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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 8 May 2016

Sunday Walk 1: Baldock Circular - Ashwell at home

Baldock Circular: SWC Walk 91
17km. (10.6 miles)
Difficulty 2/10

A relaxing amble through Hertfordshire countryside to the ancient settlement of Ashwell. A morning section follows one of Britain's oldest trackways, the Icknield Way. The walk coincides with  “Ashwell at Home” Day, a village-wide event that raises funds for local groups. To visit the event proper you should buy a £6 ticket but you'll still get a flavour of it if you’re just passing through.
Ashwell's 14th C church contains medieval graffiti, some referring to the Great Plague. It should be free to visit but you'll need the ticket if you want to climb the tower (Hertfordshire's highest).
Trains:
09:52 Cambridge train from Kings Cross arriving 10:30
Trains back from Baldock at xx:26 and xx:50
The walk can be shortened by 3 miles to finish at Ashwell and Morden Station – useful if you get involved in the Ashwell hoo-hah. Trains from Ashwell and Morden are at xx:21. There's a pub called the Jester nearby.
A return to Ashwell & Morden, the furthest stop, costs the same as one to Baldock.
Lunch
There are three pubs in Ashwell: the Rose and Crown (01462 742420), the Bushel and Strike (01462742394), and the Three Tuns (01462 742107)
Tea
The Old White Horse near Baldock station.

Walk directions here
At point 32, the footpath to the right across the field is a little hard to find. Once off the road, you need to circumvent a garden area by heading forward a short way then following a path round to the right. When you come level with a gate, you should see a clear path heading off to your left diagonally across the fields. Any problems, follow the road round.

T=swc.91

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

How can I join this walk, do you have to be a member?

Best, Helena

Mr M Tiger said...

Hi You don't have to be a member. Just look for other walkers at Baldock station at 10:30. Theres no leader, all are responsible for themselves, so be sure to bring a copy of the walk directions. There's an introduction to our walks here http://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/index.shtml

Thomas G said...

A walk of small pleasures, but plenty of them, we thought.
Long, meditative stretches along field boundaries (almost all non-bumpy) or between fields on good tracks, soothing rolling fieldscapes, rape oilseed fields in abundance, an iron age hillfort site, lovely Ashwell, its streets abundant with Morris Dancers, music, espresso van, and plenty of pubs to chose from; rolling hillocks in the afternoon, some Chiltern views (Sharpenhoe Clappers and Pulloxhill Water Tower), a lovingly restored church without a congregation, and some well-cleared arable field crossings, the Ivel Springs Local Nature Reserve, the pretty-ish centre of Baldock.
All that on a w=hot_day_with_a_breeze.
No wonder n=18 people turned up.
All headed home happy (despite some more km than advertised).
One drink - for some - at the pub just b4 the station, while a music festival was being held in their huge garden tent, with music that I thought had died out decades ago: melodic hard rock...