Shaw's Cornered - LINEAR
Sat 10th Dec 2016
Walk Details:
Event Details Updated
Updated 5/10 with new leader
Updated 3/12 with fuller walk details including note about needing torches
Event Type
Group Walk
Region
Southern England
Local Group
London
Distance
19.5ml.
Start Time
09.05
Route
Meet Harpenden station (0705 Brighton, 0756 East Croydon, 0822 Blackfriars, 08.33 St Pancras); finish St Albans City station before 1800; buy return to Harpenden
Linear walk – leave from Harpenden Station, Platform 4 toilets & exit, with morning coffee and toilets at The Brocket Arms, passing George Bernard Shaw's home at Ayot St Lawrence (why does this tiny parish have two CofE churches?)
General Notes
Lunch in Wheathampstead at The Swan or choice of cafes or eat own sandwiches in the churchyard. Interesting church and local history in Wheathampstead. Hourly bus service from Wheathampstead to St Albans. Afternoon via Devils Dyke, Coleman Green, Sandridge, & Smallford Station.
Low, rolling open countryside with some fine views; no steep hills, and little mud or water when recce’d in frosty weather in 5’20” on Tuesday 29 November.
Route uses old railway line which ran from Luton to Hertford, and Herts Way in the morning, and returns along the former railway line between Hatfield and St Albans.
Note this last section has a good surface but is shared with cyclists and unlit – please bring torches.
Registered assistance dogs only
Web Site
Start
Finish
Entry Details:
Cost
Walk Report
Shaw's Cornered: Harpenden to St Albans, Saturday 10th December 201621 walkers, 19 miles - leader Roderick Smith
A group of 21 enjoyed a day out from Harpenden Station starting at 0915. A grey overcast morning preceded light drizzle at lunch and light rain in the afternoon. We followed a route devised by Peter Aylmer initially along a former railway line from Luton to Hatfield, thence via the Mid-Herts Golf course, Lamer Park, and the two St Lawrence churches to arrive at The Brocket Arms in Ayot St Lawrence for a mid-morning coffee and tea break.
Duly refreshed we passed Shaw's home, now a National Trust house, and continued past Stockings Springs Wood to walk beside the River Lea into Wheathampstead for lunch at The Swan. The pub provided reasonably quick service for a large group and we were on our way again after an hour. There was little time to explore the church which has substantial memorials to the Garrard family of Lamer Park, and a diminutive figure of the Antarctic explorer, Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
Via the Devil's Dyke and Coleman Green to Sandridge for mince pies before a gentle climb and a descent to cross the old airstrip of Ellenbrook Fields and join the old Hatfield to St Albans railway line at Smallford. A brisk pace saw us finish at St Albans Station at 1645 just in time for a fast train back to London.
7:30 total time, including 1:20 for coffee and lunch, net c.6:10 moving for c.19 miles walked.
Photographs by Roderick Smith
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2016.
© OpenStreetMap contributors under Open Database Licence.
Rights of way data from selected Local Authorities.
Large scale digital mapping is provided by John Thorn.
© OpenStreetMap contributors under Open Database Licence.
Rights of way data from selected Local Authorities.
Large scale digital mapping is provided by John Thorn.
