Today was Day 2 of Joyce's Mini Walking Festival, and the walk was from Hadstock in Essex, on the county boundary with Cambridgeshire. This is a walk that Joyce led with the group for the last walk before lockdown in March last year. I missed it as I was collecting Sarah from York, so I was pleased to be able to do it today. Dawn came too. This was the description...
"Thank you for 'signing up' to our Hadstock Walk in Cambs. It's a 8 mile circular walk and it's rather lovely. It will look beautiful in the promised sunshine! We have 2 groups walking and both will leave from the Church Car park at 10.30am (Church Path, Hadstock, Cambridge CB21 4NX). My group will walk the route anti clockwise and the second group will walk clockwise. Sadly there is no pub en route so please bring enough drink and food with you. "
But then there was an update...
"We walked the route last night at sunset and it was absolutely spectacular. We encountered Ostrich, Llamas, 30+ deer, geese, hens and a MASSIVE Bull. The bluebell wood will be a wonderful sight too. There is sometimes a bull in a field we cross and last night it was accompanied by lots of females. It was a very long way from us but I have changed my mind about walking separately to the other group so we will be following a few paces behind and crossing the field all together or if the cattle are close to the path we will change the route. If this makes you feel uncomfortable in any way then feel free to get in touch.
We also noticed that the ground is very hard and dry underfoot so we will take it easy. The railway line we use is out of bounds which results in more road walking at the beginning but please don’t be put off. This pub is open from 12pm if you wish to have a drink afterwards. It looked lovely. Luxury pub with rooms, The Three Hills, Bartlow."
Well. Would the bull be a problem? We shall see... As planned, there were two groups, one of 5 led by Joyce and one of 6 following on behind at a distance. This was our route, going clockwise from the start at the church in Hadstock.
Here are a few of my photos. I had failed to put my SD card back in my camera from downloading the pictures of our Brandeston walk yesterday, so it would only hold a few on the internal memory. I supplemented it with photos on my mobile phone, so I still took plenty.
Off we go in the first group.
We didn't pause to investigate the 1000 year old St. Botolph's church, founded in 1020.
We were soon out in the countryside with sweeping views. Here we can see the village of Linton and its water tower.
"Take a photo looking in this direction", said Joyce. "You will recognise it later". Indeed, if you look carefully, you can see people walking on the path on the far side of the wood that we would take at the end of our walk.
We saw a hare haring across this field.
This road was lined with an avenue of trees. We decided they were probably Lime trees (aka Lindens).
We soon reached the village of Bartlow. This is the pub Joyce referred to in her invite.
The old post office had a Georgian postbox.
Bartlow St. Mary is one of only two existing round-tower churches in Cambridgeshire, the other one being located in Snailwell. The tower is all that remains of what is believed to be the original church and dates from the late-11th or early-12th century. The nave and chancel were built in the 14th century
As we crossed the River Granta, we saw some ducklings.
Here is Steve at the top of the highest of Bartlow's Three Hills, burial mounds dating from Roman times.
We headed towards Ashdon Mill, and our lunch stop. As we climbed the hill we had a good view back of Ashdon Place and the rest of Steventon End.
Lunch!
Now it was onward to the village of Ashdon, not forgetting to look back at the mill before we descended.
A very picturesque village.
Beware of the bull? No. Not this one.
Now we headed for Ricketts farm. We could see cows in the filed. Would the bull still be there?
Yes it was, but right at the top of the field, and he was far to preoccupied with his lady friends to pay any attention to us.
As promised, we were rewarded with a lovely display of bluebells.
At Little Bowsers we encountered a menagerie. Are these rheas?
The geese were a bit aggressive, but the llamas seemed relatively indifferent to our passing.
Now it was back downhill towards Hadstock with more sweeping views. But where were the deer?
There they are, on the skyline. But my camera memory was full so, alas, I couldn't zoom in.
And here we are back at the church car park.
"Does this make it in to your list of top 10 walks?", asked Joyce. Yes. I think it does. Packed with interest - spectacular views, pretty villages and all sorts of wildlife! Dawn loved it too. So thanks Joyce for leading us round and the others for the company. What a lovely day out!
You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.
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