Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk – 29.07.2012

We had planned our walk for the morning to follow the “Hertfordshire Way”, starting out from the small village of “Letchmore Heath”, with an aim to reach the River Colne. Unfortunately I am not quite sure if there was a “Heath” in Letchmore, but there certainly was a small Village Green. Letchmore does have a great pond to look at and in fact the Village name has been derived from the Old Saxon “Leche mere” which means “muddy pond” . Just past the pond, I noticed a large manor house hidden behind some high fences.

Their has been a manor house in this area since the C13th when the Abbot of Westminister gave the land to a Thomas Picot. The village of Letchmore Heath grew out of a need to house the Estate workers and the local cloth manufacturing industries. The present manor was actually built in 1884 by a Mr G W Williams, when he decided to rebuild the original “Piggotts manor” in a mock Tudor Style and re-landscape the the village green outside of his estate. Over later years the Manor was passed on to the Hare Krishna movement who still use it today.

On our way out of Letchmore Heath, to join the “Hertfordshire Way”, I was very touched to see a War Memorial which had been inscribed on someone’s House. From all the walks that I have been on I have not encountered such a personal tribute. We passed on by and walked on further down Grange Lane. It was here we discovered the “Hertfordshire Way” and started out across the fields. This particular field really did have a split personality. One side was full of corn the other side had been left fallow and was lovely and green. It was a reasonably sunny day, so we had the the best of both worlds, a lush green meadow view one side or the view of yellow corn blowing in the summer breeze

From 2012 – 29.07.2012 – Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk

The path to continued to take us through the rolling countryside, and it really did feel like the “Hertfordshire Way” was going to be an enjoyable walk through the Hertfordshire Landscape. The Way was not too difficult to negotiate either, as it had clearly been used by the farmer for his tractor or farming vehicles as it was more like a small lane through the field than a footpath!

Eventually the path left the fields to lead us out into the road, which was a little disappointing as I was really enjoying the views. Unfortunately, we were a little confused as to where to go at this point as the signs were really lacking. We therefore resorted to the Ordnance Survey Map which I had bought the previous week (for the London Loop) as it happens to cover this area! So we were able to successfully find the route into the next Field.

As we started to follow the path across the field, we came across two other paths the “Abbot Trail” and “Morgan Trail”. I am unsure as to whether the two routes are for walkers or horses as they are on a Public Bridleway. Unfortunately I am unable to locate any information about them. If anyone has any I would love to know. We started to cross the field, but it not particularly nice path as there did not seem to be any public footpath signs at all.

Using our instincts we crossed the field to the kissing gate, where I stopped to take a picture of the some lovely cows that I had spotted in the other field. I found that was thinking to myself “Isn’t that nice they are looking at us? Probably because they don’t get many walkers past here”. We carried on along the path I decided to take picture of the view when I noticed that the cows had suspiciously moved across the field nearer to us. I must admit I was a little unnerved but we carried on regardless. Suddenly there was a loud noise and as we looked around there was a bunch of cows that were staring at us through the fence! I am so glad they were not angry like the sheep I came across when I was walking Offa’s Dyke!

From 2012 – 29.07.2012 – Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk

The path ran out at this point, so we had to double-back on ourselves by taking the lane behind the field! In fact the lane took us back out at the very road we had started our walk approximately 10 minutes before! We were perplexed, where did the Hertfordshire Way go? We consulted the map and saw another public footpath and thought we would try that. Luckily for us we saw another walker with a dog so we decided to ask her, “where is the Hertfordshire Way?”. She informed us that they had been fiddling with the route and farmers were not happy with the signs in their field and had been removing them! She also knew about the friendly cows and had been avoiding the field we had just been through because of her dog! I wanted to share this with you so if you do walk this area, you are warned :-).

This helpful lady pointed us in the correct direction and we rejoined the route through the next field. The path was then to take into the small village of Aldenham. The path took us by what looked like a pub which was now used for a Social Club. In fact the building was originally the Chequers pub which had been closed down prior to 1921. The American Millionaire J.P.Morgan founded Aldenham Social Club whilst he was living on the Wall Hall Estate, which was nearby. The club was for the Cricket Club and Estate workers of the time. What a great man to have founded such a club 🙂 . Clearly the club has changed through the years but it is still going strong today!

Passing by the Club the footpath took us past Aldenham Church. This Church seems to have a long history attached to it. A church has stood in this area since Saxon times. If we had been able to visit the church properly, we would have been able to see a stained glass window which includes a depiction of King Offa carrying a Saxon Church. The window was created to replace the original stained glass window which had been destroyed during World War II. The Church was renovated during the 19th Century by Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Lord Aldenham, who was incidentally was part compiler of the first Oxford Dictionary!

From 2012 – 29.07.2012 – Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk

We seemed to have lost the Hertfordshire Way signs through Aldenham, but we did manage to find one public footpath which seemed to take us in the general direction that we were walking so we decided to take it. The path eventually joined up with a road and we strolled along to find a route to “Otterspool Farm” using a public bridleway. The way was very enjoyable to walk as it was very well looked after! Through the hedge we could see the farm as there were some beautiful horses in the field. 🙂

As the path progressed, I could see a very beautiful building in front of us. The path ended at a the Junction of “Wall Hall Drive”. The manor house we had found, was the original building, that had belonged to John P. Morgan at one point and it has now been renovated as apartments. Wall Hall House was originally known as “Aldenham Abbey” and was built in 1802 by George Woodford Thelluson who was a wealthy banker in the early C18th. This banker became well known when he was mentioned in the famous novel “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

When John P. Morgan Jnr. rented the property in the late C19th he changed the property name to “Wall Hall” and regularly entertained the rich and famous there. People included the Royal Family included the young Elizabeth, who was later to become the Queen Mother. Fortunes changed for the buildings over the years serving for a US Ambassador and as a University, to where it is now.

From 2012 – 29.07.2012 – Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk

We had at last caught up with the “Hertfordshire Way”, which was to take us through a field. The path split and we could have walked over a foot bridge or along the path beside it. The path was well worn and the bridge took you to the exactly place! Although as I looked back to the bridge to take a photo it did give me a wistful reminisence of Monet’s Bridge! As we journeyed on we finally reached our goal for the day, the River Colne. Although our official end goal of the walk was the River, we now had to journey back to Letchworth Heath.

We took a lesuirely journey and we as we were more familiar with the route found a shorter way back! We walked back through Aldenham Village, which I have since found out that this lovely little village has been used for filming by Elstree Studios and was even used in a Coldplay Video, “Life In Technicolor II”!, through Church Lane and past some of the path signs we saw earlier in the walk! The Route then took us via the tiny village of Round Bush, which has a lovely pub for a drink :-)! (yes we did stop and try one!)

Our walk took us down grange Lane, were I spotted “Aldenham Grange”. I cannot find much history about this lovely house. Except that it may be used as a community house for the students “Holy Ghost Fathers”. If anyone has any other information I would be grateful! We continued to follow Grange lane and it eventually took us back to Letchmore Heath where we completed our walk!

The Sunday morning walk’s photos can be viewed here –

2012 – 29.07.2012 – Letchmore Heath – Aldenham Walk

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