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. 

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.