Pete's Walks - Studham Common and Redbourn (part 3)
As I continued beside a trim hedge on my right, I saw a Buzzard ahead of me over Hay Wood. I turned left in the field corner, then went right, over a stile, following the edge of the wood with a small arable field on my right. In the field corner the path turned left, running through a small belt of trees, soon merging with a parallel bridleway and then joining a farm track between hedges.
The path beside Hay Wood
The farm track beyond Hay Wood
At the end of the track, I turned right along the lane between Gaddesden Row and Redbourn. I took great care as the narrow lane twisted round a couple of bends, then I turned left onto a narrower lane. A cyclist passed me here, as I followed the lane steadily uphill. It soon levelled out, and continued on past an isolated farmhouse. After about half a mile of lane walking, I took a path going right - this was an attractive field path, with a good view ahead over fields and a small wood. The path passed to the left of the wood, then veered half-left between large flat arable fields to eventually meet a path junction near Flamsteadbury Farm. A small flock of Yellowhammers flew past me here.
The end of the farm track, where it meets the lane from Gaddesden Row to Redbourn
Part of the half-mile lane walk
Near the start of the path to Flamsteadbury Farm
The path to Flamsteadbury Farm
View from the path junction by Falmsteadbury farm - the return route from Redbourn follows the edge of the wood and the hedgerow, going left to right
I could have shortened the walk here, by turning left and following the Hertfordshire Way towards Flamstead, but instead turned right, passing the farm complex and crossing a bridge over the M1. I soon turned left and followed a path to the edge of Redbourn, where I again turned left. I followed the path for some distance with the back fences of some of the houses of Redbourn on my right. I then crossed another bridge back over the motorway, and turned left on a fenced path beside some paddocks.
The path approaching the edge of Redbourn
The path along the garden fences of Redbourn, approaching the second bridge over the M1 motorway
The path through the paddocks, just across the M1
This last section was not particularly interesting (it probably seems odd just crossing the motorway only to come back across it a bit further on), but the point was it enabled me to reach the path beyond the paddocks, which was another highlight of the walk. This initially followed a hedgerow on my right, but soon the hedge was replaced by a wood - the path continued just inside the edge of the wood for several hundred yards, a pleasant change from the mainly field paths so far. Across the large field on my left was the farm track from Flamsteadbury towards Trowley Bottom and Flamstead, the route of the Hertfordshire Way and the way I go on my Kensworth-Redbourn walk.
The path through the wood, between Redbourn and Flamstead
View of the path continuing along a hedgerow, from the end of the wood
Beyond the wood, the path continued alongside a hedgerow on my right, which turned left then right in quick succession a couple of times, before eventually reaching a distant field corner. Here I went a few yards to the left on a track between mature hedgerows (it had obviously just been re-engineered with ditches either side, it was flooded and impassable the last time I was here), then took a path on the right. This crossed a small stubble field to a far hedgerow containing some mature trees, where I turned right.
The path continuing along the hedgerow
Path across a stubble field, shortly before reaching Flamstead and Trowley Bottom