Chesham to Kings Langley
The previous section of the Countryway had ended at Ashley Green, and required a walk from there down into Berkhamstead in order to get the train home. To avoid retracing our steps back to Ashley Green, we decided to start at Chesham and rejoin the Countryway a few kilometres from where we’d left it.
I’d never been to Chesham before and was surprised to find that we had to climb steeply from the railway station up to some bona fide farmland, always so odd to see when you’ve just jumped off an Underground train.
From Dungrove Farm we walked across to Tylers Hill and then Ley Hill, stopping in wooded Leyhill Common for lunch. Just on from here we rejoined the Countryway when we turned west on to a wooded byway named Pocketsdell Lane. We arrived shortly thereafter at Bovingdon Green, a quintessentially English village green with a beacon and surrounded by big houses and a pub.
After a short walk through pretty Woodmans Wood, we came out into fields and could see the land drop away ahead of us, with thickly forested Chipperfield Common rising from the other side of the valley. Walking up on to the Common was almost magical, with car noise dying away and being replaced by bird song and the sound of leaves and branches. Des tells us that the Common was once the land of a Dominican friary at Kings Langley, which explains the “Apostles Pond” within, surrounded by 12 lime trees and formerly the friars’ fishpond. We were rather more taken by the wonderful, wizened old chestnut tree, of which there is a photograph in Keith’s 2nd edition and which we found in much the same state as he had, albeit the forest has encroached more on the great survivor than it had in Chesterton’s time.
After leaving the Common and its woods, we walked across more farmland. Approaching Berrybush Farm, we entered a field full of young bullocks, who took an instant dislike to our presence. We tried mind our own business and stick to the path, which was the most direct route through the field, but one lad took it upon himself to run ahead, block the path and start breathing through his nose heavily as though we were in a corrida. We beat a retreat and walked around the other three sides of the field to bypass the herd.
Crossing the A41 at dusk, we could now see Kings Langley ahead of us. We made a bee-line for the Old Palace pub, but before we went in to slake our thirst, there indeed was the old royal palace, or at least some remnants of brickwork. The walls now stand in the garden of No 80, Langley Hill, and we posed for photos by the wall. As we crossed the road to the pub the owner came outside and looked a little bemused, but surely this can’t be the first time people have taken an interest in the ancient royal palace on his front drive? The pub was cosy, with great outdoor space, and we stayed a little too long, meaning we had to run the last 150m to the railway station, along muddy footpaths in the dark, for our train back to town.
Robbie with chestnut tree, and Keith’s photograph of same.