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Posts categoriezed as CANTAB Archive

CANTAB41 April 2007

CANTAB41 April 2007 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
Parts of this issue of Cantab Rambler are going to look rather negative, as I am passing on various reports of paths presently closed, or unavailable.  But it is surely better to find this out here, than to be half-way along a river bank, and find a path blocked or a bridge missing.

So good luck with the Spring walking, and do pass on reports of paths blocked, or temporarily closed.

Janet Moreton

Paths currently unavailable

Braham Dock
We are disturbed to note that the crossing of Braham Dock on the Fen Rivers Way at TL 540 774 on the west side of the River Great Ouse is still closed.  Construction  of a new bridge has now been rescheduled to start at the end of March, and diversion notices are posted.  Cambridge Group recently walked the stretch to Ely on the east side of the river, where there were no problems.

Five Fools Meadow, Shepreth
Permissive access is still allowed on Cambs.C.C. land at Shepreth, with a small car park at TL 384 492 but the continuing permissive path on private land through to Malton Road, Meldreth is now closed.  This is thought to be due to concern over falling trees and insurance implications.

Wendens Ambo’s pylon Repairs
Through the Winter, we have received complaints from time to time regarding unexpected closures of paths without warning in the Linton locality.  There is a major refurbishment programme underway on the whole cross-country line going north from Brent Pelham.  The whole programme is scheduled to take 2 years, but is now at least half-way through.

The latest reports have been from Wendens Ambo, near Audley End house, Essex. The popular Fp3, which leaves the B1383 at TL 519 369 to lead across the railway and towards Littlebury Green has a “Path Closed” notice. It is closed for 6 months “or earlier” from 12 March.

Sustaining the inner man!
On a happier note, here are recommendations for those who like their walking punctuated by a little liquid refreshment…

The King’s Head, Hadstock, Essex
David Elsom writes, “Happy to report that the Kings Head at Hadstock has reopened after six months and serving excellent home-made soup, granary bread, sandwiches etc. Log fires as ever. Another young couple making a brave attempt to revive the pub: gradually getting evening food going too”.

Abington Pottery & Craft Shop
High Street, Lt Abington, S.Cambs.
One of my own favourites is the tea-shop associated with this business, where handmade stoneware pottery is produced on the premises. The house is a medieval open hall house, restored in 1964. Browse amongst the pottery & craft exhibits after enjoying tea, coffee & home-made cakes.

Poppies Bistro, Soham, E.Cambs
We newly discovered this charming café, opposite St Andrew’s church, after a Cambridge RA Group walk on the Soham Millennium waymarked walks. Whilst serving excellent traditional British tea and cakes and morning coffee, lunches and evening meals with a Portuguese slant are also available.

THE NEW RIVER PATH LINKING HERTFORD WITH ISLINGTON
By David Elsom

After about ten years work, this path was opened by Thames Water in 2003. It follows the New River, built in 1613 by a group of  “adventurers” led by Sir Hugh Myddleton, to carry fresh water for about 30 miles from the springs and rivers in the Hertford/Ware area into the City of London. Even today 10% of London’s water supply is delivered by this route.

The Path starts from Hertford, and is essentially rural until reaching Enfield, but even then often forms a green finger through the North London suburbs. On reaching Canonbury and Islington the line of the New River is preserved through a series of narrow public parks, until reaching New River Head, off Myddleton  Square and close to Saddlers Wells.

Some Cambridge RA Group Saturday walkers recently completed the walk in three stages, using the two distinct railway lines serving Hertford:

1. Hertford East railway station to Cheshunt railway station, which is about 12/13 miles, lunching at Broxbourne, in the park set up by the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority

2. Cheshunt railway station to Bowes Park railway station [near Alexandra Palace]. For this stage we parked at Hertford North railway station, walked to Hertford East to catch a train to Cheshunt, and then caught the train back to Hertford North. Lunch was enjoyed at Forty Hall, a magnificent house at the centre of a London Borough of Enfield country park. Plenty of pubs in Enfield Town, as we discovered. Old Enfield was a revelation to us all. Another 12/13 miles

3. Bowes Park railway station into the City of London, returning from Kings Cross to Hertford North, where we had parked to travel down to Bowes Park. Lunch was taken in Clissold Park, where there are good facilities and pleasant gardens. Only 8/9 miles

It is not very complicated to do this walk, and by doing it on a Saturday or Sunday, parking at the Hertford stations is plentiful and cheap [£1 all day].

Thames Water produce a good booklet “The New River Path” ***, which is essential [though the street map of Cheshunt area is wrong – ring David 01223 842074 for illumination]; OS Explorer 174 Epping Forest and Lee Valley covers all but the last two miles of the walk; and in general the signage is good.

*** ring Thames Water 0845 9200 800 to obtain your copy of the free booklet

For a surprising and different walk, do give it a go!

Parish of the Month – Conington,
South Cambridgeshire
Don’t confuse this little parish in South Cambridgeshire, with the other parish of the same name in Huntingdonshire!  This parish traditionally looked north to Fen Drayton for its shared vicar, and the good folk of Fen Drayton ambled south down a footpath of an evening, crossed the main road (Via Devana or Wool Street, later the A604, and now the A14) to reach Conington’s White Swan pub. Regular foot-traffic across this road has long since ceased – we last crossed nervously on a Sunday morning some 10 years ago or more – and Conington now looks to neighbouring Fenstanton for its shops, buses, and connections with the outside world.

There were never many folk living in Conington.* The population was recorded as 24 in the Domesday survey; 182 in the census of 1801; and 150 in 1996. Its only public building, the church  (usually kept locked) is partly rebuilt, with huge brick buttresses, but still boasts a C14th spire, which contains 3 medieval bells. The parish is low-lying  (ca 15m, rising to some 30m towards the Boxworth parish boundary).

Some archaeological excavations were made in the 1990s before a pit was filled with waste adjacent to the A14. After the Romans, who left evidence of coins, and a Roman Milestone on the main road, came the Saxons, a C10th lord being named Aefhelm Polga.  The Saxon village may have been to the south of the church.

There are said to be “irregular low banks still just visible in a ploughed field bounded by 3 hollow ways and the present School Lane”.  Perhaps one needs to visit of a Summer evening, in a low sun?  With the centuries, the village (never large) moved north & east along Town Street. The hall was built in the C17th. Later the village extended along Town Street. An extension of the Park in the C19th led to the demolition of old closes in the Hall grounds, leaving visible earthworks. The houses were originally replaced by “model cottages” on the other side of the road, but these, in turn, were replaced in the 1970s.

In the late C18th, the Hall, owned by the Cotton family, was let with stables, fish- ponds, gardens, etc, a very des.res. In 1818, trespassers were warned publicly that “Man-traps, Spring Ginns and Dog Traps are actually set in the rookeries and all the plantations about the premises at Conington”.

Nowadays you will find a friendly welcome at The Swan Inn, and no traps on the 4 local paths.

Fp 1 leaves the Fenstanton Road, signed at TL 322669, to run N over an arable field to a stile. The path crosses a small grass field to a second stile, and then joins the continuing Fenstanton Fp14. (This path reaches the flyover for the A14, and is the best route on foot into Fenstanton).

Along a minor road leading from the cross-roads by the White Swan, is an optimistic sign, “Public Footpath Fen Drayton 1¼”.  This indicates Fp2 going NE on a 1m wide rough grass headland beside a ditch in an arable field. The path runs to a signpost and bridge over the roadside ditch beside the A14, where the path is effectively dead-ended.  There are signs of folk having used this path – presumably a “there and back” for local dogwalkers.  There is presently a campaign within the village to obtain a crossing here, when the A14 is widened. If you can help, contact Cllr N Wright, (S.Cambs.District Councillor).

Fp 3, however, gives an excellent through route from School Lane, at TL 321661, where it starts from a signpost, along a hedged lane.  Soon the path emerges, to run along an attractive grassy track by a stream between fields.  It crosses a couple of bridges over side-ditches, and continues as Elsworth Fp9, skirting below a reservoir, and passing through pasture before entering Elsworth.

A  sign, “Public Bridleway Boxworth 2” on Elsworth Road at TL 325662, indicates Bp 4 entering pastures. The route runs ESE crossing a stream on a timber bridge at the end of the first field. After a second grass field, a metal farm-gate & a wide culvert over a side-ditch at TL 330658, lead out of the pasture and onto a  grass field-edge path. This path continues, with turns, to cross the  parish boundary at TL 336654, continuing as Boxworth Bp 1.

As well as the above rights of way, there is an important permissive path, going to Hilton along a farm track. It is signed “Footpath” on the Fenstanton Road at TL 316673.

Walks around Conington
Although it is possible to park a few cars considerately around the village, ramblers may prefer to park in adjacent villages, and walk to Conington, to use the pub, or sit on the patch of grass by the pond adjacent to the church for a picnic.  The following circuits are “tried and tested” routes.

(A) Elsworth (park beside the rec in Broad End) ; fp to Conington; detour to visit church; along High Street to the White Swan, left at junction along the road to Fenstanton. Turn off by the wooden sign on the left at TL 316673 to take the track to Hilton. Detour to visit Hilton’s huge village green, the maze, the church. Take the bridleway to Pitt Dene farm and Elsworth.  (approx. 7 miles)

(B) Elsworth; fp from behind church to Knapwell (detour to visit church and nature reserve); fp to Boxworth; bp to Conington; fp to Elsworth. (approx 7 miles)
Note it is equally convenient to start from Knapwell, where there is parking in the lane to the church. From Conington, include the Hilton extension to make 11 miles.

(C) For a linear route taking in Conington, try the following bus-based excursion.
Take a Whippet 1a or Hunts & District bus from Drummer Street, Cambridge to Fenstanton Clock Tower. Walk back through Fenstanton, and over the flyover, and take the signed path (through 3 fields, last one presently in oilseed, reinstatement promised) to Conington Road, and go to the cross roads by the White Swan. Take bp 4 to Boxworth, and continue to Lolworth, from whence a hard footpath crosses the fields to Bar Hill.  Turn left along the bridleway in the trees, and catch the bus from in front of Tesco Stores back to Cambridge.  (approx. 7 miles)

(D) Alternatively, take the same bus to Fenstanton Clock Tower, and walk to Conington. Continue to Elsworth and Knapwell, as in Walk (B). From Knapwell, take the footpath to Cold Harbour Farm, and the bridge over the A428 approaching Cambourne. Walk into Cambourne, making for Morrison’s. Citi4 buses leave from opposite the supermarket every 20 minutes for Cambridge.  (7 miles)

All of the above routes can be extended to give walks of up to 14 miles by including the villages of Lolworth, Childerley and Dry Drayton. Paths are generally in good order, but heavy in Winter on the boulder clay. By April, however, one would expect them to be drying out nicely.
*Historical notes are based partly on”Archaeology of Cambridgeshire”, Vol. 1 by Alison Taylor, Publ. Cambs.C.C. 1997

Quotation of the Month
from John Clare-the Helpston Poet, 1793-1864
“Swamps of wild rushbeds and sloughs squashy traces,
Grounds of rough fallows with thistles and weeds,
Flats of low valleys of kingcups and daisies,
Sweetest of subjects are ye for my reed;”…

(This is part of a poem published in “Rambles with John Clare”, by Daniel Crowson, Publ. by C.E.Cutforth, Helpston, 1978, and now, sadly, believed to be out of print).

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 20p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Price 20 pence where sold

Cantab 41  © Janet Moreton, 2007

CANTAB40 February 2007

CANTAB40 February 2007 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
It has been suggested that there should be some sort of fanfare for this, the fortieth issue of Cantab Rambler. I can only say that it is generally well-received, and that the number of people receiving copies by e-mail continues to increase.

The first issue appeared in November 1999, and led with changes to the path network, including developments at Cambourne.  It went on to review the Bedfordshire “Kingfisher Way”, and the Cambridgeshire Pathfinder Long Distance Walk. RA Cambridge Group’s Millennium Project of resurveying all the District’s paths was discussed.  Parish of the Month was Haddenham.  The next Cantabs were in July, September and December 2000, but by 2001, issues were appearing more frequently.

I now generally manage 6 issues per annum, though not necessarily at precisely two month intervals. The  most popular single articles seem to be “Parish of the Month”, although clearly Cantab is a useful forum for notices of path changes and discussion of local issues.

This issue has a “Letter to the Editor” which is fairly unusual.  Do write with news, opinions, and items of rambling importance.  I may have to shorten any lengthy offerings, as four sides of A4 is the ration! Thank you for your continued support.

Janet Moreton

Quotation for the New Year
“Reconnect with the natural world. Go for a walk. Get wet.  Dig the earth”
 …..Archbishop Rowan Williams

Fifteen Years of Buns!
Cambridge RA Group has a tradition of a yearly “Bun Walk”, held around the New Year period, and which adds a little jollity to what may otherwise be a damp and muddy time of year for walking in the countryside.

The first record I have  is of a “Mince Pie Walk” on 29 Dec.1990, when 8 people braved snow showers, to eat mince pies in the inadequate cover of a copse near Cockayne Hatley. Three years later, when we were still calling it a “Mince Pie” walk, the venue was Barrington, in pouring rain.  The occasion was scheduled as a figure-of-eight, but in the circumstances, the 8 people who turned out opted to do the morning 6 miles only! The leader returned home with a crumbling bundle of residual fragments of mince pie, which were eaten as “pudding” with cream or custard for the next two or three days. Thereafter, the occasion turned into a “Bun Walk”.

On 21 Jan 1995, we record wind and heavy rain for a 7 mile walk at Wicken, with a turnout of 10 people.  On 30 Dec 1995, a figure-of-eight walk at Over was nearly snowed off, the roads being treacherous.  However, the 10 people who braved the weather, voted it a memorable occasion. Some 25 turned out to Swavesey on 28 Dec 1996, for a fine, frosty walk, with the trees decorated in hoar frost.  Fifteen people joined the walk in drizzle at Bassingbourn on 27 Dec 1997 which was combined with Royston RA Group.

From here on numbers joining this (and many other walks of the Group) started to increase.  There were 20 folk on a cold dry day at Rampton on 8 Jan 1999, for a 10 mile walk.  On 8 Jan 2000, 18 set off from Coton, for a walk which included the Cambridge Backs, on what my diary describes as ” a lovely day”, and a grand start to the new Millennium.

The rich fruit cake ran out, and had to be supplemented by chocolate biscuits on 6 Jan 2001, when 59 people signed on for the cold start of the Fen Rivers Way first section from Byron’s Pool to Waterbeach.  We celebrated a 60th birthday on 12 Jan 2002, on “Roger’s Cake Walk”, when 36 people (including two RA members from the South of France) enjoyed a 9 mile walk from Eversden.

By the 18 Jan 2003, Cambridge Group, joined by several other walkers from East Anglia, were part-way through a sectional exploration of the West Anglian Way.  We accomplished the 10 mile length of towpath between Bishops Stortford and Sawbridgeworth in fine weather, and this time did not run out of cake!

Again there was mild weather on 10 Jan 2004 at Linton when 28 people fortified themselves with cake for a 10 mile walk. The turn-out was 17 people on 8 Jan 2005, for an 11 mile walk at Barrington and Shepreth, when the weather remained dry, but the wind was strong enough to almost blow the cake out of our hands. Then last year, on 7 Jan, there were flurries of snow at Newport, when 18 people walked a 10 mile figure of eight loop.

And this year?  Some of you readers will recall this only too well.  There were 22 of us, who on Sat 6 Jan started a 9 mile walk at Burwell and Reach. It rained hard all day, and very understandably, some opted to miss the afternoon. Question – how many wet people and their rucksacs can picnic in the bus shelter at Reach?  (answers on a postcard please).

Socks…
Seen in “Blacks” – Buy one, get one free!

Letter to the Editor – using buses
From John Andrews, Suffolk., who writes in response to Cantab 39…
“I was particularly interested in the piece about buses, as I often try to use them when out and about alone.  They can present problems and I have decided that it’s a bit risky relying on a bus to get you back to where you started from; safer to use the bus on the outward journey, then, if it doesn’t materialise, at least you aren’t stranded!

On one occasion a bus I was depending on to get me back from Fordham to Red Lodge – from where I had walked – simply failed to appear and I had to call a taxi.  At least, I managed to get the bus company to refund the taxi fare.

However, the most memorable experience to date was getting on a bus at Stanton (between Bury St Edmunds and Diss) and asking for a ticket to a village on the route – only to be asked by the driver to tell him where it was, because he had never been that way before!  We did eventually make it – after a few wrong turns, but when I studied the timetable later, I realised that we had completely bypassed two villages where he ought to have called – I wonder how many would-be passengers were/are left in the lurch by this kind of farce?

Further linear walks –
For those of you not discouraged by John’s experiences, (or indeed, by my tales last issue of a missing bus to Saffron Walden), here, by request, is a further walk, “on the buses”.
Impington to Milton Country park
Explorers 225, 226 10 miles
Out  – Citi7, Emmanuel Rd, 09.30;  Back – Citi2, Milton opposite Tesco;  (Cambridge Citi 2, 7 both every 10 minutes)

Alight Impington Village College. Turn right into Butt Lane, and pass the superb parish church on left. Continue along Milton Road to the crossing of Mere Way (the Roman Akeman Street). Note the access land field on the right along the road, which allows one to walk on the adjacent grass.

Turn left (NNE) along the byway, until an access sign at TL 465638. Here, either continue along the byway to Landbeach, or, better, turn left along a signed grassy field-edge, then follow waymarks through attractive young woodland. (Note at one point, the path does an unexpected loop half-back on itself!).  Emerge from the woodland TL 460 649, and follow the track N to TL 461 657, where it joins another track at a T-junction.  Cross the ditch on an earth bridge, and turn right, passing in front of the hedge in front of Rectory Farm (buildings). Turn left (NNE) and right (WSW) at a field boundary. Pass out to the road (S) down an narrow file between trees to the corner of Akeman Street (TL 472 652).  Walk E towards Landbeach Rec., detouring to visit the historic site of the Manor of Brays (display board).  From opposite the village sign, walk the footway of Waterbeach Road. Cross the A10 with care, and continue down the cycleway opposite on a dead-end road. Either visit Waterbeach’s village green (shops, pubs, seats), or take a short-cut opposite across the extensive rec, emerging on a lane between bungalows.

Turn right, passing the parish church, and use the railway level crossing,  Just beyond, turn into the station carpark on the right, and exit diagonally into Cow Hollow Wood. Walk right, and left over a bridge, and follow the path up to Clayhythe Bridge.  Joint the River Cam Towpath on the left.  Walk to Baits Bite Lock.  After resting here on the seats, turn back to Fen Road, which follow over the level crossing.

Find the entrance to Milton Country Park on the left, and follow the paths through to the visitor centre, toilets and exit.  Walk up towards Tesco Supermarket, where find the bus shelter for Citi2 near the roundabout.

“Walks in and Around Shudy Camps”
A new guide by Roger Lemon
This excellent walks book, illustrated with attractive photos of the parish, is produced by the Roger Lemon, the Chairman of the Parish Council, and active representative of the County Council’s Parish Paths Partnership Scheme.  Roger, with the backing of modest funds from Cambs.C.C., has been responsible for transforming the local network of paths in the last few years.

Here we have a set of six well-described local walks of between 1.5 and 4.6 miles, each with a clear route map.  More ambitious walkers can easily combine walks to give a longer circuit. We can vouch for the good state of these paths, but be aware that there are a few cross-field sections.

To obtain your copy, send £2.50 to
Roger Lemon, Brecklands, Main Street, Shudy Camps, Cambridge, CB1 6RA.

And thank you and your team, Roger, for all your hard work!

Parish of the Month – Shudy Camps
Reading the new walks guide, led me to study Shudy Camps in “Archaeology of Cambridgeshire” (Vol.II) by Alison Taylor.
(Publ. Cambs.C.C., 1998)

The location, bordering both Suffolk and Essex, is mostly above 100m, with fields of chalky boulder-clay overlying chalk. The parish was once heavily wooded (as recorded in 1086) but during the C18th there was extensive felling.

History
A major C7th Anglo-Saxon cemetery was excavated near the Bartlow border in 1933. There were at least 145 burials. Although by then the population would have been Christian, old pagan traditions seem to have lingered, as over half the bodies were accompanied by grave-goods, incl. spears, jewelry, small wooden boxes, spindle whorls and iron shears.

In medieval times, settlement was scattered across the parish, mostly around seven moated sites, such as at Lordship Farm, Barsey Farm, Hanchetts, Shardelowes, Nosterfield Manor, and at Mill Green. All these are still represented by a farm or houses.  By the C16th, there was a hamlet called Rowhedge near the church, and a larger hamlet, Newton, along the village street. The original layout of the latter, before modern development, suggests that it grew up along the verge of an old drove-road.  One of these old houses Bramleys, is a C13th aisled hall.

During the C18th, Sir Marmaduke Dayrell acquired Hanchetts Manor, built a mansion in Shudy Camps Park, felled woodland, and bought up much local land & property (reportedly generating considerable local ill-feeling).  Only the Bridge family at Nosterfield End withstood the engulfment.

Back in 1086, there were at least 22 villagers; this had risen to 85 families by 1279, a population later reduced by the Black Death. By the census of 1801 there were 349 residents; 418 in 1831; then a decline.  In 1996, the population was 300.

The paths  ( see Explorer 210)
There are 20 numbered paths in the parish, all generally in impeccable order. This was not always so.  In a survey of 1982 by Cambridge RA, only 6 of the paths were deemed usable. The only problems to be encountered now are on cross-field sections,  which, are bound to be sticky on the chalky boulderclay in wet conditions, and on which there may sometimes be a delay between cultivation and path reinstatement.

Bp1 is part of the long bridlepath between Cardinals Green, Horseheath, and the Bartlow Road. Fps 2, 3 form an attractive closed loop visiting the edge of the residual Northey Wood from Main St.  Fps 4 & 6 provide a route N from Main St to the road  by Cardinals Farm, and Fp5 from Main St to the same minor road between Shardelows & Mill Green. Fp7 cuts off a road corner across an arable field, when approaching Main St from the water tower. Fp8 gives fine views of the house, when crossing the edge of Shudy Camps Park.  Fp9 from Mill Green, and Fp10 from Priory Farm, meet at a strip of woodland, TL 633 453.  From this junction Bp11  goes N to join Horseheath 19 en route to the A1307, and also goes E to Barsey Farm and on to Nosterfield End.  Fp13 gives an alternative route to the road, by Rumbold’s Chase Farm.  Bp12 is a spur from Bp11 towards Hanchetts Hall.  Fp15 leaves Church Road opposite Glebe House, crosses pastures and continues S as Castle Camps 6.  Fp17 is a path (diverted 1992) leaving Blacksmith’s Lane between new residences and emerging from between gardens, to cross a arable field to Castle Camps Byway 7.  Fp18 is a second path further W going S across the arable to join this sunken byway.

Fps 16 & 19 start from Goodwoods. Fp16 goes SE towards the border with Haverhill, continuing as Fp20 S along the boundary. Fp19 runs SW towards Castle Camps village.

(I did not forget fp 14 – it was legally extinguished in 1995).

The Walks
Roger Lemon’s book makes this section very easy. Buy the book, and follow the walks!

In the previous issue of Cantab, a walk of 10 miles using public transport was suggested from Haverhill to Linton, which passes through Shudy Camps.

For walks starting in the village, the book recommends no parking sites. I would tentatively suggest roadside parking near the church, but not on Sunday mornings. So starting near St Mary’s Church try Walk 2 (Camps End, Millennium Wood, and Castle Camps Village), extending perhaps further on the complex network of Castle Camps paths.

Or why not start at the village sign on Main Street, and combine Walk 1 (Northey Wood), as a figure-of-eight with Walk 3, from the village sign to Cardinals Green, “The Willows” and Mill Green.

Walk 5 (Barsey Farm and Nosterfield End), and Walk 6 (combining a visit to the churches in both Shudy & Castle Camps) are both delightful walks in themselves, but should one wish to venture further, again it is suggested to extend in the Castle Camps direction, where there are many more paths to explore, without the need for much road walking.

A final point – Castle Camps has a recreation ground with a publicly available parking area.  If visiting both villages, it might be better to park here.

New Approach at Lackford Lakes
Explorer 229, Thetford Forest & The Brecks
Many readers will know Suffolk Naturalists’ Trust reserve beyond Lackford village on the A1101, approached by a track turning off the road at TL 801 702.  However, anyone who has ever attempted to walk here from Lackford along this narrow, busy section of road will know it is fraught with hazard, and thus it has always been difficult to incorporate visiting  the reserve into a larger circular walk, taking in West Stow and the Kings Forest.

There is now a new footpath from beside Lackford Church, giving a fenced, grassy way across fields into the reserve, near the visitor centre and toilets. Within the reserve, there are at least 6 bird hides, and many well-placed seats, giving views across landscaped quarry lakes, and some 2 miles of attractive footpath.

In Winter, plenty of wildfowl attract visitors. Wild flowers are excellent here, too, with an orchid meadow, many species of Breck plants, and I have seen the uncommon Dittander.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 20p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Price 10 pence where sold

Cantab 40  © Janet Moreton, 2007

CANTAB39 December 2006

CANTAB39 December 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
A feature in the December issue of  “Country Walking”magazine, illustrates two  mature gentlemen with walking poles ascending the slopes of a frosty hill.  So, yes, even though most of the walking gear adverts are posed by folk in their early twenties, the walking press are aware that there are numbers of seasoned (and even old) ramblers still treading the turf, so two handsome, silvery haired gentlemen may be selected as role models… We retired persons are the walkers with time to get out in the countryside more than once or twice per week, and are on the lookout for up-to-date information on new walks and equipment, travel and refreshment, and environmental issues.  Country Walking and other national magazines try to fulfill this function for the whole of the UK – in a more humble way Cantab attempts to update you on the local scene.

Part of this issue specifically addresses those of us who are over the magic “60”. This means, in Cambridgeshire at least, we have, since October, just acquired a free bus pass, allowing us to travel gratis throughout the county, and over the borders to Saffron Walden, Newmarket,  Biggleswade, Royston, Market Deeping, Downham Market, Kings Lynn, and even Stamford.  On weekdays, we may not use the pass before 9.30am, so the more distant locations are perhaps not very practical if a long walk is planned.  So here is an opportunity to save money, leave the car in the garage, be environmentally “green”, and try some linear walks not accessible by car. Here is how we got on…

General Comments – “free” buses
Living in Cambridge some 15 minutes on foot from Drummer Street bus station, Roger & I are probably as well-placed as any to try the free bus options for country walks.  The first step was to gather a bunch of timetables from the bus station.  We studied these at home, and decided in the first instance, that services of interest were those of frequency at least once per hour, and preferable half-hourly or better.

Stagecoach Citi7 runs every 10 minutes during the day from Cottenham to Sawston, some buses continuing further to Whittlesford, Duxford, etc and, once per hour, to Saffron Walden.  We tried this first.  Like many services, the bus took a very long time from Emmanuel Street to the Railway Station, and we resolved in future to walk to just beyond the station to catch it – almost faster on foot!  Later, we found that the buses “clumped” in busy periods, but seldom had to wait for this service more than 20 minutes. However, on one cold morning in October, aiming to catch the Citi7 to Saffron Walden in Sawston, we waited half-an-hour in vain – it never came, to the distress of 8 potential passengers at the war-memorial.

We had no problem with Citi10 running every half-hour out to Bottisham, Lode, The Swaffhams & Burwell en route to Newmarket. We have used it successfully several times, including to visit Anglesey Abbey. An excellent service provided by Huntingdon & District “Huntsbus”, leaves Drummer Street about 3 times/ hour for Fenstanton, St Ives, Hartford & Huntingdon.  We used this even before it was free!

Citi 13 runs to Haverhill via Addenbrookes, Babraham, Abington, Linton & Horseheath, again with a half-hour service.  One dark November afternoon, emerging from the café at Abington, we just caught a Citi13, passing either 15 minutes late, or 15 minutes early!

The dark cold days of November & December are perhaps not the best season to wait in chill winds for a bus, but shelters exist in the larger villages.  Sometimes there is only a bus-stop on the side towards Cambridge, so going in the other direction, one has to wait opposite, without a shelter.  One final point to remember is the additional walking you may need to do, to reach the bus-stop before you start (and finish) your walk proper. This may amount to an “overburden” of say, 2 miles, and should be allowed for in the energy equation!

Having sounded cautionary, we enjoyed several free trips, and good walks, two of which are outlined below.  We will continue our investigations in the Spring, and should there be a demand, will extend the linear walks suggestions.

Example Linear “bus walks”

Saffron Walden – Sawston 11miles
Explorer 194, 209.
Citi 7 from Addenbrookes 9.32 or Sawston Memorial 9.52
Alight Saffron Walden centre. Visit parish church, make for Catons Lane (football ground). Footpath N uphill crossing Westley Lane, turn W near Four Acre Grove to Springwell. Cross B184, path opposite to Lt Chesterford, footpath to Gt. Chesterford. From railway crossing, detour S on bridleway over M11 bridge up Coploe Hill, turn W on field-edge bridleway to Coploe Rd, descend past Nature reserve to Ickleton. Pass through rec, use Butchers Lane, & take paths to & beside railway & across meadows to Hinxton Mill. Take road over level crossing & ford to Duxford (short cut across rec & note nature reserve & 2 churches). Take road (with footway) towards Whittlesford station. Either straight ahead on footway of Duxford Rd, right alongside the rec, & footpath over meadows, railway & bypass to Sawston, bus-stop opposite bakers near Memorial.
Or Detour via Chuck-a Bush Farm, to visit Whittlesford & church.

Horseheath to Linton, 9 or 7 miles
Explorer 209, 210.
Citi 13 from Drummer Street 9.35
Alight Horseheath village green. Take path or road to Cardinals Green. From Allington Cottages, a cross-field path joins a bridleway going E, then SSE. After a mile, through a copse, a branch path W leads to Mill Green, Shudy Camps. Amble past the watertower, down into the village. A path from the village sign (and seat) leads back towards Cardinals Farm, and Cardinals Green. Take the bridleway (Harcamlow Way) towards Bartlow, where visit Roman burial mounds & church.  From church, use the new footpath along private road through housing & barn conversions, then road towards Hadstock.  Turn off on Chalky Road (track) to Malting Cottages.  Cross A1307 & walk to Mill, church & High Street. Join bus at the shelter near village sign. Omit detour round Shudy Camps for shorter walk.

Latest on Cambridgeshire Byways
Readers will recall the ongoing campaign to improve the state of byways for walkers.

Regarding the Roman Road, the “Via Devana”, or Wool Street between Balsham and Horseheath, some progress has been made in that a short section, ca. 150m, by the junction with Woodhall Lane has been made up with tarmac planings, improving what was probably the worst section.  However, the continuing stretch to the B1052 remains rutted and almost impassable in deep mud.

To the North of Balsham, the byway, Fox Road, is in an even worse state, from about half a mile out of the village, up to its junction with Six Mile Bottom Road.  We tried to use this path on the shortest day of the year.  Deep mud & ruts surfaced the path in places, while in others, huge puddles filled the byway: thick fog added to the air of intense gloom…. Near Green End Farm, the surface seems to be contaminated with deep, especially sticky clay.  We escaped into the adjacent cultivated field, in order to make progress at all.  Discussions, we understand, are being had between the County & Parish Council and local farmers.  Meanwhile, walkers of the Icknield Way LDP are getting a pretty shabby deal, on what is Cambridgeshire’s only Regional Route.

Elsewhere, progress is a little better.

In Rampton, we have a report that the historic section of the Aldreth Causeway is closed to vehicles for surface repair work, but remains open to walkers and horseriders.  We are still awaiting legislation for regular Winter closure to traffic of this and other byways. We also learnt that work is in hand on grading & reprofiling Reynolds Drift (by way 4) & byway 5 to Cuckoo Drift . The paths are closed to vehicles but still open to walkers & riders.  The contractors are also going to provide a better surface for Pauley’s Drove, Byway 2.  In Longstanton, a Council officer reported on 15 December on work  grading & reprofiling byway 7, using funds made available to integrate the Northstowe new town’s paths into the network. Meanwhile the byways will be closed to drivers, but open to walkers and horseriders.

We used Porters Way near Kingston in early December.  Surface improvements were made a couple of years ago.  The end leaving Old North Road opposite the Red House pub is now in very good order.  The other end, approaching the B1046, is deteriorating, in spite of clearance & French Drains. It is already rutted and rather muddy, but still easily passable in walking boots.  In Knapwell, Thorofare Lane had clearance and surface improvements last year, and is currently pleasant and easy underfoot.

We recently attempted a comprehensive survey of the byways of Melbourn.  These were mostly in good condition, being on well-drained chalk.  Sadly, most are dead-ends. Unfortunately, we were unable to use Melbourn Byway 19,  off New Road, as it was at that time totally blocked by caravans.  A Council officer informed that he was in progress of getting these removed.

Congratulations to Duncan!
Cambs RA member, Duncan Mackay has recently won second prize in the Kendal Film Festival on his short film, entitled “Is it Right to Roam”. He writes, ” I took a group of young film makers from The British Schools Exploring Society round several farmers in the Lake District, and asked them how the right to roam legislation was working now that it is two years old.  I’m sure you can imagine the sort of reactions we got.  It made a very good film and we had great fun doing it.  In fact, I was surprised how reasonable some of the farmers were.  There was much less opposition than one might suppose.  You can see the film on the Kendal film festival website, under the film school section”.

Parish of the Month – Ickleton
As the name suggests, the parish lies on the historic line of the Icknield Way.  However,  the walkers’ LDP does not pass through the village, but instead descends Strethall Field, and takes the available bridge crossing of the M11, into Great Chesterford, continuing to Linton and, untimately, Knettishall Heath in Thetford Forest. Ickleton has almost no public footpaths outside the village envelope, the cottages and village paths are attractive, and worthy of investigation.

Neolithic flint tools were found in the Coploe Hill area and below the A11, and a Neolithic axe was found during excavations of a Roman Villa. The chalk ridge along the S border of the parish was formerly the site of barrows, which once marked much of the Icknield Way route. A Roman villa, sited S of the village was excavated in the 1880s.  It sounds rather luxurious, having at least 17 rooms, some of which were decorated with painted plaster, with fleur-de-lys, wild rose and dancing girls.

There was a small nunnery in the village intil 1536, when it was dissolved.  The present Abbey farmhouse, dating from the C17th, has a medieval doorway, and a barn with C14th woodwork.  The parish church was built about 1100, using some Roman materials. Following arson in 1979, restoration revealed C12th wall paintings of Christs’s passion, and martyrs,  and a C14th Doomsday over the chancel arch.

The medieval village consisted of only the main street, Abbey Street, on the line of one of the tracks of the Icknield Way. A quarter-mile N was another settlement, Brookhampton, now lost.  This too was on one of the Icknield Way tracks, that forded the Cam before reaching Hinxton. Weekly markets & an annual fair were held between the C13th & C19th. Today the village has many thatched  and half-timbered cottages.

The open field system ended with Inclosure in 1814.  Presently, there are 12 public rights of way in the parish, and the Nature Reserve, Coploe Hill Pit, permitting public access.  The latter is reached from Coploe Road at TL 493 426.  The gate gives into a shallow disused chalk pit, largely grassed over, with attractive flora in Summer.

Ickleton Suggested Walks…
Start at the rec., where there is some parking.

To go N from the village, start on Fp5, on Butchers Hill at TL 494 440.  Find the start through a metal gate in a high brick wall.  The signpost is inside! This attractive path runs NW in a narrow lane between banks, then through horse-paddocks., crossing a bridge, and through kissing gates, to join Bp 2, at a crossing of paths, TL 491 444.  Bp2 continues NNW,  first as a lane, then a grassy baulk between open fields.  At the parish boundary with Duxford, the bridleway continues as a footpath – is this where one slings the horse over the rider’s shoulder?  A route continues into Duxford village, alongside the chemical works, on a path behind Duxford Road hedge. Visit the interesting inner-village paths between flint walls and old houses in Duxford,  the little village green, and 2 churches.  Return SSE on a quiet lane past the other side of the chemical works.  Just before the level crossing at TL 488 454, a path in Duxford will lead you back to Ickleton Bp 2 and your outward route. Do not seek the path shown crossing the railway at TL 491 451 – this has been obstructed by the railway fences for years, in spite of our continued objections.  Instead cross the footbridge by the deep ford, and continue towards Hinxton Mill. (The mill is owned by the Cambridge Preservation Society, and open on some Summer Sundays).  A path leads past the buildings, and drops down into the watermeadows, which cross diagonally.. (Note that the meadow paths are sometimes flooded in Winter, but permissive field-edge alternatives are available).  Both routes reach the railway at TL 493 448, and Ickleton Fp3 starts here  along-side the fence, in an attractive defile between bushes. On reaching the road, cross the level-crossing, and immediately take the signed Fp 4 diagonally across a pasture. Emerge on Brookhampton Road, to find Fp11’s kissing gate almost opposite, to lead you back to the bridge for Fp2 at TL 493 442, and your outward route.

Back in Butchers Hill, cross to find the signed Fp6, between “Dove Barn” glimpsed through an ancient wooden archway, and “Lane End”. Pass through a passage between high flint walls, to emerge  on Church Road, with the church to the left. Turn right for the village shop & the rec. (4 miles).

Fp8 is a signed footpath crossing the rec. from Frogge Street, into Back Lane. This is a good way to get to Coploe Road, and visit the nature reserve, or a route to join the Icknield Way LDP.  Note there is also an unofficial way out of the rec. in the S corner, to join Fp9 , which circles back to Frogge St  to emerge at TL 496 435. The official start of Fp9 is in Southfield Close.  (If you continue down Frogge Street footway towards Gt Chesterford, you will past a Trout Fishery, which sells fish, and has a café). Further down the road,  just a few metres of the start of the Icknield Way path at the edge of Gt Chesterford, by the railway crossing is actually Byway 10 in Ickleton.

Another possible circuit to Hinxton may be made using Byway 7, which leaves the end of Mill Lane at TL 497 440, and crosses the railway  by a level crossing. Beyond, the most noticeable feature is a nature reserve notice, with a made-up path going off left, with the remark that it is available to persons coming from Ickleton or Hinxton.  This attractive & useful (non-definitive) path leads behind the Genome Centre, and inside a hedge beside the Ickleton Rd, and constitutes the most attractive route to Hinxton.  However, the right of way continutes ahead on short grass, soon crossing a footbridge over the R.Cam or Granta. Beyond, the path continues as Hinxton Byway 3, using the sewage works concrete road, and emerging just beyond Stump Cross roundabout.  By passing on the verge in front of the entrance to the Genome Centre, one can turn left down New Road into Hinxton, near The Red Lion.  This time, return over the level crossing at TL 494 445. Walk down the road, and from the corner by the old cemetery, take Fp1  SW along the lane and down a hedge-line onto the footway of the B1379 Duxford Rd.  Return S, passing the site of Abbey Priory on the W, near the crossroads. (3.5 miles)

Best Wishes for Christmas, and for excellent walking in 2007.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a spare stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Price 20 pence where sold

Issue 39 © Janet Moreton, 2006.

CANTAB38 September 2006

CANTAB38 September 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
This month, the situation so far with the South Cambridgeshire “Byways” petition is detailed. Progress is slow, but we are hopeful of an eventual positive outcome. Experience has suggested that nothing in which local government is involved moves swiftly!

Long-term readers of “Cantab” will recall our East Anglian Rivers theme in past years. The Fen Rivers Way project took us in sections along the Rivers Cam and Great Ouse from Cambridge to Kings Lynn, and the West Anglian Way followed the Stort Navigation for much of its length. In this issue, we thank  David Elsom, Chairman of the RA Cambridge Group, for an introduction to walking The New River Path, following the water-course from Hertford to Islington, as enjoyed by some members of Cambridge Group earlier this year.

Janet Moreton

The Progress of the Byways Petition
What it was
During walks last Autumn, RA Cambridge Group circulated a petition amongst its members, and to other groups walking in the Cambridgeshire Area. The petition read:
“A number of important Public Byways in Cambridgeshire are impassable to walkers and riders during the Winter, having been turned to morass by irresponsible use of recreational motor vehicles.  We, the under-signed call upon Cambridgeshire County Council, as Highway Authority, to apply seasonal traffic restriction orders to more of such byways, especially the Aldreth Causeway (Willingham Byway 9); Fox Road (West Wratting Byway 1 and Weston Colville Byway 4) and the Roman Road near Balsham (Linton Byway 23 and Balsham Byway 4).”

The Aldreth Causeway going towards the Isle of Ely, was Hereward the Wake’s Road, and like Fox Road, and the Via Devana (more properly Wool Street) have historical and archaeological significance and well as walking routes.

Thanks to those who signed it
Cambridge Group were indebted to the 350 walkers who signed the petition. It was clear that 100% of those approached supported the issue, and we could have gone on obtaining signatures indefinitely, had we but been able to contact more members. However, it was decided to finalise the petition in January 2006, and to present it to Cambridgeshire County Council.

When presented
Having located the correct person within the County Council to receive our petition, it was 20 March 2006 before a date could be arranged to present the petition to Cllr Mac McGuire, Cabinet Lead Member for Highways & Delivery, on the steps of Shire Hall. We were pleased that a representative number of walkers turned up, and to two cyclists, emphasising the different types of user affected by the issue.  Subsequently, Cambridge RA Group S.Cambs Footpath Officers discussed the petition with Kate Day, the County’s Countryside Access Team Leader on 30 March. On 18 April, Roger Moreton, for RA Cambridge Group, was invited to speak on the petition for 3 minutes to The County Council’s Cabinet meeting, and to answer questions.

The reply
The formal reply came from  Cllr Mcguire,
on 10 July 2006, and is quoted in full:
”
Dear  Sirs,

I was pleased to accept your petition on the 20th March which was considered by the County Council’s Cabinet on the 18th April. I am pleased to be able to offer you the Councils considered response and would welcome further dialogue on the matter.

The County Council is responsible for ensuring byways are accessible and properly maintained for all legitimate users but primarily for use by pedestrians and horse riders. There are 400km of byway in the county out of a total length of 3200Km of ROW. This is a higher proportion than many neighbouring counties.

Byways often represent a considerable asset for biodiversity if appropriately managed. The total area of Cambridgeshire byways is equivalent to a large Country Park and therefore has value beyond countryside access. Some of these green lanes are designated in their own right for their wildlife value e.g. a significant part of the Roman Road SSSI running from Cambridge towards Haverhill. We have been working with the Wildlife Trust (Cambridge Green Belt Project) and English Nature on the Roman Road near Cambridge and on the Ashwell Stret near Royston, and are nearing completion of restoration work (reclamation of the full width, drainage, re-seeding and hedgerow replanting and management)l on the Bullock Road in Hunts.

In these cases traffic on the routes has been limited by Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) and I note your desire to see this type of traffic management extended to other routes where appropriate. This is a matter the Local Access Forum (LAF) have also considered and something the Countryside Access Team report on to each LAF meeting .

The County Council’s Procedure for using TROs was approved in January 2005 based upon Government Guidance and Best Practise. In essence, the County Councils approach can be summarised as follows:-

  • Ensure that adequate management has been carried out
  • Try voluntary restraint through liaison with user groups
  • Test the effectiveness of temporary orders
  • Test limiting (width, height, weight) traffic regulation orders
  • Only then resort to a full prohibition of traffic order

When considering applying for a TRO, consideration is given to previous history of use and complaints, use of private rights, soil conditions, heritage and biodiversity issues, maintenance issues, source of damage (2 or 4 wheeled users, farm machinery).

Seasonal TROs are applied and have been effective. Our ability to undertake this type of regulation is limited by resources. A typical TRO costs up to £3000 to make and enforce. Cases are currently dealt with according to the escalation process above. The volume of cases is expected to escalate as restricted byways come into force (under the Natural England and Rural Communities Act, 2006) in neighbouring counties. Priority will be given to those routes where environmental damage is most significant and potential benefit for users is the greatest. We will be consulting on the application of a further 4 seasonal TROs in West Hunts (Eynesbury Hardwicke, Waresely, Old Weston, Upton & Coppingford) shortly.

We are investigating the cases highlighted in your petition (Willingham 9, West Wratting 1, Weston Colville 4, and the Roman Road) to ensure proper consideration has been given to all the issues and all proper avenues pursued in line with our Enforcement Procedure.

One further point to note is a new requirement on Highway Authorities to produce a Highways Asset Management Plan. The County Council aims to have a plan in place by April 2007. Officers are currently evaluating the condition and extent of information we hold about all our highways, including rights of way, and the resources required to maintain those assets. A better under-standing of the condition or our Highway network and the costs of maintaining it will enable the County Council to bid for and target resources most effectively. This will not necessarily bring additional funding to rights of way, and byways in particular, but the process will identify the costs issues that arise in maintaining these routes.

We would welcome information on those routes where significant improvements could be made for path users through the Councils adopted Byways Management procedure & the application of a seasonal TROs. This is a difficult issue and we welcome the very positive way in which all parties have worked with us to address it.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Mac Mcguire
Cabinet Lead Member for Highways & Delivery.”

RA Response
Following RA Cambridge Group Committee discussion, a reply was sent on 31 July. We welcomed Cllr McGuire’s summary of the issues at stake, but remain concerned that many byway sites in Cambridgeshire remain under threat. The purpose of the petition was to indicate the strength of feeling on this issue amongst walkers, and to give a sense of the urgent need for action against accelerating damage.  The three byways selected to illustrate the problem are some with long histories of public complaints, and where attempts at management have been frustrated by repeated overusage by motor vehicles during the Winter months.The effect on these byways is to make them impassable (and therefore obstructed by virtue of their surface condition) to a great majority of users during the Winter & early Spring.. Appended to the letter are three long lists of reports of problems on the byways in question, extending over several years, together with responses (or lack) from the County Council. The Group would be happy to discuss the matter further.

We have yet to receive a formal reply to this letter.  However, an e-mail dated 4 August from Kate Day suggested that one of her officers had been detailed to have discussions with landowners in Willingham adjacent to the Aldreth Causeway.

What else can we do
At present, we can only wait a little longer.  We had hoped to see the application of TROs before the coming Winter, but that is now looking unlikely.

Meanwhile, you can help.  Write to Cllr McGuire, at Cambridgeshire County Council, Shire Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge CB3 0AP,* emphasising your desire to see seasonal traffic regulation orders on these byways. Describe your own experiences of routes obstructed by mud, of having to turn back, of being sprayed by dirt from passing vehicles, or of deciding just not to use these routes in Winter, and hence spoiling an otherwise attractive circuit.

Thank you.
*or mac.mcguire@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

THE NEW RIVER PATH
LINKING HERTFORD WITH ISLINGTON
After about ten years work, this path was opened by Thames Water in 2003. It follows the New River, built in 1613 by a group of  “adventurers” led by Sir Hugh Myddleton, to carry fresh water for about 30 miles from the springs and rivers in the Hertford/Ware area into the City of London. Even today 10% of London’s water supply is delivered by this route.

The Path starts from Hertford, and is essentially rural until reaching Enfield, but even then often forms a green finger through the North London suburbs. On reaching Canonbury and Islington the line of the New River is preserved through a series of narrow public parks, until reaching New River Head, off Myddleton  Square and close to Saddlers Wells.

A group of Cambridge RA Saturday walkers recently completed the walk in three stages, using the two distinct railway lines serving Hertford:

  1. Hertford East railway station to Cheshunt station, which is about 12/13 miles, lunching at Broxbourne, in the park set up by the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority
  2. Cheshunt railway station to Bowes Park station [near Alexandra Palace]. For this stage we parked at Hertford North station, walked to Hertford East to catch train to Cheshunt, and then caught train back to Hertford North. Lunch was enjoyed at Forty Hall, a magnificent house at the centre of a London Borough of Enfield country park. Plenty of pubs in Enfield Town, as we discovered. Old Enfield was a revelation to us all.
    Another 12/13 miles
  3. Bowes Park railway station into the City of London, returning from Kings Cross to Hertford North, where we had parked to travel down to Bowes Park. Lunch was taken in Clissold Park, where there are good facilities and pleasant gardens.
    Only 8/9 miles

It is not very complicated to do this walk, and by doing it on a Saturday or Sunday, parking at the Hertford stations is plentiful and cheap [£1 all day]

Thames Water produce a good booklet “The New River Path” ***, which is essential [though the street map of Cheshunt area is wrong—ring David 01223 842074 for illumination]; OS Explorer 174 Epping Forest and Lee Valley covers all but the last two miles of the walk; and in general the signage is good.

For a surprising and different walk, do give it a go.
David Elsom
*** ring Thames Water 0845 9200 800 to obtain your copy of the free booklet

Did you know that…
— The bridge over the Cam on Coe Fen, which has been under conversion for joint use by cyclists and walkers, is at last open for use, but clearly unfinished. The bridge itself looks rather a mess at present, quite apart from the adjacent disturbed ground.

—A new footbridge is being constructed by Cambs.C.C. over Braham Dock on the Fen Rivers Way between Little Thetford and Ely. Walkers currently divert along the North bank of the dock (where there is no recorded right of way) and close to the railway across uneven ground.  The new Footbridge will be at TL　5400　7738, on Ely Footpath 23.  It will span the dock in a N-S direction at the E end of the dock.  The steel structure will have a wooden footway and handrails, and will be 24m long, 1.5m wide, and give 3m clearance above water level. Work is likely to start during the second half of September, and last for ca. 6 weeks, and the footpath will be closed while works are underway. An alternative route will be signed.
Information from John Sargeant, Cambs.C.C.  john.sargeant@cambridgeshire.gov.uk  01223 718 408

—Sections of Devil’s Dyke between Newmarket and Stetchworth have recently re-opened, following tree work.  Cambs. C.C. announced this in August.  We were not aware that the path had been closed, in spite of using it at intervals through the Summer! You will see a few large trees have been removed from the wooded section, and some overhanging branches cut back, but fortunately, there is nothing like the wholesale clearance of trees  and bushes made previously on the Reach section of the Dyke.

—The AGM of the Icknield Way Association will be held in West Wratting on Sat.7 Oct., preceeded by a walk on the recently diverted path network in West Wratting. For a 6 mile walk, meet at The Causeway (leading to the church), Explorer 210  TL 605 524 at 10 am. The AGM and tea will be held in the village hall in the afternoon.
Icknield Way contact – Chris James  01462 742684 chrisjames56@btinternet.com

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 38.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 20p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 38; Price 20 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2006.

 

CANTAB37 July 2006

CANTAB37 July 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
July, the seventh month, was dedicated by Mark Anthony to Julius Caesar (100 – 44 bc). Caesar’s reform of the calendar two years before his assassination arguably might be considered his most important edifice, over and above his military campaigns & political manoeuvring. Caesar overhauled the ancient Roman agricultural calendar, which started in March, and aligned the months to the sun’s yearly cycle. He inserted leap years to correct most of the remaining anomalies.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, successive governments have made several efforts to overhaul the law relating to rights of passage through the countryside, but still anomalies remain.

This month’s principal article has been adapted from one invited for their newsletter by “The Friends of the Roman Road, and Fleam Dyke“. To those who read both newsheets – my apologies!  The text serves to  illustrate the effect of changes in the law, availability of funds, and general pressure from user groups on the state of the Roman Road byway SE of Cambridge.  Changes and improvements along this route over 40 years mirror evolution in the state of Cambridgeshire paths to a certain extent over the same period, although this track has always been in better order than many byways in the county.

Changes along the Roman Road
It was in the Autumn of 1961 that I first walked the Roman Road.   A new student in Cambridge, it was a great relief to leave the City for a half-day, and walk from the ‘bus at Red Cross, up Worts Causeway onto the old track.  Here I continued between the bronze beeches, with a dry chalky path beneath my feet, and the last vestiges of Summer flowers, knapweed, residual scabious, and old man’s beard in the hedges.  At a high point along the Way, I looked down uneasily over the flat fens, and at the restless wide skies – then such an unfamiliar landscape – now, after more than 40 years, happily my adopted place.

Later I learned more about this historic route. This section of Roman Road running from Red Cross on the outskirts of Cambridge to beyond Horseheath is properly Wool Street, but is also known as the Via Devana (seemingly a later invented name). I learnt that the grassy agger fringed with wild flowers was once 36 feet wide, and 1 – 2 feet high, running in a partly enclosed green lane. Nearing Horseheath, it passes north of Borley Wood, and south of Streetly Hall, to become a track approaching Hare Wood.  Beyond this (in the 1960s) it became obliterated in arable land, crossing a lane south of Withersfield.  Over the county boundary in Suffolk, the agger continues in a tree belt (not recorded as a path on Suffolk’s Definitive Map) to the outskirts of Haverhill.

It was the 1970s before I had penetrated this entire length of the road.  By that time, I was in employment at Abington, and, with Roger, a regular walker, and member of both the RA Cambridge Group and of Cambridge Rambling Club.  By the latter half of the 1970s, we were on the Cambridge RA Group Committee;  we had learnt that public rights of way were recorded on a map at Shire Hall;  that the whole length of the Roman Road at that time was recorded as a “RUPP” (road used as public path); and that parts of it were numbered according to the civil parishes in which it lay.

The boundaries of these parishes often lie along the road itself, being of ancient derivation, so one length of the road may have two numbers, and technically opposite sides fall within the responsibilites of different parishes.  I remember reporting a wrecked car on one section, and phoning a parish clerk. “Which side of the road is the car?” he asked.

In the early days, the Way was very well used by all classes of user – indeed, because of the poor maintenance then of many footpaths, and a shortage of information on local rambling opportunities,  the Roman Road, as an obvious walking route, was perhaps even more popular than today.  At the same time, motor cycles and cars used the route, especially in dry seasons.  On more than one occasion, we observed a lazy car driver trundling along at 5 mph, with a dog lead out the window, and a dog exercising alongside.  Both the alarm caused by such vehicles coming up behind, and the ruts made in the surface indicated something needed to be done.

The 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act was by then due to make its impact on the Roman Road.  Under this Act, the sections of the route between Worts Causeway and Marks Grave were reclassified as byway by Cambridgeshire County Council on various dates between December 1986 and April 1987.  The section from Marks Grave to Horseheath was classified as a bridleway in March 1989 (following an objection which was referred to the Secretary of State), and the final section from Horseheath to the county boundary became a footpath in December 1986.  Thus, recreational vehicles were prohibited from using that part of the Way east of Marks Grave.  Then a Prohibition of Driving Order was made in January 1992, which banned motor vehicles from using the Roman Road from the Hildersham-Babraham Road, to a point 150 metres south of its junction with Worts Causeway. Provision of bollards and barriers followed fairly shortly, to enforce this Order.

As the years went by, guide books on walking in the locality began to appear, many of which included a route along the Roman Road.  In 1970, Cambridge and the Isle of Ely County Council published a set of leaflets, with rather faint maps, “Walks and Rides around Cambridge“. An early parish effort was “The Footpaths of Linton District” (1974) published by the Linton District Amenity Society.  Cambridge City Council, joint with   RA Cambridge Group, produced “Country Walks around Cambridge” in 1980.

Then in the late ‘80s / early ‘90s came a wealth of useful publications in response to the surge of interest in country walking and natural history. Cambridgeshire County Council produced the (free) booklets “Enjoying the Cambridgeshire Countryside” (1988, 1989, 1992), and “Footloose and Carfree“, Vol. 1 (1994), Vol.2 (1996).  Specific to the Roman Road were two of the series of leaflets (30p) on individual circular walks: “Roman Road (Wandlebury)”, and “Roman Road (Linton)” both  printed 1989.

RA Cambridge Group produced books describing collections of walks. That for South Cambs. (first published 1987, reprinted, and with new editions several times to the present) of course includes the Roman Road.

There have always been problems along the Way from time to time. In 1984, Council workmen erected a signpost incorrectly on the Roman Road for the turn-off of Fulbourn Footpath 11, just before the annual Oxfam Walk.  Hundreds of walkers went the wrong way across a cultivated field!   Exclusion of vehicles from the western section largely eliminated wrecked vehicles here, but the physically unrestricted byway section east of the Hildersham Road still suffers from burnt-out cars, and fly tipping (both of which should be reported to South Cambs. District Council) and waterlogged ruts on the Balsham section make the route sometimes impassable here to walkers in wet Winters.

A long-standing problem is the arable section of the right of way between Hare Wood & the Withersfield Road (Horseheath Footpath 1).  The line of the agger has been long been obliterated by ploughing, but the law requires reinstatement of the right of way after cultivation.  For many years, this was not forthcoming, and in the 1960s-1980s the route was difficult to trace.  In August 1985, a stalwart footpath campaigner, resident in Suffolk, took Cambridgeshire County Council to the office of the Local Government Ombudsman over failure of the County Council, as Highway Authority, to provide a bridge over a stream, and to oblige the landowner to reinstate the right of way.  And the latest clearance of the section of the Roman Road between Worsted Lodge, and the Hildersham turn has produced anguished comments not only at the April 2006 AGM of the “Friends”, but also amongst the rambling fraternity who, whilst seeing the need for some clearance, are disturbed by the adoption of so extensive a “scorched earth” policy.

The vast majority of us ramblers are not dedicated athletes intent on using the countryside as an extended exercise track. As far back as 1969, The Cambridge Rambling Club planted trees alongside the Roman Road to commemorate a well-loved member. Most walkers are amateur naturalists,  members of their local Wildlife Trust, and organisations like the RSPB, National Trust, Cambridge Preservation Society, Woodland Trust etc.  They appreciate the work of the “Friends” and other conservation groups. Over the years, voluntary work  has been shown to be the way to make rapid improvement in countryside issues.  For older walkers & conservationists, the attraction of improvement schemes which come to fruition in a year or two, over those promised for a few decades in the future is obvious. I would suggest that pressure from ramblers in the past has led to measures that now protect the Roman Road and other ancient monuments and  SSSIs like Fleam Dyke. For the latter, the Ramblers’ Association led the campaign in 1990 for a bridge over the A11, but that’s another story.

Janet Moreton

Milk bottles make walkways
Country Landowner Magazine of Jan.2006 has a “green” image  with an article on the advantages of recycled plastic products for footpath furniture.

Recycled products made from e.g. plastic milk bottles can be used to make plastic walkways, with a lifespan of up to 40 years. Comparing well with timber, they do not rot, splinter, or need no preservative treatments. Plastic “sleepers” can be made with a lightweight hollow profile, and with a textured non-slip surface. Some 1500 plastic bottles would be required to make a 1.5m length of recycled walkway!  So should it be back to the old slogan, “Drink a pint of milk a day”?

What the article does not mention, is that many local authorities use similar recycled plastic for signposts, e.g. Essex C.C. These seem to last quite well, but like timber posts, are not resistant to fire, and are fairly easily knocked over. The “Waste & Resources Action Programme” would like to see more use of recycled products in the landscape.
www.wrwp.org.uk/plastics/landscaping

Parish of the Month – Foxton
Alison Taylor, in her invaluable work, Archaeology of Cambridgeshire (Publ. Cambs.C.C., 1997) sets the scene for the First Act of prehistoric man entering this low-lying parish, 15-25m above sea-level, except where Chalk Hill and West Hill rise to 30m.  The parish boundaries comprise the River Rhee, Shepreth Brook, the Hoffer Brook, and the old road to Fowlmere.  Paleolithic and Neolithic flint axes were found, and ring ditches are visible from the air. Foxton is notable for Iron Age sites (there being one west of the station), several of which developed into Roman settlements.  Nearby was an Anglo-Saxon cemetery of the C3rd – C4th, containing 23 skeletons, many with grave goods. North of the cemetery was a  C1st Roman building with central heating, military style ditches, and an industrial site. Being situated so close to the A10 (known as the “Portway” medieval route) suggests that the route was also important in Roman times.

Rowland Parker, in his charming book on the history of Foxton, “The Common Stream” (Collins, 1975) takes his title from the Shepreth Brook. He leads us through the development of the village in the Medieval & Middle Ages, when the principal manor house was Foxton Bury, still standing opposite the church.  The Bury, once held by the nuns of Chatteris, was dilapidated by the C16th, and largely rebuilt.  Rowland Parker describes the “great rebuilding” which occurred all over England at the time of Elizabeth I.  He goes on to describe all the old houses in the village presently standing, and their history.

Thus, the “Cottage on the Green” built for one Thomas Campion in 1583 survives largely intact.  In Station Road, No 18 dates from 1582, and No.22 from 1570.  Nos 44 & 46 High Street were build for Edward Rayner ca. 1590, then enlarged in 1637, whilst Nos 73 & 75 were built ca. 1620.  On Fowlmere Road, Nos 8 & 10 were constructed in 1574; No.20 ca. 1600 (and partly rebuilt 1780).  Nos 1 & 3 Mortimers Lane date from 1575, and No5 from 1548.

The first church in the village was established in 1140 by the Bancs family, but the present church dates from 1300.  Behind the church is the recreation ground with a car park.

When you can tear yourself away from the interesting old houses in the village, investigate the modest path network that the parish offers, armed with OS Explorer Sheet 209.

Footpath 1 leads from the end of West Road, across the busy A10, passing attractive fishing pits, en route to Shepreth.

Footpath 2, starting on the N side of High Street opposite the church  leads across fields to the station, from where the public right of way emerges onto the A10 along the platform.

Footpath 3 starts at the junction of High Street and Caxton Lane, TL　409　481, where a metal fingerpost indicates “Public Footpath Fowlmere 1½”.  This useful path leads up between Chalk Hill and West Hill, and across fields to Fowlmere. Permissive access to young woods on the summits of these modest hills makes this a place to linger.

Footpath 4 is the path to Newton which starts on Fowlmere Road at TL 416　481 near the phone box. It uses a farm track, and reaches a bridge over the Hoffer Brook.  Beyond the bridge is a low-lying area, often flooded in Winter, when Wellington Boots would be an asset. Alternatively, use a permissive path, signed turning off left behind houses on the start of Footpath 4. This gives a dry route round two sides of the fields towards Newton in all seasons.

Footpath 5 starts from TL 401 492, where the Barrington Road makes a right-angle turn, and next to the gated entrance to Barrington Park Farm, at a sign  “Public Footpath Barrington ½”. This path runs across an arable field to cross a footbridge under willows and join a well-used path to Barrington Water Meadows and the village.

A number of circuits are possible, but all require use of joining sections of road.   These routes can be extended round the path network of adjacent villages.

(a) Foxton – footpath to  Fowlmere – permissive track to Manor Farm –  RSPB Reserve – Green Man pub –  Shepreth – Shepreth Church – Shepreth Pits – Foxton. (7 to 8 miles)

(b) Foxton – footpath to Fowlmere – road (with footway) to Thriplow Old Forge – permissive track to B1368 at TL 433 480 – road (wide verge) to Newton  – Newton Hall – footpath to Hoffer Brook and Foxton. (6 miles)

(c) Foxton – footpath to Station – road & footpath to Barrington  (optional detour up Chapel Hill) – footpath to Shepreth (optional detour round Shepreth L-Moor Reserve) – footpath through pits  and over A10 to Foxton. (4 to 8 miles)

Quotation of the Month
Seen on a display board in the dunes near Holkham, Norfolk:
“A land that is thirstier than ruin;
A sea that is hungrier than death;
Heaped hills that a tree never grew in;
Wide sands where the waves draw breath“

From, “The Salt Marshes” by
Algernon Swinburn.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 37.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 20p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 37; Price 20 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2006.

CANTAB36 May 2006

CANTAB36 May 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
This month’s offering is rather more urban-based than usual, with articles mentioning both Cambridge and Saffron Walden.  However devoted is a walker to the delights of the countryside, there are few of us who do not, from time to time, venture into towns.  Saffron Walden is best seen on foot, and although many of our readers will know the town already, I hope the enclosed includes some snippets of previously unknown information.

St Radegund – Around Cambridge and elsewhere…
On King Street, opposite Wesley Church, notice the unusual name of the hostelry.
St Radegund (also rendered Rhadegund, Radegonde or Rhadagund) was the wife of Clotaire, King of the Franks (558 – 561).  Disgusted with the crimes of the Royal family, she founded the monastery of St Croix at Poitiers.  But why is she remembered in Cambridge, both in a pub name, and as a street off Coleridge Road?

We encountered St Rhadegund elsewhere recently, on the Isle of Wight, featured on a display board along a newly promoted 5 mile walking route, The Pilgrims Path.  The route is based on that used by pilgrims in the Middle Ages.  They arrived by ship at Binnel Bay, near St Lawrence (no longer possible, due to centuries of coastal erosion).  They climbed the steep winding ways in the luxuriant vegetation of the undercliff on what is still known as The Cripple Path.  Then they turned inland to offer prayers at the spring of White Well, reputed to have healing properties.  The well, opposite the church, is now freshly painted, and has one of a number of descriptive boards along the route.  Over the Downs went the pilgrims, past the now deserted Nettlecombe Medieval village, to return to the coast via St Rhadegund’s Path, passing the further holy wells of St Rhadegund itself, and that in the village of St Lawrence.

The latter has a tiny C12th church, still much in use, where the old pews and dark woodwork evoke thoughts of Celtic saints, and pilgrims of a past age.

Parish of the Month –
Saffron Walden
Map – Explorer 195
The name “Walden” means “valley of the Britons”, and “Saffron”, refers to the cultivation of the saffron crocus in the Middle Ages, when it was used in dyeing, medicine, and later for culinary purposes. The older town is sited on a low chalk spur between two small tributaries of the R.Cam, (the Madgate Slade & the Slade Brook), which join west of the town, before flowing into the Cam itself at Audley End.

The town’s most magnificent feature, The parish church of St Mary The Virgin, was built between 1470 and 1540, but the spire, at a height of 193ft,  and dominating the town, was added by the architect Thomas Rickman in 1832. Interesting lanes and passages lead from the church to the Market Square.  Here are the Tourist Information Centre  (where obtain a simple street plan), Town Hall (1762), the Corn Exchange (1848), connected with the town library, and in amongst the market stalls, The Fountain (built 1863, restored 1975, and commemorating the marriage of the then Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra).  In the streets around the market, are a wealth of fine old buildings, several now housing little independent retailers, which make Walden a good place for coffee and cakes, or a browse in one of several old bookshops.

Bridge Street has cottages of the late C15th, where close-spaced, heavy timbers were used while oak was abundant. Gold Street has C17th weavers’ cottages with a communal rear courtyard, but the flint weavers’ cottages in East Street  have early C19 brick facings. En route to the museum, and the flint-wall remains of the C12th castle, note C15th cottages following the line of the castle bailey into Museum Street.

High Street’s frontage of fine buildings range from a timber-framed C16th house, “The Gables”, through a number of lovely Regency properties, to lofty Victorian Gothic. Youth Hostellers will know that the finest medieval building in the town is the YHA building in Myddylton Place, built early C16th, and at one time used as a maltings.

Saffron Walden is particularly known for its pargetting, or decorative exterior plaster-work. That on The Sun Inn at Market Hill illustrates the East Anglian legend of a battle between Tom Hickathrift and the Wisbech Giant.

On the E boundary of the Common, note the fine turf maze, and do visit Bridge End Gardens, created 1840 (entrances from Bridge Street or Castle Street).

Leaflets in the church, museum, and information centre can provide much more data on architecture & history. When sated with sightseeing, shopping or coffee, it is time to consider walking options out of the town.

(a) To Great Chesterford  (4 miles)
For a linear walk, go N out of the town, along Catons Lane, past the football stadium. Follow the good path N, crossing a track E of Wheatley Farm, and over Rowley Hill.  Descend to Springwell, cross the road, and take the fp to Little Chesterford. Here, turn left on the lane, and soon a further path leads N to Great Chesterford.
(Return by ‘bus, or to Cambridge by train.)

(b) Audley Park   (2.5 miles)
Set off down Abbey Lane, noting the  United Reformed Church of 1811, with its 4-column portico*, and King Edward VI’s almshouses of 1834. Go through wrought iron gates into Audley Park. Take the path half-right (romantically towards the sewage works), and continue through the park to Weir Tea Bridge.   Follow a passage by a wall, and a driveway to London Road (B1383).  Turn left along the footway, admiring the excellent views of Audley End house & grounds. Turn left at the junction, and follow Audley End Road back towards Walden, turning left at TL 530 379, to re-enter the park through iron gates, and return to Abbey Lane.
* teas here on Sunday afternoons!

(c) Newport &Wendens Ambo (8 miles)
From Abbey Lane, go into the park, turning half-left on a path, to reach Audley End Road through iron gates at TL 530 379. Turn right along the footway, and left into the little road through the attractive Audley End village. Carry on ahead through Abbey Farm.  Cross Wenden Road, and along Beechy Ride.  This track crosses the B1052, and continues past Brakey Ley Wood.  You are on part of the “Harcamlow Way”, and follow this S all the way to Bromley Lane, crossing a stile and descending a grass field to Debden Water.  Here turn right over an awkward stile, and follow the path through a strip of wood, and past a sewage works & Essex CC Maintenance Depot to Newport.

Visit the fine church, then go NW through the churchyard, crossing a grass field, and emerging down a road by the brook in front of large new houses.  Cross the Bury Water “ford” at TL 517 343, and turn right up Whiteditch Lane, passing greenhouses and Tudehope Farm. At the end of the lane, a track leads over the hill to Rookery Lane at Norton End. Follow the lane left to Wendens Ambo Church, then cross the B1039 carefully near a sharp bend, TL 512 365. From here, a path leads ahead (N) to Cornwallis Wood, then right (E) to London Road. From here, the safest route back to Saffron Walden is N along the footway of London Road, turning right (E) onto Audley End Road, and following the instructions for Walk (b). A quicker route is to return along Wendens Road to TL 525 373, then taking the path to Audley End village, but  Wendens Road lacks a continuous footway.

(d) The Roos & Cole End  (7 miles)
Follow the description in walk (c) above as far as Brakey Ley Wood.  Here turn left (E) along the clear track parallel to Fulfen Slade.  On reaching Debden Road, continue to “The Roos”, and take the byway E to Thaxted Road.  Cross the road, turn left, and shortly right on a minor road passing Six Acre Wood and Cole End.  Where the road forks take the left fork on Cole End Lane.  Just past Bears Hall, turn left (W) on a sunken byway, which follow to the junction with a bridleway.  Take this to emerge on the Thaxted Road (B184) at TL 546 380, and return to your starting point.
(Note that between Six Acre Wood & Cole End, it is possible to branch off onto field paths, which are quite findable, but sticky in Winter or after rain).

(f) Circuit to Debden (11 miles)
One limb uses the Harcamlow Way , then continue S over Debden Road, passing the 105m trig point, and on to Waldegraves. Take the byway to Cabbage Wood, where use the path to the isolated church, and the road to the village & the White Hart pub. Return to the church and the bridge over the lake, and turn  right (N) passing Debden Hall Farm. Cross the road, and take the bridleway N through Howe Wood* to Debden Road.  Follow the road N towards Walden (care), turing off at The Roos for the path to Herberts. Cross the rec. to rejoin Debden Road, but turn off left on Seven Dials Lane. Return to Walden on the B1052 (or use your street plan for urban short cuts!)
* The path through Howe Wood is wet in Winter

(g)  Littlebury Green & Strethall (10 miles)
It is also possible to make circuits from Walden to Littlebury Green and Strethall, using the footpath crossing the railway by Cornwallis Hill.  The return is less interesting, being made via Littlebury Green Road, a fp S to Chestnut Avenue & London Road.

(h) Wimbish, Radwinter  (12 miles)
When ground conditions are good, it is possible to make more ambitious circuits to Wimbish & Radwinter, with a suggested outward route via Cole End, and a return along the Roman Road between Stocking Green and the turning to Redgates Lane.  Such routes are recommended with some reservations, however, because of poor crossfield paths, and the necessity of walking back into Walden for a mile on either the busy Ashdon Road or the Radwinter Road.

Plants of  Suffolk Roadside verges
In January, I was privileged to hear a lecture at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens by Yvonne Leonard, talking about wild flowers which can be seen on roadside verges in Suffolk.

In Suffolk, as elsewhere in East Anglia, much habitat & many wild plant species have been lost due to wartime ploughing, military airfields, commercial conifer planting, and modern agricultural methods.  In 1968, Hilary Heyward (connected with Cambridge University, and the then Ministry of Agriculture) noted some 600 species in the verges. (Some further species loss has been recorded since.)  But since 1968, Suffolk CC and the Suffolk Wildlife Trust have cooperated in a scheme to protect verges, erecting “NR” (Nature Reserve) posts.

The criteria for selection of a verge are to  protect a species rare nationally or only occurring locally in Suffolk, and to protect good examples of habitat communities.  The scheme has also sought to  protect displays of common species, to promote & encourage public interest.  Wardens control the management plan for cutting NR verges, normally cut once per year.  Where a verge is adjacent to a conservation headland, the effectiveness is enhanced.

Examples were given of the more unusual plants we might see are appropriate seasons.
Spanish Catchfly grows in verges at Chippenham and sand catchfly at Mildenhall.
“Creeping bellflower” grows in the verges at Mildenhall.
Maiden Pink grows at Ramparts Field.

Spring speedwell may be found on verges at Cavenham.
Chicory can be spotted by the old factory at Lakenheath, and Lesser Calamint at Moulton.  And the verges support many orchids including the common early purple, spotted and pyramidal orchids, bee orchids, and seven sites boast the rare man orchids.

Not all the plants on verges are altogether welcome. Common scurvy grass, a low-growing tough little plant with white flowers,  once found mostly at the seaside, is increasing along verges, due to salting of busy roads. Alexanders (a tough umbellifer, typically 70cm high, with yellowish green flowers) is  also on the increase, shading out roadside primroses, violets etc.

So when your walk takes you off the public paths, and onto the verges of the highway, walk with care, avoiding not only the traffic, but also the delicate plants underfoot.  Look & enjoy, but please don’t pick!

See “Flowers and Wildlife of Mildenhall Parish“, by Yvonne J Leonard, Publ. Mildenhall Parish Council, 2001 (available locally)

Footnote – Cambridgeshire County Council has recently started its own roadside verges nature reserves scheme, so look for “NR” posts.

Vehicles on Byways – a Petition
Cambridgeshire has a lot of Public Byways (also known as “Byways open to all traffic”, or BOATS) – there are some 250 miles throughout the county.  Often byways form vital links between other paths, and many of them are “green lanes”, sometimes between hedges, which can be havens for wildlife among the cultivated fields.

Those joining group walks during the Winter may well have been asked to sign a Petition, calling on the Cambs.C.C. to do more to protect our byways from damage by 4×4 vehicles and motor-cycles, especially during Winter months.  In fact over 350 people signed, mostly from RA Groups and the Cambridge Rambling Club, and we want to say a big “thank you” to all who did.

The Petition was received on 20 March on behalf of the Council by Cllr. Mac McGuire, in front of a small number of supporters assembled outside Shire Hall.  Anyone listening to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire at 7.45 that morning could have heard me being interviewed on the subject in the Breakfast Programme.  In presenting the Petition, we emphasised that green lanes are valuable for healthy recreation, as well as acting as linear nature reserves.  We  recognise the rights people have to drive along public byways, but we want to stop the horrendous damage being done by a few irresponsible individuals, and costing the County a lot of money in repairing the surface each spring.  To be fair to all byway users, we asked for motor vehicles to be banned only in the Winter, when most damage is caused.  Such restrictions have worked very well in a few cases, and we want the scheme extended.

The Petition has gone to the Council’s ruling “Cabinet”, and because of the number of signatures on it, I was given the chance to introduce it on 18 April. One can’t say much in the 3 minutes permitted, but I repeated our arguments, emphasising the financial advantages. There is clearly quite a lot of sympathy among the Councillors, and we know that Rights of Way staff are on our side, so we’ll see what happens.
Roger Moreton.

More on Unrecorded Public Paths
A recent note by Chas Townley on “Ramblers-Net” noted the following.  The Institute of Rights of Way Management has published a code of practice on its website* about the creation of new rights of way.  It notes that the first step is to look for unrecorded rights and suggests that as much of 10% of the rights of way network is currently unrecorded.
* www.iprow.co.uk/gpg_docs/PROW.pdf

And good luck to Little Shelford Parish Council who are currently appealing to the Secretary of State, against Cambs.C.C’s refusal to register two new rights of way in the parish, based on evidence of past use.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 36.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 10p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 35; Price 10 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2006.

CANTAB35 March 2006

CANTAB35 March 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
With Spring advancing, we will all be more  willing to revisit walks on the heavy clay lands. Parish of the Month – Croydon cum Clopton, has some excellent walking, but also some heavy cross-field paths which are only recommended when the surface has dried.  Most of the paths are in good order, but two or three have a reputation for tardy cross-field reinstatement, so should you find these out of order, please report your findings (with date of observation) to Kate Day, Head of Countryside Access Team, Cambridgeshire County Council, or just send an e-mail to me.

Janet Moreton

Croydon cum Clopton
Maps
Landranger Sheet 153 (Bedford & Hunts.) Pathfinder Sheets 1026 (Royston), 1003. Explorer Sheet 208 (Bedford & St Neots)

Background
There were originally 2 medieval parishes, which were united in 1561.  Enclosure of the open field system was complete by 1600. Evidence exists of prehistoric settlement, and more abundant traces of Roman occupation. Valley Farm excavations found Roman seal-ring, broach, and pottery. Signs of a small riverside Roman villa  amounted to not only bricks & roof tiles but also a sandstone pillar, painted wall-plaster, and mosaic fragments.

The sad story of Clopton
Excavations of the deserted village at Clopton also found traces of Roman occupation, followed by early and late Anglo-Saxon settlements. Pocot, the Norman Sherrif, cultivated his garden here in 1086. The village expanded in the C12th, and by the C13th growth was such that the hill above the site was terraced to allow for expansion. The road to Croydon was improved with side-drainage, and the High Street cobbled and re-aligned round the church.

One Manor House, Clopton Bury, owned by Robert Hoo in late C13th, is now only visible as an approximately circular moat in the NE of the site. From the late C14th, Bury Manor passed to owners outside the village.    The other manor, Rowses, (located S of Rowses Wood) was held by the Bishop of Winchester until the mid-C12th, when it passed to the Crown. Both manors were held by the Haselden family in the C14th, and passed to the Cloptons in the C15th.

Clopton reached its peak of importance in the C14th.  There was a Friday market from the C13th, and a new church dated from 1352.  About 1490, the land was bought by the Fisher family, who converted the ridge and furrow agriculture to sheep-pasture.  By use of lawsuits of dubious legality, they forced their neighbours, including the rector, from their land.  In 1525, only 5 labourers remained in Clopton, and in 1561, when only 2 houses remained and the church lay in ruins, the village was declared extinct, and the parish combined with Croydon.

Croydon
Tailboys Manor, well documented before C16th, may have stood S of the village, between moats which were destroyed in 1968.  Frances Manor was sold in C16th to Anthony Cage of Longstowe.  His son built Croydon Wilds (named on some old maps), but this house with a brick tower was demolished in the 1950s.  In all there are 5 deserted moated sites. Croydon shrank in the C15th, and earthworks of house-platforms can be seen SW of the church. The church itself, of the decorated period,  stands up the lane leading to Manor Farm. The interior arcades & walls all lean outwards. The Norman font and Jacobean pulpit remain.  Red-brick rebuilding of the chancel and part of the south transept are attributal to Sir George Downing (buried here in 1684). By this period, Croydon had become part of the estate of the Downing family, so interesting maps and records survive in Downing College, Cambridge.

In 1996, the population of the combined parish was about 200 people.

Walking the paths
Walking is on clay 25m above sea level by the R.Cam or Rhee, but going up to 75 m on the steep chalk slope above the village. The parish has 23 rights of way, a majority in good order.

The Clopton Way, named after the deserted village, runs for 11 miles between Gamlingay and Wimpole.  It enters the parish from the E along fp 7 from Arrington, turns briefly S down the lane from Manor Farm, and follows Croydon High Street, past the “Queen Adelaide” public house.  Crossing Larkins Road, the route continues along bp 13, to visit the medieval site of Clopton (which has an information panel at the entrance to the site).  The path continues W, with good views of the Rhee Valley, and of the high land in Hertfordshire to the S.  The path crosses a drive (to Top Farm and the B1042), soon leaving Croydon parish, before continuing to New England Farm, Cockayne Hatley, Potton Wood, and Gamlingay.

Recommended circuits from Croydon.
There is a small carpark at the junction of High Street with Larkins Road, otherwise  suggested parking  (not Sundays) is on the verge near the church.  Very limited space exists along the narrow street in the village.  For some circuits, parking at Wimpole or Hatley may be preferred.

(1) Old moats.  1.5 miles
From Croydon, go SSE on fp 21 from the village noticeboard on High Street, at TL　313493 to the B1042, where turn right (W), and return on fp 20 to the High Street.
Fp 21, starts down a field edge, but soon launches out across a large arable field, continuing through 2 more  little fields to the road. (This route is best in dry conditions!) The return fp 20 follows field edges, giving good views of old moats, and returns to the village up an old wooded lane, emerging beside a garden.  Time to visit the pub!

(2) Croydon, Wendy, Wimpole, Arrington  ca. 7 miles
From Croydon High Street, take the signed fp 20 down the wooded lane, then following field edges to the B1042. Turn left along the road verge to find the signed fp 18 going SSE along a grass baulk towards the R Rhee. It continues across a short stretch of field to the river bank, where the path turns right, crossing a footbridge over a side-stream, and then a second bridge over the river.  It enters a paddock behind the Church Farm complex, Wendy. Follow waymarks past the farmyard & out down the drive. You have now left Croydon behind, since the river forms the parish boundary, but walk left (E) along the road. Beyond the church, find a signpost for a path on the right crossing a short piece of arable, before zig-zagging round grass headlands to the edge of Road Farm, on the Old North Road. Turn N up the verge, and cross with care to use the bridleway E along the North Road farm-drive.  Beyond the farm, turn left (N) up the Avenue, skirting an overgrown lake, and continuing to cross the A603 near the transport café. Continue over a stile opposite, and through kissing-gates to the Wimpole drive. Turn left (W) along the drive. Cross Old North Road, and walk through Arrington to the Church.  Turn right up Church Lane, and follow the Clopton Way markers up steps into & through a pasture, joining a route running along by a belt of trees. This skirts a modern (fortified?) farmhouse, and becomes fp 7 in Croydon. At TL 313499, the path does a sharp turn SE by a tall hedge, and leads down past the church back to Croydon.

(3) Hill climbing!
Three paths fps 8, 10, and 12 lead from High street onto the ridge, and give access to some fine walking towards Hatley.

Fp 8 starts up the drive beside the Queen Adelaide pub, and goes up steeply through paddocks, crossing 2 stiles. It skirts the garden of a house on the hill and continues N in a narrow hedged way, to join bp 6 from Manor Farm, at the corner of farm buildings.

Fp 10 starts up the side of a house, signed on High Street, crosses a stile, and goes a little less steeply up a grassy field. Fp 12 goes over a stile beyond the last house in the village, again up the field.  All join the ridge-route, fp 9,  at the top, leading to Croydon Hill Road. (Note fp 11, nominally joining fps 8 & 10 is blocked by an electricity sub-station, at ca. TL 312 494).

(4) Three options N from Croydon –  an easy circuit; or towards Hatley; or Old North Road: 3.5 miles; 10 miles plus; or 8 miles.

From High Street, take one of the routes described in Section (3) up the hill, and emerge on Croydon Hill Road at TL 305494. Turn right on the road, and soon right again to join Croydon fp 5, which follows a field-edge by a decayed belt of trees to TL 299508.* Here turn right following the track by the hedge, and right again at TL 303510.**  Follow bp 6 back through Manor farmyard, past the church to the village.  This bridleway is lined with daffodils in March.

For a longer circuit, from *, turn left through a gate, and follow the bp back to the road.

Turn right, and soon you pass into Hatley parish. Visit East Hatley Church, whose structure has recently been wonderfully restored. Take  good bridleways to the N of the Hatleys over to Hayley Wood, returning to **,  thence back to Croydon via Manor Farm.

A third option, turns left at **, and takes bridleways along firm farmtracks (bps 3, 2) to the site of Croydon Wilds at TL 304515. Continue to TL 300 522, to turn right, NE along the attractive, wooded Croydon Old Lane (br 1). This continues in the parish of Longstowe, to meet the Old North Road. Walk S down the verge, turning back towards Croydon on a path starting just beyond the woodland at TL 322522. This path becomes Croydon bp 3, and joins bp 6, leading back to Manor Farm.  (Of the little stub of path, Croydon fp 23, at TL 307 515, there is no trace on the ground.  At one time, this joined the dead-end path in Arrington, but the centre portion was extinguished, thus depriving walkers of a valuable circuit).

(5) A circuit W and S of Croydon. 6 miles.
Warning! This route is not for the faint-hearted! The routes of the rights of way in Shingay are not easy to find, and may be in long vegetation.

Walk W along High Street, to find fp 19, at TL 311 492, with its sign pointing S across an arable field, the path often not reinstated. Go diagonally across the field to a footbridge, and then an easy field edge, and lane lead to Larkins Road. Go S and cross the B1042, to find fp 17 signed over a stile. Cross a grass field, looking for a bridge over a ditch hidden in the hedge opposite. Cross the next field, to a high bridge over the Rhee.  A path continues in Shingay, sometimes nettly, beside the moats of the site of the medieval Knights Templar hospice. Emerge onto the minor road; turn right (W) and re-enter the field adjacent to the Manor Farm drive.  The route of the bridleway crosses the river on a wide bridge , becoming bp 16 in Croydon.  This continues pleasantly in the river meadows, emerging through a gate  onto the B1042 by a large house (formerly the Downing Arms pub, then known as the “scratching cat”). Walk W along the road verge, cross, and go up the drive towards Top Farm, turning right at the path junction to return to Croydon on the Clopton Way, bp 13.

Further reading
Archaeology of Cambridgeshire – Vol 1.
SW Cambridgeshire by Alison Taylor
Cambs. C.C. 1997.  pp. 36 – 37.
ISBN 1 870724 84 4
Cambridgeshire, a Shell Guide by Norman Scarfe   Faber & Faber, 1983. p.118
ISBN 0 571 09817 7
Clopton Way – leaflet publ. by Cambs.CC (undated) 40p.

A bit of Culture?
Until 1 July this year, the University Library has a (free) exhibition, entitled, “Visible Language” It celebrates ways in which the poet Dante (1265 – 1321) has been interpreted in text & image over seven centuries.

On a damp day, we took a walk along The Backs, and looked for snowdrops in Burrell’s Walk, before  seeking shelter in the exhibition. Here was an unexpected feast for the eyes..

I noted a suitable quotation, too:
“In the midway of this our mortal life, I found me in a gloomy wood, astray. Gone from the path direct…”
Inferno, 1 -3, trans. H.F.Cary

More about Bassingbourn Barracks – Letter to the Editor…
“As you know I walked thru BB with the RR (Royston Ramblers) on Sunday 15th Jan.

Just to let you know outcome.  I called into G Room on Sat to remind them we were coming. A kindly guard gave me his mobile no. in case the ‘phones were down again.

There were 26 of us on Sunday…Gulp. I rang ahead, 10 mins notice but no-one was at the gate. After 5 mins I rang again-somebody on way. Another delay & a member of the gp noticed a soldier gesticulating from a gate further N. I waved back but told gp we were not to use incorrect gate & called GR again.  Apparently the wrong entrance had been listed in the ‘daily orders’ that  reminded  GR we were coming [!]

A very nice Sgt walked us through, gave us copies of 1945 aerial photo of site & talked about Memphis Belle. Said they always welcomed visitors ??[visitors????]

At one point path has been encroached on by a fence & is only 12 to 18 in wide. Probably why I was told on another occasion that path was built on & impassable as that soldier was rather portly. We squeezed through.

So we did it but it didn’t feel like an everyday ramble on a public R o W.
Regards Sue

From Sue Hedges

Unrecorded Public paths
The Summer 2004 issue of “Open Space” contained a thoughtful article by Chris Beney on how unrecorded rights of way in town and countryside may be lost. Noting the “slow-motion” action in registering some “Lost Ways” by Cambs.C.C., I am disposed to ponder the issue afresh.  The Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 imposed a cut-off date of January 2026, when all footpaths and bridleways that existed in England and Wales prior to 1949, but were not on the definitive map, would be extinguished, and have public rights removed. The Act went on to note exceptions, but, generally, we should assume that action needs to be taken now to collect evidence of such unrecorded paths, and to have them processed by Highway Authorities, and added to the County’s Definitive Map by means of a legal Order. The Act will not affect fresh dedications of paths based on evidence of a recent 20 year periods of unchallenged public usage.

The Countryside Agency and DEFRA are working with other organisations to record “Lost Ways”, and Cambs. C.C. has a “Lost Ways” project, looking at a few dozen candidates within the county. The legal searches seem to take a very long time for each path, and only a very few paths seem to be added to the Definitive Map annually.  We are concerned that many of those paths for which evidence has been collected will not have been processed by 2026, both in Cambridgeshire and elsewhere.  DEFRA has indicated the government’s intention to amend the law by Statutory Instrument to exempt paths for which claims had been registered, but not processed by 2026.  But we would be unwise to rely on this, as governments and their attitudes can change (several times!) in the intervening years.

Chris Beney lists categories of paths he considers most at risk: (a) alleyways & short links between other ways; (b) farmtracks, paths & lanes, perhaps unsurfaced, which may or may not be on the County’s “list of streets”; (c) short cuts across corners; and (d) the numerous errors on the definitive map, where the path stops just short of its destination. Chris Beney gives the example that a locked gate across a track on 2 Jan 2026 could destroy the through route!

Action?  Local knowledge is vital. E.G.
Residents of Little Shelford have recently claimed two “Lost Ways” for which Cambs.C.C. is considering the evidence (slowly). Can you help?  Think about it.

Janet Moreton

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 35.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 10p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 35; Price 10 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2006.

CANTAB34 January 2006

CANTAB34 January 2006 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
I send best wishes for a year of pleasant and adventurous rambling to all readers!

This month the focus is on the Royston area, with two informative articles from members of Ramblers’ Association Royston Group, concerning Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth (in fact a Cambridgeshire parish), and the Baldock Bypass, and the way it will affect (and generally improve) walking opportunities in the corridor between Royston and Baldock.

“Parish of the Month” is Bassingbourn, with special emphasis on its history, and new woodlands.

In November, your editor attended the first day of a Public Inquiry into Hertfordshire County Council’s Order to extinguish Footpath 16 in Therfield. I wish I could have attended the Inquiry on further days, for this was a complicated case, and the issues involved more than the closure of the single path involved.  We await the judgement on this, but I take the opportunity to say that if you have the chance to go to a public inquiry on path issues, then do so, as it is a very revealing exercise, and the presence of ramblers supporting their Footpath Secretary, or staff member from the RA’s Head Office gives a good impression of a general interest by ramblers in the proceedings.

Janet Moreton

Quotations of the Month
“Earth is innocent. Only the use we make of it mars it”

Ellis Peters, The Cadfael Chronicles

Footpath 19 – Bassingbourn Barracks
In a more innocent time military homes were built alongside the public footpath which passes through the grounds of Bassingbourn Barracks. This was convenient for both military and civilian personnel wishing to travel quickly and easily to our village shops, post office and schools. However, during the heightened security which accompanied the resurgence of the IRA threat in the 1980s the gates at either end were locked and a notice was put into place which gave the telephone number of the Guard Room so that walkers could ask to be let through to walk on this right of way.

These notices have been missing for some time but the Commanding Officer has quickly complied with my request to replace them. The number on the gates is 01223 204331. This may be rung at any time. Walkers may telephone either on arrival at either gate or beforehand, giving the time they would like to be met.

For those who don’t know, or have forgotten about this path it is easy to find. Walk along footpath 6, otherwise known as the ‘Back Lane’ which runs from the Green to Guise Lane parallel with North End, passing along the stream behind the Church and gardens of the houses. At about 200 metres from the Guise Lane end, a ditch or ‘drain’ edged by a few trees runs off to the east, towards Kneesworth [Map reference 332448].  Walk along the north or Guise Lane side of this drain. Walkers are allowed about 2 metres of space* at a headland so are entitled to walk along the edge of the field. The path crosses a farm track and swings north-north east following the drain to the gate in the Barrack’s fence.

The path meets the Old North Road almost opposite the gap in the hedge which leads to all footpaths and permissionary paths to the east. These pass around Kneesworth, Whaddon, Meldreth, Orwell and the Wimpole Avenue, giving direct routes which avoid walking along the main roads.

The Cambridgeshire Countryside Access team have promised to put a small by-way sign at the point where  footpath 19 leads from the Back Lane. There is already a sign near the Barrack’s entrance on the Old North Road, however it is partially concealed by the hedge and is misaligned at the moment.

The Access Team are working hard at the moment to find a sensible diversion to Footpath 19 which will avoid the MOD land.

I should just like to add that we are very well-served with footpaths in Bassingbourn. However, there is no right-of-way into the barracks through the gate at the end of Guise Lane.

Please use the correct route!

Sue Hedges, 23 Oct. 2005

* Actually, 1.5m minimum or as specified on the definitive path description. However, South Cambs. D.C and Cambs. C.C. require a minimum of 2m width for all new field-edge footpaths.  Ed.

Baldock Bypass

Although the bypass is not scheduled to open until August 2006, all the rights of way bridges are now open so that one is now able to walk this very beautiful area again without having to make detours. The bypass goes in a tunnel through the Weston Hills to minimise the environmental impact.

At TL276359 where one crosses from Wallington by Bygrave Lodge Farm to Bygrave, there is now an underpass to take one safely across the A505.

At TL261342 a bridleway bridge, requested at the Public Inquiry, is now in situ enabling both walkers and riders to continue towards Clothall on the original right of way without the dangerous and unpleasant detour via a roundabout on the bypass, which had been originally proposed. A path has also been created from this bridge to the Clothall Estate at Baldock. Continuing on the right of way southwards one crosses Wallington Road, which is now a bridleway only, the road having been severed by the bypass.

The path out of Baldock at California TL248342 was not walkable for part of its route when I attempted to walk the path on 26 November but a diagonal path was requested and agreed at the Public Inquiry, which will take one to a new road bridge to reach Warren Lane. This should become available in due course.

A short distance out of Baldock, a bridleway bridge at TL255329 takes the Icknield Way towards Clothall.

In the Weston Hills there is a footbridge at TL252322, which was officially opened on 28 July at a ceremony attended by several members of Royston Group. A photograph of the event appears on the front of Royston RA Group’s current programme.

Near the Letchworth Gate (Junction 9 on the A1(M)) a bridleway from Weston by Lannock Manor Farm crosses the A6141 to a permissive bridleway on the other side of the road. At the Public Inquiry I asked for an underpass here as it falls steeply on the Baldock side. However the officials from the Ministry of Transport based in Newcastle saw no need for an underpass as riders and walkers would be able to cross safely via a grass strip in the middle of the road towards Junction 9. At the moment the area around the bridleway from Weston looks a total mess but a crossing on the level is, I understand, to be provided which should make it, hopefully, a little less hazardous to cross.

David Allard

STOP PRESS – Just before going to print, David Allard reports that Herts C.C. have extended the temporary closure of these bridges until May.

Parish of the Month –
Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth
OS Explorer Sheets 208, 209
This large parish of over 1500 ha lies mostly on chalk, and is thus well drained for Winter walking, and is popular with ramblers from both the Cambridge and Royston areas.

The Domesday Survey describes Kneesworth as part of Whaddon parish, but it was a separate hamlet by the C13th, and  not united with Bassingbourn until 1966.  Kneesworth’s open field system was enclosed in 1842, whereas the fields of Bassingbourn were enclosed by an Award of 1806.

The centre of Bassingbourn is nearly a mile from the cross-roads at Kneesworth, along The Causeway – a weary road to walk, although it has a footway, and a strategically placed seat near the burial ground.  The village sign is neatly sited on the Green, not far from The Hoops public house, and the chimney of the small village gashouse  (TL 336 440), dating from the C19th, and an adjacent former agricultural engineering works of 1873.  Tactful redevelopment of the site has recently been completed, with plaques giving a brief history.

The Church stands away from the High Street, up Church End. The main body of the building is C14th, with a tower some 100 years older, and a Perpendicular oak porch.  South from the church, the Village College, opened 1954, occupies a spread of buildings set in wide recreation grounds, and acting as a centre for village social and educational facilities, including the library.

There are 24 rights of way within the parish, and a number of permissive or customary paths, making a substantial network, mostly in excellent order. The only path with a persistent problem is Footpath 19, linking the two parts of the parish, and discussed in our leading article.  The crossing of the A1198 (otherwise Ermine Street, or The Old North Road) needs care, and is safest in the 20 mph zone at the junction of The Causeway & Ermine Street, although elsewhere, at least there is good visibility.

The parish is crossed by Ashwell Street, the remnant of the various tracks of The Icknield Way prehistoric trade route. Sections of this path in the parish are grassy or hard, and (thanks to traffic restriction orders) largely traffic-free, save for agricultural vehicles, as the way runs pleasantly between intermittent hedges. To the east, the track runs to Melbourn: to the west it continues past Litlington and The Mordens to Ashwell.

From Ashwell Street, turn north up Spring Lane or South End, to return to Bassingbourn centre, with its network of well-signed inner-village paths, between housing and attractive young woodland (1). Field paths off Ashwell Street at TL 346 432 short of the junction with the A1198 lead across fields to the health centre and the village.

Leaving Ashwell Street to the west of the village,  a kissing gate at TL 330 426 gives access to a permissive path, leading north through a narrow belt of new woodland (2) and along an older treeline towards the Springs, and thence back to the Village College.

A track starts south from Ashwell Street, at TL 341 430 (almost opposite the end of Spring Lane) going towards Royston, crossing the bypass, and continuing on a dingy path through the industrial estate to emerge over the railway onto Green Drift.  This is a relatively fast bolt-hole to Royston station, but parts of the track may be muddy in Winter.

Further west along Ashwell Street, at TL 327 425,  another route south on a field-edge bridleway leads across the railway line and the bypass to the Little Chef on the outskirts of Royston. This gives an excuse for a stop for tea, before ambling into the town along the heath…(An alternative “finish” may be made on a sticky cross-field path turning off by a waymark at TL 334 410, taking steps up and down the bypass, and stiles over the railway).

From either behind the village sign in Bassingbourn, TL 336 440 or, alternatively, beside the church wall, TL 330 441, fenced paths lead to a field edge route north to Guise Lane. Thence a circuit may be  made via North End and Fen Road. The “John o’Gaunt” Inn is closed long since, but there is a seat at the road junction!  (John o’ Gaunt’s Castle shown on old maps at North End, ca TL　325　452, see  the 1937 1:25000 series, was in fact  built by Warin de Bassingbourn in 1266.  The site was damaged by coprolite digging in the C19th, and nothing is visible from the road).  Return via one of two paths going south through Shadbury End, and Church End.

More energetic walkers may turn off west at TL 325 442 before reaching Church End, taking cross-field paths to Abington Pigotts. The route starts off well on a hard track, makes across a field to a bridge/hedge gap, and continues across 5 further fields, with occasional waymarking. This can be a fine tramp in Summer, but only recommended in Winter when the ground is frozen! A return may be made via Bibles Grove, Down Hall, and the paths of Litlington to Ashwell Street and Bassingbourn.

Long distance walkers doing the Harcamlow Way approach the parish along Ashwell Street, cross the A1198, and, beyond the nurseries, turn north up a field edge path, shirting a wood, and later, Kneesworth House Secure Hospital. The path emerges on Chestnut Lane past the farm shop, and turns towards the Kneesworth crossroad. Just before the junction with the A1198, the route goes north over a stile, and passes a new reservoir, before reaching the parish boundary with Whaddon, at Dyers Green.  The Explorer 209 OS sheet shows the Icknield Way Path along Ashwell Street, but recent guides give the preferred option for the Icknield Way Walkers route peeling off at Baldock, for an upland route to Royston via Wallington.

Note (1) & (2) refer to woods mentioned in the item below.

Woods of Bassingbourn
The following is updated from an article “The New Woods of the Cam Valley”, which first appeared in the Cantab Issue of October 2001.  These woods, mostly planted under the aegis of The Woodland Trust, were mostly still fairly small 4 years ago. However, within the last year, all have shown a growth spurt, possibly thanks to the pleasant warm Summer, and now contain respectable young trees, 10 – 20 feet high.

One of the woods within Bassingbourn can be found just off Ashwell Street. Halt beside a kissing-gate at the side of the byway.  A permissive path leads across an arable field to a dip in the chalk downland.  Here, the County Council has planted Clear Farm Wood, TL 330 427, (2) with trees now 10 foot high, well-fenced against rabbits.  Stiles lead in and out of fences, and the path leads on to the wooded springs behind the village college.

Continue into the village, to visit Keith Wood, TL 337 428 (named after a former parish clerk), and Ford Wood, TL 334 435. Both of these attractive woods (1) are now quite well-established, and blend well with the dog-walking network of paths behind the village recreation ground.

Finally, off Spring Lane at TL 336 435 is a newly planted strip of woodland, with a notice “welcome” and an invitation to walk this way. How nice!

Quotations of the Month
“The roads lead always two ways, hither as well as yonder”

Ellis Peters, The Cadfael Chronicles

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 34.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 10p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue34; Price 10 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2006.

CANTAB33 November 2005

CANTAB33 November 2005 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial: Make Your Views Known
At this time of year, Highway Authorities are setting their budgets, and this is the time to express your views to your County Councillor, regarding the inadequate funds set for maintaining the path network.  A list of Cambs County Councillors can be obtained from the County’s website:
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Write to your councillor at Shire Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge, CB3 OAP.

When writing, you may wish to point out that, according to the Countryside Services Team’s own survey this year, only 60% of public paths in the county were found “easy to use”.

Many of the problems are due to lack of waymarking along the length of a path.  Cambridgeshire compares badly in this respect with almost any of the adjoining counties, yet when we point out the need for waymarking, we are told there are no funds.  Even roadside signposts, if damaged or lost take ages to replace, sometimes a couple of years.  What an incentive this is to a landowner, who does not want a path advertised!  Other general maintenance is also inadequate, due to lack of funds.  Roadside verges are cut every 6 weeks in Summer, yet field edge paths are lucky if the grass is cut twice or thrice in a season. Indeed, many field-edge paths are not cut at all.  Other tasks held up by lack of funds are more rapid processing of changes to the definitive map, and investigations of “lost ways”.

When writing to your councillor, point out that country walking is a natural, healthy exercise, that needs almost no special equipment (only boots and a waterproof); it can be undertaken by almost everyone; it is cheap both for the path user and the County Council (compare the cost of maintaining a footpath with a similar length of road); and it is presently being promoted by central government.

What is the use of handing out all these pedometers (step counters) to potential new walkers, if they soon discover that their local paths are not in usable condition!

If you live outside Cambs, the same general principles apply.  Don’t delay – confirm the name of your councillor, and write today.

Janet Moreton

Parish of the Month- Sawtry
Landranger 142; Explorer 227
Sawtry village lies just off the  Roman Ermine Street, that we know as the A1, and is about an hour’s drive from Cambridge.  The old abbey of St Mary’s, a Cistercian foundation, lay in an isolated position in the fen, on the other side of the A1, and is now only visible as banks and ditches.  The principal attractive features of Sawtry, for the walker, however, lie in the close proximity of the ancient Aversley Wood (61 ha), and Archers Wood (18ha).  These are both in the care of the Woodland Trust, and freely accessible. Archers Wood is said to be so-called, as it was within arrow-shot of Ermine Street!  Not far away, over the A1 is Monk’s Wood Nature Reserve near Woodwalton.  This wood was in the “gift”  of Sawtry Abbey in the C15th.

The nearby “Bullock Road” ancient trackway was in the news recently, as the surface, reduced to a morass in places by 4-wheel drive vehicles, has been restored, and at last a seasonal traffic regulation order (TRO) has been applied. The parish council, to celebrate this, and with funds from the County Council via the Parish Paths Partnership (P3) Scheme, has produced a folder of walks leaflets for the interest of local people.  I am not aware that they are on sale generally, so  without infringing copyright, here outline the walks suggested. Some of the routes could be combined for a full day’s walking.

Walk 1 – Fenland Walk (3.3miles)
This is the only walk which starts on the E side of the A1, from parking at Greenfield playing field (accessed from the village by a bridge over the A1). The route runs E along Straight Drove, then turns right (SE) following a wide drain.  A detour across a wide bridge, and under the railway entends the walk to Woodwalton. Otherwise,  follow the waymarked route SW along the top of the bank, with a drain to left, passing earthworks which are all that remain of Sawtry Abbey.  At Abbey Farm, the route crosses the drain and curves right, following the right of way W towards the A1, passing a sewage works, and joining a concrete track to reach the  minor roadway below the A1. The route returns N to Greenfield along this minor road.

Walk 2 Medieval walk  (3 miles)
This route leaves St Judith’s Lane car park, SW into St Judith’s field, taking a kissing gate onto the footpath leading outside the E edge of Aversley Wood.  Where the wood reaches the Bullock Road, turn right (NW) along it, and, at the far edge of the wood, enter a pleasant shady ride.  There is a network of paths – aim generally for the NE corner of the wood,  emerge, and find the outward path.

Walk 3 Wildlife Views   (2 walks, 2.8 miles)
Both (rather frustrating) walks start from the village green, and are both “out-and-back”. The first goes NE along the road towards the industrial estate. Beyond “Brookside” continue on a signed path across a field to the Sawtry Brook.  Cross a footbridge, and with the brook to left, go as far as the A1, and return.

The second route also starts from the village green, to use a passageway beside Chequers Cottage leading to Belgrave Square. Go N along the edge of the Workingmen’s Club carpark under trees, on a fenced path. It leads to the junction of Jubilee Walk & Whitehouse Road, where one continues ahead, and across Deer Park Road to the end of houses, to cross a bridge. Now, at last in a rural landscape, follow the right of way generally NNW to Conington Roundhill Wood.  Ahead are interesting moats and earthworks, but the guide says firmly, there is no right of way, so one must retrace.

Walk 4 The Jubilee Walk (2.3 miles)
The inner-village walk starts on the village green, and passes a “distinguished” C18th house on the High Street and attractive houses and elm trees in Tinkers Lane. Church Causeway leads to the Victorian All Saints Church and the Sawtry War Memorial.  Old St Andrews graveyard is on the site of the former church, demolished in 1870.  Returning to the green, note the old firestation and old lock-up in the High Street.

Walk 5  Farm Labourers walk  (4.5 miles)
This interesting walk leaves St Judith’s Lane car park, and takes Green End Road to The Green. It turns W down Gidding Road, passing Grebe Farm & Lodge Farm, and uses a section of The Bullock Road.  It returns on the path through Woodfield Farm, reaching the village at St Judith’s Lane.

Walk 6 Ancient Woods Walk  (6.5 miles)
This walk starts again from St Judiths Lane,  goes through Aversley Wood, to emerge on The Bullock Road.  Here, it turns SE to Hill Top Farm, and goes N along the road, to visit Archers Wood.  After this delightful detour, one returns N on the track to St Judith’s Lane.

The Great Fen Project
Holme Fen, and Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserves
Every outdoor or nature magazine we open recently seems to refer to The Great Fen Project. This is a scheme to buy up farmland in the flat lands south of Peterborough, to create a vast wetland.  A recent purchase is Darlow’s Farm adjacent to Woodwalton Fen, with the aim to return it to wet grassland.

What is worth saying is that there is a pleasant day’s walking in this area.  Spend the morning round the wooded Holme Fen, parking at TL 203 894, in a layby opposite the interesting Holme Post.  This was set in the ground in 1851, and the shrinkage of the peat now means it stands 4m above the surrounding ground!  A display board shows a network of paths and waymarked trails.  Then drive to Woodwalton Fen for lunch, approaching from Ramsey Heights, and parking at ca. TL 235 849.  This is a complete contrast, with acres of wet grassland, and marsh.  Again, there are excellent display boards, and miles of waymarked paths.

A curious house on stilts was built by Charles Rothschild, who bought the land and turned it into one of Britain’s first nature reserves.  He went on to create the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves in 1912, which became the Wildlife Trusts Movement.  The Rothschild building was his base for study at the fen.

Do visit Holme Fen & Woodwalton Fen, and take your binoculars. In Winter, willies might be a good idea.

Janet Moreton

Whats New?
Armchair walking is probably more prevalent in Winter, so here is something to look for when poring over a map, in front of a warm fire, as the rain spatters on the window.

Like the products in a supermarket, which are often “new, improved…”, plenty of place names are “new”.  But when were they new? And does “new” mean new (lately made, recently discovered, modern) ?

A quick scan of some East Anglian maps gave me several good walking venues: Newton; Newsells; Newnham; Newport; New Wimpole; Newmarket…Pause to look up The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names (4th Ed. Eilert Ekwall, Clarendon Press, 1960), and a few other cross references, especially Alison Taylor (in Archaeology of South West & South East Cambridgehire, Publ. 1997, Cambs. CC).

Newton is thought to be probably the most common English place name, meaning “new homestead or village”, and represents Old English  “nëowa tûn”.  It is identical in origin with Newnton, Newington and Naunton.  The site of Newton in the Cam Valley was occupied in the Iron Age, but it is not mentioned as a separate parish in Domesday Book.  Alison Taylor says the name means “new farm” and agrees it was a late creation. However, the moated site known as Newton Bury, adjacent to the church, was recorded before 1300.  Walkers who know Newton, will know it as a place to get wet feet in Winter, where a footpath is regularly flooded by the Hoffer Brook!

Newsells is an attractive little hamlet near Barkway, Herts. It was Nevsela in Domesday, Newsel 1212 , Neuseles 1251.  Sele is the old English “hall, dwelling, or house”.  So this settlement isn’t new – its been around, and called something similar, since at least 1080.

Newnham, a parish just within Cambridge City boundaries, is where one starts the famous walk to Grantchester.  It was Newham in 1195, and Newenham in 1202, so it’s been “new” for a long time!

Newport, Essex, has a good network of paths, and is the cross-over place for the Harcamlow Way figure-of-eight long distance path. The name simply means, “new town”.

New Wimpole has much more available information.   The hall at Wimpole was first built by Sir Thomas Chicheley, ca. 1641. The hall quickly passed to a succession of nobles, and finally to the Earl of Hardwicke. The latter replaced the medieval church east of the house with the current yellow-brick chapel, thickly furnished with monuments.  He landscaped the grounds, removing the banks and hollows not only of former gardens, but from the little hamlet of Wimpole that Sir Thomas Chicheley had removed to build his first house.  In the 1840s, a row of Jacobean style cottages were built for estate workers at New Wimpole. So, sadly, New Wimpole stands along the main road as a symbol of former ruthlessness – even if not on the scale of Scottish “clearances”. (Don’t let this depress you when you walk round the park).

Newmarket, Suffolk.  The town lies on the Icknield Way ancient route, and has been horse country for a long time.  The market which gave the town its name was set up ca. 1200 beside the old road, where it flanked the ancient manor and half-hundred of Exning. Its name was recorded first in latin (Nova Forum, 1200, and Novum Mercatum 1219), and la Newmarket 1418.

I haven’t touched on the places that are “new” within living memory – Harlow New Town, new in the C20th,  is a typical East Anglian example.  The habit of affixing “new” to an adjacent place name, and putting up a settlement seems to have lapsed. Complete new villages, Cambourne, Northstowe are springing up all round us, without the “new” epithet to remind us that ten years ago the barley waved here.
Janet Moreton

Cambridge Group Walk in Cumbria
Sixteen members of Cambridge RA Group enjoyed a week’s walking in the Lake District in August. Despite Cumbria’s wet reputation, we were blessed with fine weather throughout.  We climbed a couple of peaks per day on 5 days out of the six, and had a really good time.

We stayed, very comfortably, at Newton Rigg Campus, near Penrith.  Unfortunately, enquiries suggest that next Summer, the college will be renovating its accommodation, which will not therefore be available. To those who have enquired – sorry.

Pubs Reopening and Closing…
Mr Chris Crane will be re-opening “The Elmdon Dial” (formerly The Kings Head at Elmdon, Essex) at the end of 2005. The restaurant and bar, serving a range of meals and snacks will welcome walkers.

But, sadly, the White Horse at West Wickham Cambs, has closed, and the building is for sale.

Path changes in West Wratting parish
After 4 years of consultation, a suite of alterations to the path network was confirmed by Cambs. C.C. on 1 September.  Changes affect paths to the S & E of  West Wratting village, and a few going to Weston Colville, and generally re-route footpaths along field-edges.  Several are minor re-alignments, often onto lines that have been in use already, but others are quite radical, and two new paths have been created to make useful links.

Fp 7 from the churchyard has been re-aligned along the field edge, then round old farm buildings and along a grass baulk to “The Grove”;  fp 8 that used to start opposite the pub has been replaced by a path going north up the farm track, so the criss-cross of paths in the big field between Common Road and The Grove is replaced by two field-edge paths.  The path going N from The Grove towards Weston Colville is still the same as far as the belt of pine trees at TL 614 525, but the diagonal cross-field path that used to go from here towards Weston Colville windmill has been moved onto the field-edge further north – where people have walked for some years.  There is also a completely new path going along the northern side of the tree-belt, and following a track to Chapel Road, near the ruins of Mines Farm.

Further E, the network of paths in another large field north of The Common has been replaced by two parallel paths:  fp 13 leaves the road at TL 620 513 and follows a field-edge all the way to Weston Green (instead of starting through the cottage gardens);  and fp 12 leaves the road at TL 622 512 and goes across the field, then alongside a wood, to join another field-edge path to Weston Green.  A third, new footpath connects fps 12 and 13, along the parish boundary.

Opposite fp 12, on the south side of the road, fp 14 has been re-aligned along the field-edge to the corner at TL 620 511, then across the next field to Rands Wood;  and an extra fp has been created from the same field-corner, going west past a small pond, and through into the next field, where it branches round two sides of the field.  Going effectively straight ahead, one can join fp 10 that leads right back to the Park Farm granary on Mill Road at TL 608 514;  going left, the field-edge path leads south to another corner, then through the thick hedge and into West Wickham parish, thus providing a completely field-edge route from Wratting Common to West Wickham.

Opening of the new paths was celebrated by a village walk on 15 October, when a memorial oak tree was planted.  The condition of some of the field-edge paths still leaves something to be desired, as existing headlands have been rotovated, hopefully prior to grass-seeding, so that by next Summer, walkers will feel the benefit of the changes.
Roger Moreton

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 33.
Cantab usually appears every 2 months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards printing costs.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 10p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 33; Price 10 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2005.

CANTAB32 September 2005

CANTAB32 September 2005 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
This month we have an article  by John Andrews, contrasting walking in Eastern Germany with that in his native Suffolk. It first appeared in Suffolk Ramblers’ Area News, and is reproduced by kind permission.  Suffolk is not alone in suffering from perpetual inadequacies in its path maintenance budget – most East Anglian Highway Authorities suffer the same stringencies. If every rambler wrote to their County Councillor complaining of inadequate funds for path upkeep, perhaps we would make an impact!

Looking back to the Summer, there is a report on a “package” holiday in Austria, and we discuss the Ramblers’ Association policy of excluding advertising by companies other than Ramblers Holidays.

Following the popularity of the “Paston Way” article, I have further church walks for you this month, this time in Bedfordshire.  Note, however, that these churches will not be open on Sundays in the Winter, so go and visit them soon!

Finally, there is an update on recent path changes in South Cambridgeshire.

Just a dream ?
“I had this amazing experience. I was walking in beautiful countryside where there were footpaths to take me anywhere I wanted to go – to every town or village around or in whatever direction I chose.  All along the paths – at every junction – were signs telling me where each path leads to and how far or how long it takes to get there.   It was all so comfortable too; never any doubts about whether I was trespassing or obstacles in the way and not a single nettle to make my journey unpleasant or impossible.

So easy to get about from one area to another one too.  Buses, trains and even, where the river was big enough, boats were in regular and frequent supply  – with bus stops at the ends of lots of the footpaths. For the happy walker a car was quite superfluous.  When I was hungry or thirsty a pub or cafe seemed to appear almost magically, even out in the countryside miles away from habitations – halfway up a mountain it was no surprise to find a place of refreshment.

No wonder that I was not alone in this paradise ! The paths were alive with people of every age and variety – families, groups of teenagers and pensioners. It was all so safe and welcoming too, so it seemed quite natural to find – more than once – a young mother with a toddler in a pushchair – miles from anywhere.  Did I find `Private’ notices all over the place ? Scarcely ever, but, if so, then accompanied by helpful advice explaining that the path only led to a house or was in some way or other of no use to the general public.  `Keep Out’ signs? Not a one did I behold.

At this point in the story – usually – comes the punch line “ and then I woke up !” But this was not a dream and every word of it was true – true of the part of eastern Germany, close to the Czech border, where I have just been on holiday. I know the Germans have always been passionate about walking – the German word is ‘wandering’, which seems so much more descriptive of the habit, but should there be such a vast gulf between what one finds there and our normal experiences of walking in Suffolk ? In my part of the County and in the height of summer, if I am lucky enough to find a path to take me where I want to go, then – 10 to 1 that it will be a nightmare journey and that I will return home scratched, stung and exhausted by the unequal battle against head-high vegetation and a selection of the nastiest species to be found. If a bus back would help – or a cooling drink would ease the pain – what chance of that ?

Must this be so ? Clearly it need not be. Are we setting our sights high enough ?  Can the Suffolk County ‘Rights of Way Improvement Plan’ start to bring about the huge cultural change that it would require ? Is it pure, misguided fantasy to hope that our decision makers, the guardians of the public purse, might actually have the vision to believe that – as the experts all now say – a good recreational network is a major factor in sustaining the rural economy ?

At present we are suffering the consequences of the very opposite – a slashing of the County Council’s rights of way maintenance budget that is leaving walkers in frustration all over Suffolk as our paths succumb to the natural growth which, in the worst case, compels people to turn back and/or much more disturbingly, to escape from the impenetrable jungle of the footpath by taking to the nearest road.

Perhaps we should invite some of our Councillors to come along with us – first into the Suffolk countryside in June – and then to Germany ?”
John Andrews

Austria with “Waymark”
In July, four members of RA Cambridge Group spent a most enjoyable week at Trins, in the Austrian Tirol, organised by the walking company “Waymark”.  There were 2 leaders, daily providing alternative walks options for 23 people, so that on average there were about a dozen people in each party. Their “grade 2” walks could be accomplished by all our readers. The “grade 3” (perhaps equivalent to Ramblers Holidays “grade C”) would be suitable for those of you who not only walk 10 (East Anglian) miles each Saturday, but are also capable of a morning’s sustained, and sometimes steep, uphill effort!

Blessed with good weather, we had two walks direct from the village, situated at 1214m, ascending Blaser (2241m) on the first day, and Padaster (2301m) on a later occasion. One day, a chairlift took us up to 2000m, allowing a ridge walk on 3 delightful green peaks to the south of the village. Otherwise, a short bus ride gave us access to walking above the Obernberg Valley, and onto the high frontier ridge  with Italy, (reaching 2166m),  during which our guide regaled us with tales of guerilla warfare in the last century. Other walks took us from Obertal to the Tribulaun Hut under the cliffs of Gschnitzer (where some of us learnt to kick steps across slanting old glassy snow).  Once, we hired a minibus to Obern in the Stubai Alps, for views of more inspiring, snow-covered peaks.

This was a holiday for really spectacular  views of snow-covered alps and glaciers, wonderful wildflowers, plenty of mountain huts for a comfortable refreshment break, and, above all, a really well-organised set-up, with knowledgeable, considerate leaders.  The friendly hotel has been patronised by Waymark for 25 years, and provided a perfect background, from its ample breakfasts to free afternoon tea & cakes, and 4-course evening meals. On arrival, one found a little paper heart on the pillow “Herzlich Willkommen”.

It is not my normal policy to report on commercial package holidays (and no, I haven’t been paid) but I felt regret at our leader’s comment that “Waymark” was not allowed to advertise  in Ramblers’ Association publications.  Whilst I am aware of the RA’s close ties with “Ramblers Holidays”, and am a regular customer of the latter, I feel personally that it is in the interest of walkers that they should be aware of the options, and, ultimately in the interests of each walking company that they should thrive on competition.  Waymark Holidays are slightly more expensive than Ramblers, but offer smaller parties, and a walk every day.

For more details of Waymark Holidays, their Brochure Line is 01753 534126, or e-mail bookings@waymarkholidays.com
The week at Trins cost £485, including Lufthansa flights from Heathrow, and most local travel. We can also recommend a slightly easier holiday at Wildschönau in the Kitzbühler Alps, which we enjoyed two years ago.
Janet Moreton

Legal changes to the path network November 2003 – May 2005
The following changes have been confirmed by the County or District Councils in South Cambs., during the last 18 months:

Part of Barrington fp 11 along the top of the Barrington chalk pit, has been moved northwards by a few metres, to take the path a safe distance away from the crumbling edge of the quarry (confirmed February 2005).  A new path has been cut out through the trees, and nicely surfaced with wood-chips.

Bartlow fp 6 (from Ashdon Road at TL 585 451 to Bartlow church) was finally confirmed as a public footpath in February 2004, and a minor diversion, avoiding a building that had been put up after the RA’s original claim, was confirmed in January 2005.

Part of Bourn fp 2, from the Caxton Road going north through Cambourne, has been diverted round the edge of a newly-dug balancing lake (confirmed November 2003).  A diversion taking another part of the path a little further away from the existing property Oak Dene (which is becoming surrounded by the new Cambourne development) has been agreed by the RA, but not yet enacted.  Yet another diversion will be needed, round another balancing lake, but we are still waiting for details of this;  meanwhile a temporary diversion is in operation, while the lake is being dug.

Bourn fp 21, from Alms Hill at TL 325 568, going east towards Caldecote was opened up by Cambs. CC during 2003, and a minor diversion was confirmed in November 2003 to take the path round an existing building.  (A parallel footpath runs across the meadow on the south side of Bourn Brook.)

Caxton br 5 (part of the Crow Dene bridleway) now goes through a tunnel under the new Caxton Bypass road, and a diversion order was made to alter the line slightly, and to reduce the width of the section under the tunnel, from the original 30 ft.

On Comberton fp 5 (from Barton Road at TL 385 563, to Swaynes Lane at TL 385 561) a minor diversion round an extended garden plot was confirmed in May 2004.

Gamlingay fp 7 (f rom Potton Road at TL 217 512 to Everton Road at TL 211 512) was diverted a few metres to the south at the Everton Road end, to take the path out of a private garden (confirmed May 2005).

In Girton, in February 2004 a new fp 15 was created, running SE along a track from the end of Wellbrook Way, TL 426 613, to end in rough ground at TL 430 610.

Graveley fp 7 was diverted between TL 263 631 and TL 264 632, taking the path north along a farm-track, then east along a field-edge instead of diagonally across a field.  At the same time, Yelling fp 5 between TL 263 626 and TL 263 631 was moved from the east side of the hedge, onto a farm track on the west side, and Yelling fp 6 was moved from a diagonal, cross-field route, to run directly down the field from fp 5 at TL 263 628 (confirmed August 2004).

Horningsea fp 6, from Clayhithe Road at TL 497 629 going E towards Quy Fen, was diverted to follow a field-edge track between TL 498 629 and TL 502 628 (the continuing path being already on the field-edge – confirmed November 2003).

Over fp 6, running S from High Street west of The Admiral Vernon PH at TL 375 706, was diverted to run along the east side of the pub (confirmed March 2004).
Roger Moreton

South Bedfordshire’s Church Trails
South Bedfordshire District Council produces a couple of free leaflets: “Dunstable and the Southern Parishes” and “Toddington and the Northern Parishes”, promoting some of the attractive churches in the District.

The leaflets, free from tourist offices, give details of several churches which will be open between 2 and 5 pm on the first Sunday of each month, between April and September, during which time tea & coffee will be available for visitors. Service of Sunday lunch at a local hostelry (with useful ‘phone numbers) is noted in each case, as are local attractions. The churches are fairly well spaced, and it seems likely that the information is intended primarily for touring motorists, but each church, or perhaps two churches could form a focus for a Sunday walk.

The Dunstable leaflet mentions not only the impressive Priory Church of St Peter, Dunstable (open all week), but also the Roman Catholic Dunstable St Mary’s, Our Lady Immaculate. Designed between 1961 & 1964 by Desmond Williams & Associates, it is a circular building with brick walls & an aluminium roof, with much internal carved wood & stained glass.

Eaton Bray St Mary the Virgin is an early C13th village church, enlarged in the C15th.

Totternhoe St Giles is an embattled C14th church on C12th foundations, boasting its original carved roof.

The second leaflet takes its title from Toddington, with the dedication to St George of England.  This C13th church is built of Totternhoe stone, with a 90ft central tower.  The wooden roof has carved angels, and there are beautiful exterior sculptures of animals.

Hartington St Mary the Virgin is a grade 1 listed early C14th church with a fine arcade.  There is an unusual John Bunyan altar and Pilgrims Progress stained glass.

Chalgrave all Saints is a C13th building within a ring of chestnut trees in very pleasant surroundings.  It is renowned for its C13th wall paintings.

Sundon St Mary’s is another C13th grade 1 listed building, with a C15th rood screen, and 3 rows of ancient pews.

Barton Le Clay St Nicholas rests at the foot of Barton Hills, offering splendid walking opportunities (preferably before a large Sunday lunch!).  Parts of the building date from 1180, and the font may be earlier. The exterior has very fine knapped flint work..  Within are interesting carvings in wood and stone at roof level and in the sanctuary a rare example of Easter Sepulchre. (Here and at Dunstable, we are advised that baptisms may occur around 3pm on some Sundays).

OS Landranger Sheets 166, 165 and 153 will be helpful for walking in this locality. Rights of way are generally well-signposted, and in fair condition. If travelling by car from Cambridge to this area, avoid Baldock, while the bypass is under construction!

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post:  Issue 32.
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 10p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink.  If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a 10p stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Issue 32; Price 10 pence where sold
© Janet Moreton, 2005.

 

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