A cool afternoon in East Hertfordshire, cloudy and threatening rain, but that didn’t worry the Saturday regulars in Wareside’s cosy Chequers Inn.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window
Facebook Link:
‘The Doom Bar’s beautiful just now,’ they advised me, solicitously ensuring I had the right pint before resuming talk of fishing, the whereabouts of herons’ nests and other local gossip with the easy familiarity of people who’ve known one another for a long time. Hmmm. Stay curled in the old leather sofa reading the paper and testing the bitter, or venture out into the spattery countryside? Well – a short walk, then …
The disused branch railway line to Buntingford crossed the River Ash just east of Wareside, its hazels and horse chestnuts framing a picture-perfect view of a beautiful medieval farmhouse and the thin verdigris-green spire of St John the Baptist’s Church, together on their ridge at Widfordbury. A pair of partridges took off and shot away low to the ground with a characteristic wooden-sounding whirr of stubby wings. Edible snails three times the size and coarseness of other gastropods were out crawling in the rain-wet grass among olive-green pheasant egg shells fractured and raided by greedy magpies. A collie dog in the field ahead ran madly in circles, and a blackcap opened its beak at the end of a willow branch and poured out a sweet scribble of song. This damp afternoon was to everyone’s taste but humans, it seemed.
The green tunnel of Upper Crackney Lane turned away from the broad Ash valley and climbed a shallow slope to lonely Little Blakesware Farm with its weatherboarded barns and big old farmhouse of whitewashed brick. A flicker of movement in a young ash tree, and I stood still to watch a female pied flycatcher dealing with a tangled beakful of wings, legs and insect bodies.
The path led on through flowering beanfields, lent a touch of exoticism by the veined petals with pink streaks and velvet black blotches. This was wide open countryside, low swells of ground half concealing ancient farmsteads under a sky of rolling dark cumulus clouds. The path dipped by steps to cross a dark wooded cleft carved forty feet deep in the chalky soil by the Nimney Bourne stream in its winter rages.
At Baker’s End a young golden Labrador leaped up to give my face a wash with a lolling pink tongue. A mighty ash coppice stool in Buckney Wood sprouted eight poles, each as thick as an individual tree. I passed Legge’s Cottage with weatherboarded walls and ecclesiastically peaked windows, and went down a hedge-banked lane towards Wareside and the Chequers Inn as another spring shower swept across the fields.
START & FINISH: Wareside village hall car park, Ware, Herts SG12 7QY (OS ref TL 396156).
GETTING THERE:
Rail: (thetrainline.com) to Ware, taxi from there (3 miles)
Bus: Centrebus M4 (intalink.org.uk) from Ware.
Road: A10, A1170 to Ware; B1004 Widford road to Wareside; village hall car park near Chequers Inn.
WALK (5 miles, easy, OS Explorer 194. NB: Online maps, more walks at: christophersomerville.co.uk):
From car park cross B1004; left for 50 m; ignore first footpath on right and take next one off road, 20 m further on (‘Public Footpath 32, Hunsdon 2’). Follow Hertfordshire Way/HW across River Ash (399156). Beside next bridge (400155) turn left along old railway footpath (HW); follow it for ½ mile to B1004 (406158). Cross road; right along pavement to next bend; left (408159, HW) through gate. Follow path past horse chestnut trees, on across field. Cross stile at far side (414162); left up shallow valley, keeping trees and ditch close on right. In 200m, bear diagonally left (413164, yellow arrow/YA) up to corner of Upper Crackney green lane (413165). Right along it for ½ mile.
200m past Little Blakesware Farm, turn left at post with 3 arrows (410172) for ⅓ mile to crossing of lanes among trees (404172). Right for 20 m, then left (YA) on path just inside woodland. In 300 m, bear left up steps (YA) and on along field edge. In 150 m, turn right down steps (YA) and cross Nimney Bourne stream by footbridge (400170; purple arrow/PA). Up to bear right through 2 gates (PA) and along green lane for 300 m to road in Bakers End (397171).
Left for 50 m; ignore ‘Public Byway’ sign on right; in another 30 m, turn right up lane with ‘No Through Road’ sign (NB not ‘Public Footpath No 12’!). In 300 m, opposite Castlebury Farm, fork left (393171; ‘public footpath’ fingerpost); in 50 m keep ahead across footbridge (YA) and along field edge for 300 m to reach Buckney Wood (390169). Keep ahead (YA); in 100 m, ahead at YA post for 300 m. Fork left (388166) past Legge’s Cottage; in 300 m cross road (390163); carry on through kissing gates (HW); on with hedge on right. Keep straight ahead, through kissing gates, for ½ mile to road at Reeves Green (393156). Right for 100 m; left (fingerpost) on green lane to Chequers Inn.
LUNCH: Chequers Inn (01920-467010) or White Horse Inn (01920-462582), both in Wareside.
INFORMATION: Hertford TIC (01992-584322)
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk