Pete's Walks - Gaddesden Row and Piccotts End (page 1 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.
Google map of the walkDownload GPX file of the walk
I did this circular walk of about 12.6 miles on Saturday, 27th January, 2024. It was a repeat of a walk I did in January 2019.
I parked on the eastern edge of Jockey End (the main part of Gaddesden Row), by the entrance to a small playground (grid reference TL 042137) where there are footpath signs either side of the road. I started walking about 9:10am, heading down the road away from Jockey End, then turned right along a path that ran alongside the Gaddesden Row allotments. When this path entered a field, I turned left and soon reached a field corner where I went straight on, the path now continuing between wooden paddock fences for several hundred yards until it reached Ledgemore Lane. A yard or two to the right, the path continued on the other side of the lane, following a headland between fields. Soon I could see a white water tower over to my left. The path continued along the right edge of a paddock, then turned half-left to cross another paddock to a gate. It then continued a few yards beside trees and then a pond on my left, to reach the drive of a property named The Lane House (according to the OS Map), to my right.
The path through the Gaddesden Row allotments
The path after I turned left
The same path continuing through the paddocks
The path continuing through the paddocks
The path continuing after I crossed Ledgemore Lane
Water tower, Gaddesden Row
The path continuing towards The Lane House
The path continuing towards The Lane House
I went a few yards left along the drive to a gate, where a path went right, following a hedgerow. In the next field corner, the path went a few yards between bushes, then continued half-right across the grounds of a large house called Golden Parsonage. Through a gate in a wire fence it continued in the same direction to meet a drive as it passed through a crossing hedgerow. I continued along the drive (so I turned half-right), following it for several hundred yards beside a large field on my left. I could hear guns being fired off to my left, a pheasant shoot was obviously in progress (I'd hear the shooting again at the end of the walk). When the path turned left and immediately right, the footpath just went straight on into Marsh Wood (so the drive was just a short way to my left). Almost immediately I spotted a Muntjac cross the path in front of me (so I've now seen Fallow deer, Roe Deer and Muntjac already in 2024).As I carried on through the wood, I glimpsed the buildings of Home Farm, also a little to my left.
The path near Golden Parsonage
The path near Golden Parsonage
The path following the drive to Home Farm
The path following the drive to Home Farm
The path continuing through Marsh Wood
The path continuing through Marsh Wood