Harpenden to St Albans (plus Fireworks?) T=swc.351
Length: 10.9 miles, 17.6 km
3 out of 10
"There is attractive common land, a forest with countryside views, a country estate, and finally a pleasant approach to St Albans which takes you through the old town past sites of historical interest. The morning highlight is the brand-new forest called Heartwood. It will be interesting to see how this part of the walk changes as the forest grows and develops. The afternoon takes you through the pretty Childwickbury country estate, with views also out to another estate, Gorehambury.
The route through Verulamium Park, might have minor diversions because of the fireworks - see below.
Trains: Get the 0935 Bedford train from London Bridge (St Pancras 0950) arriving Harpenden 1017. This is a Thames link train from Gatwick, so has many options for where you can catch it. Return is from St Albans City with frequent trains. There is a St Albans Abbey station, but that is a different train line into Euston & needs a separate ticket.
Buy a Harpenden return
Lunch: is in Sandridge, with three pubs (The Queens Head has been the choice of previous walkers), a tea room and a churchyard for picnics.
Tea: The Cathedral Cafeteria or The Fighting Cocks pub amongst others.
Fireworks: The St Albans charity display is in Verulamium Park from 6pm with the display at 7.30pm. Tickets at £10, are only from the Cathedral Box Office (closes at 6pm) and only physical tickets are available. Apparently large bags may be searched. My memory of the park layout is not good enough to know if there are possible vantage points outside of the enclosed area.
1 comment:
The scheduled, posted train was cancelled - no surprise there - but eight of us happened to be early at the station and so caught the slightly earlier, stopping service to Luton. Others were seen in the concourse of St Pancras - they either abandoned the walk or caught a later train and "did their own" thing, as they never caught up the eight. If perchance late arrivals did do the walk, please add your own report to this one, and tweak the "n" number of attendees.
So, for starters, let's say n=8 of us set out from Harpenden, only a few minutes behind schedule, on a day which was w=overcast-and-a-bit-chilly-in-the-breeze, absolutely fine when we were on the move, but more than nippy when stopped - as the lunch time sandwichers found out. The morning leg over the grassy Common was lovely, as was the leg through Heartwood Forest. We reached Sandridge Village shortly after 12 noon, and I enjoyed a good lunch in the front bar of Queens Head pub, close to a fire. Two of the sandwichers who had picnicked in the churchyard next door joined me later, to thaw out by the fire whilst enjoying a hot drink. The other five sandwiches set out on the afternoon leg of the walk some twenty minutes or so before those sheltering in the pub.
There was some nice leaf colour in the woods and along the way and we three pub-stoppers maintained a good pace as we walked towards St Albans, briefly stopping on the way to look inside the small, quaint St Mary's Church in the Childwickbury Estate. On reaching the outskirts of St Albans we headed for the Cathedral via the old town, ticking off the main sights along the way. We queued for a long time in the Cathedral's self-service cafeteria but we enjoyed our tea when we were eventually served. Some of the sandwichers were spotted in the Cathedral but they did not join the three of us. The Cathedral was busy with long lines of people queuing for tickets for the evening fireworks display. I suspect none of the SWC walkers stayed on in town for the fireworks, as the wait would have been long. So after tea the three of us walked through the town - all a buzz and busy - then downhill to St Albans City railway station - for a quick journey home.
With the leaf colour on offer it was a good time of year to do this walk - and best I know all eight of us enjoyed it.
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