Herts Embraced 2.2: Aldbury, Ashridge, Gaddesden

1:15 – The Bridgewater Arms, Little Gaddesden. Trompé jusqu’aux os.

From Tring Station (which is a hamlet in itself, not in Tring) a little loop through the fields and down to Aldbury, a pretty village.

For much of this stretch I was shadowing the Chiltern Way.

Out of Aldbury it climbs steeply up the scarp of the Chilterns through the National Trust’s Ashridge Estate to the Bridgewater Monument.  The rain by this time was very heavy, but the National Trust café by the monument had some shelter as I tucked into a scone (although I was shocked that they had jam on top of the cream, and jam in the proper position beneath it, which is I suppose a compromise between the two opinions on the matter, ie the correct one and the wrong one.

They take law and order seriously in Aldbury

The path then follows the long vista shadowing the county boundary from the Monument almost to the bounds of Ashridge College. The county border, incidentally, runs through the college’s dining room.  (Ashridge used to be a training school for Conservative leaders, but no longer.  Presumably someone ruled that educational charities may not be political, or something.  That would be a surprise to most other colleges these days.)

At this point the county borders are complicated by geography.  Herts and Bucks here are like two vast fish hooks curled around each other, so following the boundary is not practical.  Instead the route takes a quick cut through of less than a mile on Buckinghamshire territory and emerges at Little Gaddesden, a long strangled, pretty village in Hertfordshire.  The Bridgewater Arms is to be recommended, by the way.

Next I am looking west, along the county’s border with Bedfordshire.  The rain  has stopped for a bit.

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