Welwyn Garden City and the Ayots
This was a lovely walk, flattish and NO styles, ideal for age challenged limbs but our group was augmented by two of the younger generation as Andy's grandsons joined us so it was with a sprightly step that 17 of us left Welwyn Garden City and set off into the previously unknown woods and fields of Hertfordshire
Lots of treats were in store for us from wood carvings, picturesque cottages . Shaw's house, ruined churches (whose walls had been further ruined by the Romantics and rplced by a Greek revivalist church) Blue Faced Swaledale sheep ( you must be polite to them as they are not used to rough Southern ways but replced Suffolk sheep who could not survive in Hertford and were being kept in a field used for police dog training- NO I have not made that up) Brockett Hall and a lovely lunch in a pub who coped well considering it was Mothering Sunday. Yes a highly amusing day
9.06 Kings Cross arrives Welwyn Garden City 9.32
Return: hourly trains, WGC 15.52, 16.52 to Kings Cross
Welwyn Garden City , Brocket Park, Lea Valley, Shaw’s Corner Ayot Greenway
Brocket Arms, Ayot St Lawrence
Bar snacks or main meal, dogs and muddy boots not a problem!
From the station we go through Welwyn Garden City, the second Garden City built at the beginning of the 20th century. The route is undemanding, starts with a ramble through Brocket Park ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocket_Hall) with fine views and attractive woodland. Then a stretch along the river Lea and through two of the Ayots, a group of three villages between Wheathampstead and Welwyn. We pass George Bernard Shaw’s house in Ayot St Lawrence before lunch and return through farm land and woods to Welwyn.