Pete's Walks - Gaddesden Row and Piccotts End (page 6 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.
After almost a mile the track passed Puddephats Farm on my right and came to a junction with Puddephat's Lane. Here I took a footpath on the left, which crossed a field and then a large paddock (going right of a line of telephone poles), before following a short track that led past Upper Wood Farm on my right. On reaching the far side of the farmyard, I turned right (so I walked past two sides of the farm and its yard, not through the farmyard), following a bridleway that was soon running between Teakettle Wood on my left and the wooden fences of some paddocks on my right. On reaching a minor road I turned right, but after short distance turned left. The OS Map shows a footpath running to the left of a hedge, but there is a permissive bridleway to the right of the hedge - I stuck to the footpath as usual, but the strip of grass I used to walk on here was covered by brambles so I was walking along the field edge, I would have been better off using the bridleway.
The 'other route with public access' passing Puddephats Farm
The path from Puddephat's Lane to Upper Wood Farm
The path from Puddephat's Lane to Upper Wood Farm
The bridleway after I turned right at Upper Wood Farm
The bridleway after I turned right at Upper Wood Farm
The path after I turned left from the road
The path after I turned left from the road
At the end of a field I came to a path junction where I turned right (or half-right) along a hedge-lined byway (this is just shown as a track on the OS Map, but there are signs at each end saying it is a byway). This soon passed Newland's Wood on my right, then ran between ploughed fields (I spotted about 25 Fallow Deer in the field to my right), before dropping slightly downhill through Babies Wood to reach another minor road. I crossed over and took a track called Dean Lane going half-left. After a third of a mile or so, a footpath went left, crossing a large arable field to reach a small play ground and then the road at Jockey End where I had started from.
The byway after I turned right
Further along the byway
Impressive Beech tree along the byway
Further along the byway
Further along the byway
Further along the byway, now in Babies Wood
Dean Lane
Dean Lane
The path to Jockey End, after I turned right from Dean Lane
This was another good walk, through very pleasant countryside. In particular, the Gade Valley around Water End is very charming. It was a shame that for most of the walk the conditions were rather grey, so the views weren't at their best. It was also a shame that from Boxted Farm onwards, once the day had warmed up and the frost had gone, the paths were pretty muddy. Pulling my legs out of the mud at almost every step was very tiring, so the walk took more out of me than it would have done if the paths were dry. But I shouldn't complain, that's normal for this time of year - I should be grateful for the number of dry days there have been so far this late Autumn and Winter, meaning I've been able to walk twice almost every week.