A walk in Old Warden
Went on a super walk today. Marie and I drove out to Old Warden village hall where we met up with other walkers. Due to my wonderful direction giving (that you may remember from the St Ives walk) we managed to get lost several times and eventually after driving over crossroads and through a ford managed to find Old Warden and the village hall car park. Luckily the patient walking group was waiting for us to join them and happily united we all embarked on a 8 mile circular walk that took us through bluebell woods, fields of horses and past beautiful C12th and C14th churches in Old Warden, Northill and Ickwell Green.
Right there in Old Warden is the Old Warden Estate. This land was owned by the Shuttleworth family. When her son Richard was killed flying in the 1940s Dorothy Shuttleworth set up a trust that focused on agricultural and aviation education. The estate houses the Shuttleworth College where you can learn land based skills, the Shuttleworth Collection where you can see early planes and flying paraphernalia and the English School of Falconry.
Alas we didn’t go into the grounds but we did have fun walking all the way around it.
8 miles seems further when you’re walking it then when you talk about it so we stopped for lunch at The Crown in Northill, a very pleasant pub next to the village pond and St Mary’s Church. Tired out and muddy I was home on the sofa with a nice cup of tea by 4.30. A very pleasant way to spend a Sunday.