Pete's Walks - The Hertfordshire Way
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.
Day 12 8/11/05 Kings Langley station to Aldenham (7.3 miles each way)
Parked in Kings Langley station car park.
This turned out to be a much nicer walk than I’d expected. It only passed through one small built-up area (where I crossed the A405 in Bricket Wood), and the only negative thing about it was the roar of traffic noise on sections near the M1, M25 and other major roads – but this was nowhere too intrusive. I’d be quite happy to do the walk again.
From Kings Langley the Hertfordshire Way took a permissive path to Numbers farm – the path wasn’t signposted, but then again there were no signs saying that permission to walk the path had been withdrawn. From the farm (large barn conversion), a bridleway led for about a mile in parallel with the M25, a few hundred yards to the right. The Hertfordshire Way then turned left of this track, along a hedged path and then across a recreation ground to a side street in Bedmond. This village’s claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman ever to be elected Pope (he became Adrian IV in 1154).
[1] The Hertfordshire Way in Bricket Wood Common
I left Bedmond along an unsurfaced residential road, turning onto a footpath after about a quarter of a mile. This led through a small wood, and then across a large grass field towards a farm. The next paddock contained four horses. Across a stile, I followed a hedge before the path turned right on a farm track, which crossed a bridge over the M25. I continued on the track for about a third of a mile, to reach a lane. I followed this left for about quarter of a mile, before a narrow path beside a white cottage led to a paddock with two horses – I had to make a fuss of one of them as it was standing right by the gate I needed to open. Beyond this, I reached a large school playing field which I crossed diagonally (on the way back, I took the alternative permissive path which went round two sides of the playing field instead of walking across the soccer and rugby pitches). The path continued along a track beside a crematorium to a road. Here the Hertfordshire Way turned left, and crossed the A405 dual carriageway by means of a subway. A road led on past the Building Research Establishment, and then a footpath entered the wooded Bricket Wood common [1]. This was a very pleasant part of the walk, though the path was a bit muddy in places – old railway sleepers had been laid down in the worst places. After a while, I crossed a road and went down the drive of Munden House. After a few hundred yards, a path went off to the right across a large area of parkland with grazing sheep. I had to don my waterproof jacket here, as there was a brief shower. Beyond the parkland, a footbridge crossed the river Colne [2] (a short way from its confluence with the Ver, which I followed north of St Albans a few walks ago).
[2] The river Colne near Munden House
The Hertfordshire Way then crossed an arable field on a clear track and then crossed a dry gulch or gulley on another footbridge. A short track beside a golf course led to the grounds of Wall Hall College, where a lot of construction work was under way. Wall Hall has been a teacher training college, and was part of the University of Hertfordshire (I was a student there about 30 years ago when it was known as Hatfield Poly, but don’t ever remember visiting the Wall Hall site). Beyond the construction site, a path crossed a field (some type of root crop) and followed the hedge on the opposite side into the attractive village of Aldenham. The church [3] was quite impressive, with a ‘Hertfordshire spike’ similar to the one at Flamstead – some of the church is built from Hertfordshire pudding stone, a conglomerate stone unique to the county.
[3] Aldenham church
The walk back from Aldenham was equally pleasant. The weather, which had been mainly overcast, brightened up a bit, although there was suddenly a very strong wind just as I got back to Kings Langley (when I was very close to a wind turbine, it’s obviously been well sited!). The walk seemed to go by very quickly and easily today, although I walked the usual sort of distance
Total Distance: 94.1 miles each way