Length: 19.7 km (12.2 miles)
Toughness: 3 out of 10 No steep hills
London Kings Cross: 09-58 hrs Thameslink service from Kings Cross to Royston Finsbury Park (Victoria and Piccadilly lines LT underground) 10-04 hrs
Arrive Knebworth: 10-34 hrs
Younger walkers activate your travelcards from Finsbury Park
Return: Thameslink services at 13 and 43 mins past the hour
Hopefully snowdrops will be out in several places along today's route to cheer us up. For a change, let's do the walk "backwards" or clockwise today - the Directions are written in both anti-clockwise and clockwise directions.
Leaving Knebworth, we have a bit of road walking before we head for the village of Codicote, enjoying a nice view as we approach it. Down through the village and over fields to woods above the River Mimram to Kimpton Ford, where we join the Hertfordshire Way. It's then up along field edges alongside Hoo Park, then over vast fields to drop down to the village of Whitwell, where we stop for lunch either at the pub the Bull Inn (open and serving lunch today, from 12 noon until 3 pm) or for lighter fare, the charming Emily's Tea Shop.
From Whitwell we head up to St Paul's Walden Bury Estate, the ancestral English home of the late Queen Mother's Scottish family, the Bowes-Lyons. We next head down then and up through Reynolds Wood and along country lanes until we reach Graffidge Wood, which we walk through to enter Knebworth Park - to view its herds of deer. Up through the parkland and beside Knebworth Hall to soon be returning along the road to Knebworth. Walk-end refreshments can be taken at the pub by the railway station - The Station pub, or nearby in the village at Sugar Boutique (it's cup cakes are recommended).
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Walk Directions are here: L=swc.353
3 comments:
I’ve booked a table for 6 people for lunch as the pub is quite small. Those of us who have lunched here before will remember the landlady who used to do home cooked lunches only on Wednesdays for £6.95 for 2 courses. Sadly she is no longer there and the pub is now under new management with a new menu available every day of the week. Walk posters please note.
Sorry I was referring of course to the Bull Inn at Whitwell.
We had another good turnout today, particularly for a walk "North of the Thames" which our SWC Clapham Junction set tend to avoid. 18 of us set out from Knebworth on the Clockwise (backwards) version of this walk, collecting one other walker as planned in Codicote, so making a total of n=19 today. It was a mild day, w=overcast-but-with-some-nice-sunny-spells-at-times. It tried to rain after our lunch stop but failed to do so ! We had some nice snowdrops late morning by the Bridge below Hoo Park, and then some splendid clumps outside the Bowes-Lyon Estate in the afternoon. We encountered some muddy woods in the afternoon, but overall the mud where encountered was manageable all day.
Lunch for eleven of us was taken at the Bull Inn, Whitwell, and we were not disappointed by the pub's new management and their fare on offer. I have never seen so large, fat, chunky chips before ! Their fish & chips looked especially good. A good choice of draught beers, too, and a friendly and very efficient barmaid, so this pub now comes with our recommendation !
I'm not sure what happened to our eight picnickers, who we never saw again after our stop in Whitwell today. Perhaps one of them could add his / her own report on the adventures (or hopefully mischief) they encountered or got up to.
As for the pub lunchers, we set out as one cohort post prandial. Later in the afternoon, after a spell of country lane walking , we entered Knebworth Park, said hello to the green dinosaur, then came upon a herd of 100 plus Roe deer, who checked us out before giving us a wide berth.
Then it was down a long stretch of road back to Knebworth railway station, where five said goodbye to us and caught the 16-13 hrs train That left six of us to retire to the recently refurbished Station pub, and very comfortable, too. The barman could have been a little more enthused by our custom (in stark contrast to our lunch pub experience) but it did not matter too much. We did not rush our post-walk drinks and made it over to the station in time for the 17-13 hrs train back to Kings Cross.
As for the walk, it suffers from quite a bit of (unavoidable) road walking, but I believe most of us enjoyed their walk day today - I certainly did.
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