Today we walked from Newmarket to Chippenham to visit Chippenham Park Gardens.
The gardens were lovely to visit when we had been here before, and today was no exception. Our walk was about 7 miles to get there and we saw quite a few racehorses on our way.
This was the invitation from Joyce.
"Wednesday May 29th our start point is Newmarket Train Station at 10.19am . I have a 6 mile route over to the village of Chippenham that has the most loveliest gardens open. The entry is £7 cash only and worth every penny. I hope to arrive there at 12.30pm (free time) and leave approx. 1.45pm to return the same way (total mileage 12+ miles plus garden viewing ) for the 16.08 pm train back. Or meet us at Chippenham park to view the gardens. RHS members are free. Refreshments available but cash only. Please bring snacks as per usual. Nick will be offering transport back to the train station for those that wish to just walk one way or stay longer at the gardens."
This was our route today.
Here are a few of my photos.
Seven of use got off the train together at Newmarket...
...where we met 3 more. We set off through the town.
Where else would you have to give way to a horse before crossing a road?
Joyce was planning on us cutting across the gallops just up from here, but there were a lot of horses about.
So we returned to walk up the road from here instead.
Dawn loves aliums, and there were several on display on the other side of the road.
Crossing the Limekilns Gallops.
Here we met the trainer
John Gosden, who told us some horses would be coming shortly and asked us not to stand on the far side of the track as we might spook the horses and cause an accident. Instead we stood with him a little way back from the track under some trees to watch the horses go by.
After crossing the railway line and A14 it was onwards towards Snailwell, with training racing track to our left.
The Snailwell village sign has lost its well!
We were a bit early to visit the George and Dragon, but it was the gardens we were visiting rather than the pub.
Across some fields to Chippenham. I loved the line of trees running parallel to our path.
Our drinks stop was just outside Chippenham village. That is the boundary wall of the park behind us.
The houses in the village have lovely gardens.
At the park, we stopped at the café for refreshments before visiting the gardens.
While some left to walk back to the station at 1:45, we stayed an extra 3/4 hour to enjoy the gardens and got a lift back to the station from Nick to get an earlier train than the walkers. Here are some pictures of the gardens.
The long border was full of interest.
This is a
Drimia. Did you remember that, Pam and Dawn?
I 'll let the remaining pictures speak for themselves.
Thank-you Joyce for leading us there, Nick for the lift back to the station, and to the others for the company.
You can find more details of our 7 mile route here on MapMyWalk (or download GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.
Other related walks on my blog include:
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