Pete's Walks - Kensworth-Ivinghoe (part 2)
I followed Green Lane back out into the countryside. I came to a track crossroads, where I usually turn right towards Sewell (the Icknield Way, Chiltern Way and my own Totternhoe walk go that way) but today I continued on ahead. I soon saw another butterfly, a Speckled Wood - in fact I almost trod on it.
Track crossroads, where the Chiltern Way and Icknield Way go right. Today I continued straight on.
The track continuing towards the quarries at Totternhoe
At the next track crossroads I turned left, but only for a hundred yards or so before turning right again. This next track went up and down a small hill, with a very steep drop beyond the hedge on my right - this was the edge of an old quarry, the bottom of this section of the quarry now having been reclaimed for agriculture. Near the top of the hill I met a lady on horseback, and we got chatting for a while - she’d just achieved a lifelong ambition by having a lesson on a Polo pony.
The track beside the quarry - you can see the steep quarry face just behind the hedge on the right
At the bottom of the far side of the hill I passed close to the car park for the Totternhoe Knolls and Totternhoe Quarry nature reserves. I also crossed over where a new pipeline of some sort was being built. The track continued onwards, heading towards Totternhoe Knolls (the site of a Norman Motte and Bailey castle, on a prominent hilltop). But before getting there, I forked left on a path that descended through trees to reach the main road through Totternhoe near the Cross Keys pub. There was now no sign of the fog I'd seen from the Downs earlier.
The track descending the other side of the hill shown in the previous photo - the car park for the nature reserves is just out of shot to the left here. The blue digger was working on some new pipeline.
The path continuing towards Totternhoe Knolls (see my Totternhoe walk)
The Cross Keys pub at Totternhoe
Having headed generally northwards so far, I would now be going south-west for several miles until I reached Ivinghoe. A short distance left along the road I took another footpath on the far side which, after passing between garden fences, ran through a small paddock. It then went over a footbridge, then went left to cross a small corner of a cow pasture, and then continued beside a left-hand hedge through a large field that was now stubble. In the next field, also stubble, the path switched to the left of a hedgerow - looking left, I could see the line of Dunstable Downs a mile or so away.
Field path between Totternhoe and Eaton Bray
Dunstable Downs from between Totternhoe and Eaton Bray
The footpath then joined a narrow lane, which soon became a residential street (School Lane) in the village of Eaton Bray. I crossed over the main road through the village and continued down The Meads - at the end of this short street I continued on another field path, with a large stubble field on my right.
School Lane, Eaton Bray
Stubble field, just beyond The Meads, Eaton Bray
In the field corner I went over a footbridge across a fast-flowing stream, and turned left, between the waterway and a tall fence on my right. I went through a small meadow behind some houses in Edlesborough (leaving the meadow by the diagonally opposite corner to the one I entered it by), and continued along a path between hedges, with some allotments to my right. The path ended at a lane, which I followed to the left, soon reaching a road by the playing field in Edlesborough.
The stream, near Edlesborough
The path between the stream and a fence, just before reaching Edlesborough
Path beside the allotments at Edlesborough
Playing field at Edlesborough
I turned right along the road - I soon passed the village hall on my left, where there was evidently some event going on for young mums as several were gathered outside and I passed a few more pushing prams as I continued along the road. I passed a long and impressive old barn on my right, which had recently been refurbished as office space.
Converted barn at Edlesborough
After about half a mile I reached the end of the road, with The Bell public house on my right and the now redundant Edlesborough church opposite.
The Bell pub at Edlesborough
Edlesborough church, from the bridleway