Pete's Walks - Gaddesden Row and Piccotts End (page 3 of 6)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I turned right along the road, then after one or two hundred yards took a footpath on the left, which ran between a fence and a hedge on my right. Just after entering a second field, the path started to run between hedges either side as it dropped downhill into a valley. At the valley bottom the path went a few yards left, then turned right to follow a track up the other side of the valley, heading towards Boxted Farm. The path used to continue along the drive past the farm, but has been officially diverted and now runs parallel to it through what today was an empty pasture. The path did eventually meet the drive (the Chiltern Way continues along it), but I just crossed the drive and took a path on the other side that followed a hedgerow on my left. It went through a gate in the field corner and continued beside the hedge in the next field. After a while the path turned right in a field corner, and continued on to reach a road on the edge of Gadesbridge (part of Hemel Hempstead).
The path to Boxted Farm
The path to Boxted Farm
The path to Boxted Farm
The path passing Boxted Farm (it has been officially diverted slightly in recent years)
The path after I crossed the drive at Boxted Farm
The path after I crossed the drive at Boxted Farm
View left from the path after I crossed the drive at Boxted Farm
The path after I crossed the drive at Boxted Farm
A short distance to the left, a path went half-left, running between fields on my left and garden boundaries on my right. Further on I passed a bit of woodland on my right, and soon the path was running between fences and starting to head downhill, back into another part of the Gade Valley around Picotts End. At the foot of the slope I went through two gates in quick succession near a farm or stables. I turned right after the second gate, soon reaching a field (three Herons flew off here) were I continued along the right edge. In the next field the path turned left to cross a corner and reach a road (the same one I crossed at Water End).
The start of the path along the edge of Gadesbridge
The path along the edge of Gadesbridge
The path along the edge of Gadesbridge
The path continuing towards Picotts End
The path continuing towards Picotts End
Looking left from the path to Picotts End
The path continuing towards Picotts End
The path continuing towards Picotts End (I turned right after the second gate, at the end of the grassy track)
The path to Picotts End after I turned right
The path to Picotts End after I turned right
The path to Picotts End after I turned right, approaching the road