Length: 19.7 km (12.2 miles)
Toughness: 3 out of 10 No steep hills
London Kings Cross: 09 -58 hrs Thameslink service to Royston Finsbury Park (with connection to Victoria line): 10-04 hrs
Arrive Knebworth: 10-34 hrs
Return: 13 & 43 mins past the hour
This new walk had its inaugural outing on a Wednesday last year, shortly before Lockdown One.
Saturday walkers might now like to become acquainted with this enjoyable walk through some nice countryside, passing a number of historic estates along the way to add interest to your day. The Directions are written for Clockwise and Anticlockwise walks - we can choose on the day which we prefer to do.
On the anticlockwise walk - leaving Knebworth, coming out of the railway station, we at first have a bit of road walking to negotiate, gently uphill. When we pass through Old Knebworth we leave the road and head over fields to Knebworth House, to walk through its extensive grounds (Knebworth Park), at the bottom end of which we should see plenty of roe deer. Up then through Graffidge Wood (todays muddy bit) and out onto a country lane - for another stretch of road walking, but not unpleasant. We soon have a choice of onward route: we either leave the road earlier for a direct route to the village of Whitwell, or we stay on the country lane for a bit longer and head for the village of St Paul's Walden, to visit its church (where the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was baptised in 1900). There is a pub lunch option as you enter this village - the unpretentious Strathmore Arms.
Leaving this village we head down fields to rejoin the direct route to Whitwell just before we come to the estate of St Paul's Walden Bury - the long term English home of the Scottish Bowes-Lyon family (the late Queen Mother's family).
On then to Whitwell where we stop for lunch. The one, open pub in the village - the Bull Inn, might be serving food today: if not, and you are in need of an alcoholic drink, this makes for a pleasant stop. Further down the village, within a converted farm complex, you come to Emily's Tea Shop, a really nice, cosy tea room, serving light lunches.
After lunch, our onward route takes us over some vast agricultural fields, to then skirt the southern end of Hoo Park, before we enter a woodland strip above the River Mimram and then on into the large village of Codicote. We head up through this village before heading up and over another set of large open fields which take us to the small village of Rabley Heath, where we cross more fields and go along field edges which eventually take us out onto the road we came on in the morning. This time we turn right to return to Knebworth Railway Station. Opposite the station is the Station pub, which should be open . But one suggestion is to walk past the station and turn left towards the shops: on your right is the Sugar Boutique, open until 5 pm, which serves proper tea and delicious cup cakes.
T=swc.353
Walk Directions are here: L=swc.353
2 comments:
Phoned The Bull. Serving lunch 12-3.
7 of us assembled at Knebworth Railway station to be joined by a car driver, so that made n=8 for the first Saturday posting of this walk. I was hoping the walk author was going to join us, but she must have had other commitments on the day.
We opted to follow the anti-clockwise directions, and set off towards Knebworth House on a day which could be described as w=overcast-and-cloudy-all-day, warm, and slightly humid later on, but no rain - so no complaints ! To our amusement the only sign of the sun came on our return rail journey as we approached London.
Deer were spotted in the vast Knebworth Park, which we had to ourselves, although the House had some visitors. After Graffidge Wood (mud free for once) we decided to stay on the country lanes all the way to the village of St Paul's Walden, where we visited the church with memorials to the late Queen Mother and her Bowes-Lyon family. On then to go past her family estate and down to the village of Whitwell, where one stopped at Emily's for a coffee and four of us enjoyed pub-grub at the Bull Inn. We had a room at the back of the pub to ourselves which enhanced our visit. The staff were also friendly and the service was very good.
Just before Whitwell one of our ensemble left us to do her own thing - I hope she enjoyed the rest of her walk. After the two picnickers had joined us for a drink at the Bull we all left to tackle the afternoon leg of the walk. Fortunately, the local farmer had cut a clear path through his extensive fields in crop with corn, so what I was expecting to be a tricky bit was easily negotiated.
Straightforward, and pleasant going followed to Hoo Park, then Codicote. We then crossed a vast, harvested field on a clear path (again, well done and a thank you to the farmer) to the hamlet of Rabley Heath, then back down the road to Knebworth. We had maintained a good, healthy pace all afternoon, which meant we were in plenty of time to take tea at the Sugar Boutique - or so we thought. Passing the railway station on the way there we said goodbye to our car driver and two were in time to catch the 16-13 hrs service back to Kings Cross. The staff at the cafe were unwelcoming - we arrived there at 4-20 pm and they must have told us a dozen times they were closing at 5 pm with last orders at 4-45 pm ?! We managed to extract cup cakes (excellent) teas (good) and coffees (very good) out of them and a neighbouring retailer let us use their outside table with bench seats. But oh dear - and such a shame as on my two previous visits to this cafe I had enjoyed a friendly welcome and best service.
As for the walk, I think the consensus was it was enjoyable with good variety and interesting sights along the way, with the only deduct being it suffers from too much (unavoidable) road walking. But well worth a spin.
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