2:45 pm: The Three Crowns, Bushey Heath. Raining. Cold, wet.
What soaring dramas were created in Elstree! Here Mark Anthony wooed Cleopatra (Richard Burton in one production, Sid James in another and you can guess which was the commercial success). Those studios are gone now and built over. Infamy!
The whole of the Old Village appears closed too. Straight on then; north a way then a path across to Aldenham Country Park (while that lasts). The path lies across the embankment marking the north of the Aldenham Reservoir (which I think in the context of all this manwrought landscape we can honour with the name of ‘lake’). There for lunch and .. they had closed the café! Thank goodness for the kiosk and its sole remaining hot sausage roll. Nowhere to dry out though or warm up, so it was straight on to Bushey Heath.
It is very wet. The rain started as I came to Totteridge and has been getting heavier, and I just have to carry on.
It is too much road walking here and Tina is a harsh mistress (“This Is No Alternative”). Eventually though I came to the main road through Bushey and Bushey Heath, and blessed be The Three Crowns for a toasted cheese and ham sandwich with chips.
(On Day 1 I stopped at the highest point in Hertfordshire, at the edge of Pavis Wood. Just along the road from here, at the border of Middlesex, is the highest point in that county. The border is marked by a small stream, which means that the stream is at the top of a hill. Odd.)
In a moment I must part from the warm pub and head out into the rain again – Carpenders Park, South Oxhey and the Boundary Path call me.
See: Hertfordshire Border Walk
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