St Albans to Welham Green

Our December walk was short and deposited us in St Albans with plenty of time for some sightseeing, but there is so much to see and do here that we felt a late start in January was warranted.  So it was that we gathered on the south side of the cathedral to start the trail at the unusually late hour of 1215, some of us having used the time to explore various aspects of the small city.  We had a cool and wet start to the day, rain and mizzle intermixing to create an atmosphere described by Sophie as being like "a rubbish steam room".  The rain was forecast to let up in mid-morning, but as we set off it felt like it was just getting started.

Trudging through the low-lying, wet parks which run along the south bank of the River Ver, the first snowdrops and even some very early, very small primroses were starting to come out, and we took a soggy start-of-walk photo between two clumps of glorious white.  The first landmark was the remains of Lee House on the site of Sopwell House, the latter having been a convent which was dissolved by Henry VIII and given to one of his courtiers, Sir Edward Lee.  From here, we carried on along the river and past acres of allotments before reaching a viaduct over the river.  We climbed some steps up to the viaduct and found ourselves on the Alban Way, which follows the alignment of a disused railway line between St Albans and Hatfield.  

This line was built by the Hatfield and St Albans Railway Company, supported by the Great Northern Railway (GNR), to connect St Albans to the existing GNR line going through Hatfield.  The GNR wanted a slice of the St Albans action and wasn't happy that the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) had gotten there first, to a city that the GNR considered should be firmly a part of its territory.  The company built its own terminus station, St Albans London Road, for the new line.  Despite this spirit of competition, the line was built to run all the way to the LNWR St Albans Abbey station, and most trains terminated there, with only Sunday services terminating at London Road.  When the Midland Railway built a mainline through St Albans in 1868, the game was up.  The line was sold to the GNR and staggered on for almost another century, though passenger services were withdrawn at the onset of war in 1939 and only restored piecemeal after that.  The track was lifted in 1969 and saved for us all by the local councils turning it in to a walking and cycle path.

We joined the Alban Way on the spur linking Abbey and London Road stations.  I took a quick photo looking back across allotment gardens to St Albans Cathedral, looming in the mizzle, and then we were off along a high embankment looking down on artisan cottages and watercress beds.  We soon came to London Road station, still clearly identifiable as a former railway station and clearly kept in good nick by the present custodians.  I queried Des's claim that this is the oldest GNR station, given that the GNR pre-dated this station (and that it wasn't, originally, strictly built by the GNR), but a quick re-check of the claim by Robbie revealed that he says it is the oldest still extant station, which seems more plausible.

The next four or five km were along the track bed.  It was a pleasant enough trudge without much to see, though some of the intermediate stations and halts have been kept with their platforms in situ.

After leaving the Alban Way, we went through the small village of Sleapshyde before coming to the perilous crossing of the A414.  This is a vestige of the London Ringways scheme (this book on the subject is excellent) but is no less lethal for being vestigial.  To cross the road between two footpaths, pedestrians are obliged to bolt across two lanes of traffic to a break in the central reservation crash barrier, gather one's breath and faculties, and then run across the remaining two lanes - it felt more like walking in North America than the UK.  The reward was a 1km stretch of scrubby farmland, punctuated by a lone wind turbine.  To break up the gloom, we made a bee-line for the Crooked Billet pub in Colney Heath, where my first pint of London Pride in several years slipped down very nicely indeed.

A grim stretch of walking along footpath-less Tollgate Road later found us in the parkland of North Mymms and, soon, to the parish church.  This little beauty was still open at 1620 when it should have closed at 1600, was incredibly warm inside, and had a range of interesting plaques, monuments and statues.  The parishoner tasked with locking up arrived while we were there and made us feel very welcome, pointing out that there were toilets inside which we had missed and of which we availed ourselves.  

After crossing the A1(M), we were supposed to follow the valley of the upper reaches of the Colne up to Welham Green, but the valley and approaches to it were completely flooded.  Instead, as night fell, we walked over fields to rejoin Tollgate Road, now with pedestrian footpath, and follow it in to Welham Green.  A quick pint at the Sibthorpe Arms, where we were the only people not watching Arsenal lose to Manchester United at home, and then it was off to get a rail replacement bus service down to Cockfosters for the return home.

While the route of the Countryway goes through Welham Green, Keith's original route required a detour at the end of this stage and the start of the next to the railway station at Brookmans Park.  In the intervening years, a station has been built on the line at Welham Green, meaning the detour is no longer necessary.