Thurday 23rd September Ridgmont Railway Walk led by Penny & Beryl

12 of us met at Ridgmont Station and enjoyed a selection of breakfast meals in the pretty café in the room which was once the Ladies Waiting Room.

 

Following breakfast, a volunteer talked to us with great enthusiasm about the history of the station and the Bedford/Bletchley line.  Beryl tackled the purchasing of tickets at the station’s ticket machine and succeeded in purchasing tickets at a reduced group rate.

Ridgmont Station

Jill, Kate, Kathy & Penny on the train

We then caught the 11.36 train to Woburn Sands where we alighted  after a 6 minute train ride passing through Aspley Guise.  We left Woburn Sands via some modern houses, across the fields to join the track beside the Woburn Sands & Aspley Guise golf course.

This led to Aspley Guise, where Penny told us a little bit of the history which included the part Aspley Guise played in World War II.  We walked passed houses ranging from pretty old cottages to more modern dwellings before we made our way across the fields to the outskirts of Husborne Crawley.

As we left Husborne Crawley, to our delight we came across a field of Alpacas – they didn’t spit at us!

Beryl looking at the alpacas

As we continued along the field paths, we had good views of the spire of Ridgmont Church, Woburn Abbey Park and the traffic on the M1!  After a couple more fields, we crossed the railway line, went under the M1 to reach the car park.  Some of us returned to the station café and enjoy a cuppa in the lovely summer sunshine to end a very successful train ride and walk.

Track of walk, walked left to right