Elstow to Shefford

Saturday had been a delightfully sunny spring day, the clocks had gone forward in the night, and it was Mothers' Day - so it felt as if spring really had arrived. We were keen to get out for a decent length walk, though we were delayed by various things (including getting up later than usual because of the hour change) so didn't leave quite as early as planned. The weather wasn't as good as it had been on Saturday, but it was OK. We drove to Shefford, left one car in the long stay car park on Old Station Way (TL143392), then drove back to the Playing Field car park in Elstow (TL052472). It's worth mentioning again that there are "no through road apart from access" signs at both ends of Elstow, so to get to where we parked you have to work on the basis that you are "access". We ate a late lunch and set off walking around 1.45pm. On the basis of the usual JordanWalks speed of 2 miles per hour, we hadn't left quite long enough for an 8-hour walk; thankfully the walking was very straightforward, if not terribly thrilling, so we averaged more like 3 miles per hour.

Elstow is commonly thought to be John Bunyan's birthplace, but I can tell you with the confidence of a Wikipedia search that he was actually born about halfway between Elstow and the hamlet of Harrowden, perhaps at the place shown as "Bunyan's Farm" on the OS map (TL067471)? Harrowden is close to Shortstown, a village that is currently being extensively developed, but best known as the home of the Cardington Airship Sheds. The two square mile strip that encloses Shortstown, Harrowden, Bunyan's Farm and Elstow lies along the A421 and between the A600 and the A6/A5141, just to the south of Bedford. I'm not selling it am I? For all that, Elstow is a delightful little place, complete with Moot Hall, Abbey, and picturesque houses.

We had walked through the medieval centre of Elstow last time we were here. Today we turned right (south) out of the car park, away from the medieval centre of the village, and crossed the A421 to a 20th Century housing estate. Almost immediately we took a tarmacked track heading to the south-east, initially past houses and then into open countryside. We passed Medbury Farm and Medbury Cottages, then did a dog-leg to the left and the right and passed through a field of sheep. There were good views to the Cardington Sheds and, thankfully, the track became softer.

We reached the outskirts of the village of Wilstead near Cotton End Farm and turned right and then left. We could hear sounds from a public address system but never worked out where this was coming from. We were on a hard surface again to Manor Farm, but this was compensated for by sheep with lambs in the fields to our left and the pretty little corn store in the middle of the farmyard at Manor Farm.

The next section of the walk was my favourite of the day, as we climbed up onto the Greensand Ridge, with good views opening up behind us. We continued to Haynes, where we had attempted to park when walking the Greensand Ridge Walk. Today we walked along residential roads (where I guess we could have parked on that previous occasion), passing Pilgrims Cottage and the Village Hall with a prominent "private" sign on its carpark. There was clearly something going on at the village hall, with one man standing outside smoking and another just arriving in a car. Would they have been less friendly if we had attempted to park there I wonder? Anyway, onwards; we weren't looking for parking in Haynes today.

The routes of the John Bunyan Trail and the Greensand Ridge Walk coincide briefly in Haynes, then nearly cross again at Appley Corner, but we dutifully followed the correct route towards Rowney Warren Wood. The wood is attractive from a distance and there are clearly lots of attractive paths for walkers and cyclists in the wood itself. However the John Bunyan Trail follows a track to the south of the wood, with views of building work at Lodge Farm! I couldn't resist the temptation to follow a track just inside the wood instead for a short distance.

Lodge Farm is marked on the map as Secondlodge Farm and then Firstlodge Farm and it appears to be the home of Parrish's Farm, producers of bird-seed. We crossed a road heading into the wood to the left, and to RAF Chicksands to the right. RAF Chicksands is home of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre, the UK Defence Agency responsible for training all service personnel in intelligence, security and information support. Unusually, there is a 12th Century Gilbertine priory, Chicksands Priory, within the base and this is sometimes open to the public. I'd like to visit it sometime. For today though, we changed maps from OS Explorer Sheet 208 (Bedford and St Neots) to Sheet 193 (Luton and Stevenage) and continued our walk alongside Rowney Warren Wood, initially with a high fence to our right but then between hawthorn hedges with more open ground and RAF Chicksands beyond.