our walk back to the car.
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