Pete's Walks- Gaddesden Row and Briden's Camp (page 3 of 3)
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.
The bridleway then continued past a small wood on my left (named Garmer Spring on the OS map) and started to drop steadily downhill, now following a hedgerow on my left. Ahead there was a fine view over the Gade Valley and along a side valley around the village of Nettleden. At the field corner near the bottom of the slope there was a path crossroads, where I stopped and ate my lunch on a large log. I looked at my map to see if I could extend the walk from here, but couldn't see anything suitable so stuck to my original plan and turned right, alongside another hedgerow on my left. After a few hundred yards the path turned left through a small wood (the map says Hogstrough Dell, but I guess that is the name of the small valley rather than the wood). The path then turned right, and followed a farm track to reach the hamlet of Briden's Camp.
View towards Nettleden, from further along the bridleway
Near the start of the path from the bridleway, going to Briden's Camp
The path to Briden's Camp
The path to Briden's Camp
I turned right and followed the road through the hamlet, being very careful where it turned sharply left then right with no verges to walk on. A few yards further on I took a footpath going left, along a drive. When London Wood started on the right, I turned right and followed its edge for a quarter of a mile or so. Where a hedge came in from the right (not shown on the OS map, curiously), the path went a few yards left, then continued in the same north-easterly direction as before along a broad grass strip containing horse jumps, with tall hedges of mature trees on either side.
The road through Briden's Camp
The drive to Home Farm
The path beside London Wood
The same path, just beyond London Wood
After a few hundred yards, I turned left onto a crossing path, following a roughly surfaced track beside a hedgerow on my right. When this met another track, coming from a large house called Golden Parsonage over on my right, the footpath went half-right across the park around the big house, going through a gate in a fence at one point. It left the park at another gate, turning left and following a hedge on my left to reach the gate to a cottage called The Lane House.
The path after it turned left
The same path, now crossing the park land by Golden Parsonage
The path approaching The Lane House
I turned left through a side gate here, went a few yards down the drive and turned right, beside a pond. I soon came to another small gate, where I went half-left across an empty paddock. The path then went right, with a hedge on my left, through a similar paddock, then continued along a headland between two fields (there is a white water tower over on the right here). I then crossed Ledgemore Lane, and continued for some distance along a path between the wooden fences of several paddocks, close to Six Tunnels Farm over on my right. At the end of the paddocks, the path continued ahead along the edge of a meadow for a few yards. At a path crossroads I turned right and walked through the allotments at Gaddesden Row to reach the road through the hamlet, where I just had to turn left and go a few more yards to return to my parked car.
The path continuing from The Lane House
The path continuing from The Lane House
The path continuing from The Lane House (I forgot to take my usual shot of the white water tower over to the right)
The path having crossed Ledgemore Lane, continuing through paddocks near Six Tunnels Farm
The path continuing through paddocks near Six Tunnels Farm
The footpath through the allotments at Jockey End
This was a very pleasant if unspectacular walk, and I'm sure I'll do it again some time. It took me about three hours and ten minutes, and as it's so close to my home I can well imagine I'll use it in future when I have only half a day in which I can go walking. It was a generally sunny Spring day, the first time this year I've not worn my warm winter coat.
I noticed there were some interesting names along the route - amongst them were Babies Wood, Teakettle Wood, Puddephat's Farm (and Lane), Nirvana, Golden Parsonage and Six Tunnels Farm.