Thursday 26th March Ridgemont walk led by Debbie & Nick

 What a beautiful day, we felt very fortunate after yesterday’s weather. Nick & I were joined by 10 fellow walkers to commence that consisted consisted of Woburn park, a  field, small amount of road walking & woodland eventually passing Segenhoe church ruins. We had our coffee break slightly late as it was very difficult to find seating for us all!  But eventually we came across plenty of logs. 

Neal, Cathy, Tony P, John W, Sheila, Mike, David, Lynn, Debbie, Jean & Tony R on the logs.

Thank you to all that joined us.

 

Thursday 19th March Bedford Priory Park walk led by Sue

 7 members joined Sue at Harlington train station on a beautiful sunny day.
We caught the 10:20am train to Bedford. Beryl, Joy and John joined us at Flitwick station.
Lots of chatter on the train and lovely to see everyone. We walked through the busy shopping area towards the embankment, stopping for a coffee break by the flower bed, lots of colour and variety.  It was very tempting to stay longer in the sunshine. 

Hilary, Beryl, John, Janet, Debbie, Joy, John & Diane enjoying the sunshine

 We walked along old railway track and the River Great Ouse towards Priory Park, 2.8 miles, where we met Penny.  There were choices on today's walk which I'm pleased to say worked well. 

After sitting in the sunshine having our lunch 8 members walked around the lake. 1.5miles.

 

Hilary and Tony P decided to stay at the cafe and have lunch. Hilary joined us as we were nearing half way.   Tony P, Joy and John had returned home.

We then said our goodbyes to Penny and walked back along the old railway track to Bedford railway station crossing the Riverside Bedford Bridge.

John, Janet, Diane, Debbie, Tony R, Beryl & Hilary at the bridge

 

Thursday 12th March MK Historic walk led by Tony R

This walk was designed to include 3 periods of history ; Roman, Medieval & Modern.
12 walkers started their walk from Lodge Lake car park in Milton Keynes.  We had a leisurely, but windy, walk past the outlet from Lodge Lake & then along Loughton Brook under the noisy A5 before entering the grounds of Bradwell Abbey. 

The Abbey poster & Cathy & Hilary with a monk

Here we were joined by 4 other members who can only manage short walks. I had arranged that the medieval Abbey Chapel be opened for us. We had a guide who described the wall paintings inside the Chapel & also its history from a place of pilgrimage to a farm shed. Members kindly made donations to the charity responsible for its upkeep. 

As John & Jane were feeling cold they left us here, but the rest of us continued our walk under the railway to the Concrete Cows, a symbol of modern Milton Keynes. Here we had some photos with some members riding the cows!

Tony R & Beryl riding the cows

Tony R, Penny, Sandra, Joan, Viv H, Viv D, Tony P, Beryl, back of Cathy, Lynn & Hilary.

We continued along the path to arrive at Bancroft Roman Villa where we stopped for our picnic on some of the benches.

The interpretation boards at the Roman Villa

Afterwards the 4 short walk members took a short cut across a wooden boardwalk/bridge to the east side of Loughton Brook. The rest of us continued along the path, past the Petanque court to a more normal bridge, further north, over the brook. This was our furthest point from our start & here we turned south following the brook to meet the other walkers. As the temperature was dropping & the wind increasing a few walked more quickly with the aim of getting to their cars. We passed the cows on the other side of the brook & soon afterwards the short walkers left us to return to their cars in Bradwell Abbey. The rest continued on going under the railway on a wooden bridge above the river, a very interesting structure.
We emerged onto the our original path where we had entered the Bradwell Abbey grounds. Here we turned left to retrace our steps back to our cars. Part way we encountered a large branch blocking the path which had recently blown off a nearby willow tree. We cleared this off the path before continuing. Soon afterwards we arrived back at our cars after out interesting, but cold & windy walk.

Thursday 5th March Woburn / Eversholt walk 6 miles led by Beryl

This walk was down as a joint walk between Anna & Beryl. However Anna had a problem with her new hip joint & was unable to walk. Therefore Tony R assisted Beryl.

We started for the main car park in Woburn opposite the church & walked to the village centre & then along George St.  

After passing a glorious view of the house we turned left onto the narrow footpath into the park.  At the end of this path we continued uphill past the abbey & all the works being carried out there.  

 

 We followed the track passing Linden Lake to leave the park & join the Eversholt - Milton Bryan road. We followed this into Eversholt passing the school & entered the church grounds. We entered the church through the south door to find several people enjoying refreshments. We took our places in several pews & were served coffee & cakes. Anna, Wendy & Penny joined us in the church. 

 

 After leaving a donation we left the church, crossing the cricket pitch to ascend Hills End where we stopped at the summit for a short breather. We continued into Froxfield  before entering the park through the gates.  

 We followed the path through the park, past Stump Cross, to eventually join Park St & hence the car park.