The first Saturday outing for this walk. There are some cross-over points, so followers of the gpx, take care!
The Lea Valley is a wide floodplain which has long been both an important transport corridor and a natural boundary (eg. between the Saxons and the Danes in the Dark Ages). There are stretches through water meadows, along the towpath of the River Lea and past large filled-in gravel pits, one of the largest is a nature reserve where you could pause for some bird-watching from a new Wildlife Discovery Centre. A short interlude through farmland outside the Country Park and a pleasant grassy path along the edge of Cornmill Meadows Dragonfly Sanctuary leads directly into Waltham Abbey.
Waltham Abbey was built by Henry Ⅱ as part of his penance after the murder of Thomas Becket. Fortunately, part of its medieval nave survived to become the present Church of the Holy Cross: reminiscent of a scaled-down Durham Cathedral, it is well worth a visit.
After lunch the walk loops around the Abbey Gardens and leaves the town along Highbridge Street. An attraction on the afternoon leg is the Lee Valley White Water Centre, where you can watch canoeists and rafters tackling the slalom course constructed for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The afternoon route goes quite near Cheshunt station and two different link routes are described for a choice of Short Walks finishing there. The proposal is to do Short Walk 1, but all options are in the afternoon, and you can postpone deciding until the relevant turn-off point.
Trains: get the 0954 Cambridge North train from Liverpool Street (Tottenham Hale 1006) arriving Broxbourne 1019. Frequent return trains from Cheshunt to Liverpool Steet. Also the overground via Seven Sisters.
Lunch: In Waltham Abbey
Tea: cafes and pubs just past the station. T=swc.427.a
3 comments:
This will be excellent for those who missed it three weeks ago.
A word of warning to those who don't bother with the walk notes. As they advise, after this week's rain it will be better to stay on the towpath in §A instead of following the GPS route through what will be a very boggy water meadow. And in January there's not much point doing the GPS route in §K to "an area noted for its orchids" (I'll be changing this).
@David: the walk on Jan 4th was actually SWC.311, but the two do overlap and both have a lunch stop in Waltham Abbey. One group tried the Crown and another the Angel; both pubs are friendly places with good-value food'n'drink.
I'm currently tweaking both 311 & 427 in response to feedback but won't be updating them before Saturday.
I wonder if my well-intentioned warning about diverting around the water meadow at the start of this walk persuaded everyone to switch to one of the muddy Wealden walks instead. As I'd been planning to check out some new routes around Cheshunt I took the train an hour later and made my way to Waltham Abbey. I thought I'd only be 20-30 minutes behind the group when I arrived at 1pm but there was no sign of anyone in the three pubs* I tried, or on the picnic benches in the Abbey Gardens, or admiring the church. Maybe they saw me coming. Anyway, this solo walker N=1 had a very pleasant time in the W=partly-sunny weather. No mud.
* I might apply to be West Ham's mascot since each time I looked into a pub the punters were celebrating a goal, so they were 3-0 up by the time I left the town. The spell must have worn off as the oppo got a goal back, but the Hammers held out to win 3-1. Happy to apply this superpower to any other struggling clubs, for a small consideration.
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