Cassiobury Park Walk – 24.07.2011

A Sunday morning stroll in the park.  Although, I have walked this park many times before,   I can safely say that this park is ever changing.   The park regularly changes by season and obviously by those who maintain it.    Therefore as we walked across this park it was nice to see it looking so green and alive in the summer sun.

From 2011 – 24.07.2011 – Cassiobury Park Walk

Our walk took straight across the park and to the River Gade.  The river looked very pleasant, and sparkled in the sun. The river Gade is very shallow and just seems to flow with great ease. Because of it’s lack of depth throughout it’s entire length the river is unnavigable. I am sure that the wildlife did not mind the depth! Despite that, this river has still been harnessed to at certain points in its history. The Gade powered the water mills at Water End, Cassiobury Park and Two Waters as well as powering the John Dickinson paper mills at Apsley (which I mentioned before) and Croxley.  Our walk crossed the Gade into an area we had not ventured into before.

It was not muddy, which was good, but we still had to be careful as we were walking in a managed area. The path we tackled had long grasses, tall wildflowers and lovely cool in the summer sun. The path ran parallel to the river. It truly felt like a wild adventure!  The path eventually lead us out into an open space which look liked it had not long been cut back. It was probably part of the wetland managing process. There was a small pool in the middle of the area, with a sign to watch for newts! Sadly we were unable to see any in the pond. But then again with any pond, we wouldn’t always expect clear waters – it was probably teeming with wildlife.

As we continued we came across a woodland area and treated to the unusual sound of the woodpecker! Unfortunately we could not see the elusive bird. It is so nice to know that Cassiobury park is so full of wildlife. The route continued past the river, which had stepping stones down into the river. Was this evidence of past workings along the river as mentioned before or for wildlife to crawl out of the river? We passed over a new wooden bridge was had been put in by the Cassiobury park rangers, it seemed to have been built more to protect the marshlands, as it did not seem to take us across the river.

It was not long before we were taken back around to the Grand Union Canal. Which looks so different from the Montgomery Canal which we had walked. A barge was just casually moored along the canal taking a leisurely break. We carried on down the path to Ironbridge Lock and to the wooden bridge which has lovely wooden carvings, and walk back across the open space of the park as we were both ready for some Sunday Lunch.

A nice short walk – but this was nice to get back the swing of things again! All the morning’s walk are available to look at –

2011 – 24.07.2011 – Cassiobury Park Walk

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