Circuit from Bromham to Stevington Mill and return

Our first walk on the John Bunyan Trail, back in January, had included Stevington, thus in some senses today's walk, which overlapped with that one, was the last leg! However we walked it out of order, on a day when as last Sunday, we only had time for a short early evening walk, and wanted somewhere close to the Bedford South Premier Inn, where we were staying. As last Sunday, the walk didn't look particularly thrilling on the map, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable - and once again, after taking just one car to the start/end point, we were able to turn it into a circuit rather than a "there and back" walk (though today more by good luck than good management!). There is a Budgens Supermarket (with car park) on the corner of Stagsden Road and Northampton Road in Bromham, which would be ideally placed for the leg of the John Bunyan Trail which will link from here to the south, but it was after 4.30pm when we arrived and the shop had closed; were they about to lock the gates to the car park? (in fact the answer to this question was "no", but better safe than sorry). There was another convenient parking place in a lay-by about a quarter of a mile further down Stagsden Road (at TL007506) and we left the car there and set off at around 4.45pm.

We were on the route of the John Bunyan Trail from the start, and as we walked down Stagsden Road to join the the Ouse Valley Way we passed an attractive Bromham village sign. The Ouse Valley Way's route out of Bromham, as walked in June 2015, continues past Bromham Watermill and over Bromham Bridge, but we turned left onto the OVW in the opposite direction, on a path between houses, through a wooded area then out onto Bromham Common. The common, as last time we were here, was lovely, with a wooded avenue of trees and views across the meadows to the church. There is another (identical) Bromham village sign here.

The remainder of our walk through Bromham was on residential streets and thus not very exciting. We passed the Leslie Sell Activity Centre (Scouts) on the left and the Mollivers Activity Centre (Girl Guides) on the right and headed out from Bromham into open countryside. Just before we did so, Richard noticed a board outside the Scout centre advertising the Bromham Heritage Trail, which suggested a circular route which would take us back to the car by a different route, but for now we continued straight ahead. There were attractive views in all directions, though we had some difficulty working out whether the towers we could see at various points were church towers, water towers or industrial buildings - in fact there were all three, with the water tower close to the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre near Milton Ernest and the tall church tower which we'd had such difficulty photographing when we walked through Clapham being particularly noteworthy.

We were initially on a solid surface, but it became softer and muddier, reminding us that although it was a sunny evening and had been a generally dry spring, there had been a lot of rain in the past week. We crossed the point at which the Bromham Heritage Trail would take us back to Bromham (not signposted but it looked a reasonable path) and then we crossed the Stevington Country Walk on the former railway line - this was where we had joined the John Bunyan Trail in January, so there was no need to go further. However we continued on to photograph Stevington Mill; this was actually quite challenging as there was a field of oilseed rape between us and the Mill!

We retraced our steps past the old railway line and over a muddy pea field to the point at which the Bromham Heritage Trail turned off to the right and we followed it, downhill under pylons, then left on a well-walked path across fields and over a little bridge; without the right and then left kink shown on the OS map. We reached the delightful wood of Salem Thrift, at which point Bromham Heritage Trail signs appeared, giving us a clear route. From the wood we took a minor road running parallel with A428 and past a junction with it, passing some nice houses and one very grand set of gates for a property that we couldn't actually see. We emerged into open countryside briefly, before heading back into Bromham (with yet another village sign to make the point). We followed Northampton Road round to the right, which took us back to Stagsden Road on the corner with the Budgens Supermarket.

If you want to follow the John Bunyan Trail round in circles, click here for the onwards leg from Stevington.