North to South London Trail Part 1  

Twelve Polys congregated at Cockfosters station for the first part of a new route across London from North to South: 34 miles Cockfosters to Carshalton Beeches, taking advantage of the many parks and green spaces. After a short walk through the suburbs, admiring some beautiful magnolia blooms, we negotiated some serious mud descending into the ancient woodland of Oakwood Hill Wood nature reserve where a woodpecker was hard at work in the surrounding trees. We then followed the Pymme’s Brook, a tributary of the River Lea, Trail into Oakhill Park, Brunswick Park and Arnos Park, passing the impressive Arnos Park viaduct built in 1932 when the Piccadilly Line was extended north from Finsbury Park.

We entered Broomfield Park with the remains of its, unfortunately seriously fire damaged, great house. The landscaped grounds with the original Tudor walls remain for the public to enjoy, so we stopped for lunch; either a picnic or delicious cake and coffee at the Palmers Green Community café, run by volunteers. After lunch we continued along the New River Path to Alexandra Palace station via Finsbury Gardens. This is not actually a river but a waterway opened in 1613 to bring drinking water from Hertfordshire to London. One of our members decided to return home from there, while the others took the uphill path to Alexandra Palace. 

While we were enjoying a refreshment stop Chris, who fortunately checks his phone more than the leader, informed us that Gillian, Stuart and Pam were walking towards us. We met up with them and were informed that Pam had sent a message advising of her transport issues getting to the start of the walk. The leader was mortified, but Pam was undeterred and had completed the walk starting just slightly behind us. Gillian and Stuart had been on a boat trip to celebrate the latter’s birthday. Now numbering fourteen, we proceeded along the North Parkland Walk and Highgate Wood to Highgate station. 

The other 4 sections will be offered on future programmes during the winter months when a walk in London is often convenient due to short days and uncertain weather. The leader also made a promise to ensure she checks her phone properly before setting off!

Susan

Photos by Ida and Rajesh

There were two groups of walkers meeting at Temple tube station: Capital Walkers and the Polyramblers.  Some Capitals Walkers were attracted to our group, but we had to disappoint them.  Anyway, upon checking their programme, I discovered that they were doing an 11-mile walk.  Ours was 3 miles but was going to include a lot of interesting stops.  

There were 19 of us and our first stop was at Two Temple Place, a beautiful building built for William Waldorf Astor in 1895.  It’s not open very often but there is a free exhibition on glass until 21 April so we spent half an hour inside admiring the glass and the building.  Then, we started exploring the first two out of four Inns of Court: Inner Temple and Middle Temple, by going through an elaborate archway.  

We passed 16^th century Middle Temple Hall where Shakespeare’s company performed Twelfth Night in February 1602 and where you can book to eat a very nice lunch Monday to Friday https://www.middletemple.org.uk/lunch . After Middle Temple Gardens, we joined the Strand, passed the premises of Twining Teas and re-entered Temple into Middle Temple Lane.  We went into Pump Court and Elm Court and then had lunch in the nice Garden Room Café.  We admired Inner Temple gardens and the Hall, Treasury and Library of the Inner Temple.  We went into Church Court where Temple Church is situated.  It is now famous for the book ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and there is an entry fee unless you go for a service.  The round section of Temple Church was built by the Knights Templars in 1185 and the chancel added in the 13th century. It is shared by Middle and Inner Temple. 

After a short detour into Hare Court, we went into Chancery Lane, passed the old Public Records Office – which is now part of Kings College – the former Law Fire Insurance Office and the Law Society building.  Then it was into Carey Street and the Silver Mousetrap shop (1690), the Seven Stars pub (1602) and the entrance to Lincoln’s Inn.  We admired the gardens, hall and library and the Ostler’s Hut, designed by George Gilbert Scott in 1852. It is London’s smallest listed building. It was essentially a porter’s hut. An ‘ostler’ was someone who traditionally looked after horses.  The next stop was Lincoln’s Inn chapel undercroft and the beautiful chapel whose foundation stone was laid by John Donne in 1620.  We admired the coats of arms of the treasurers of Lincoln’s Inn over the centuries – the Treasurer being the most senior position at the Inn.  

Continue reading LONDON’S INNS OF COURT – 7th MARCH →

Sixteen Polyagents reported for duty at Sandy station. After briefing we set off, up through woods and then along the Greensand Ridge Walk in the valley, northwards on a Roman road with a field of barley waving in the breeze on our left and hawthorn hedge on our right. First stop Gibraltar Barn, formerly part of Gibraltar Farm which was turned into a secret airfield for the RAF during WWII. As we were approaching on a rough but wide farm track, a few cars came towards us and some of the occupants waved at us as they went by. I didn’t inspect them closely which is a shame because the next day, when I returned to the memorial weekend event, I discovered from a French participant that the convoy of cars contained members of the Tempsford Veterans and Relatives Association and colleagues who had been at the Barn holding a memorial service and laying a plaque in French which we observed afterwards without realising how recent it was, honouring the people involved in the Resistance in occupied France. The Barn contains wreaths of poppies, photos and newspaper cuttings, letters and certificates referring to various pilots and Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents who flew from the airfield between 1942 and 1945 to work behind enemy lines. There were plaques in English and Polish (and other languages, including the plaque in French so recently laid there) honouring the men and women involved in the secret operations based at Tempsford and destined not only for France but as far afield as Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland. Some sources say that the Barn is where the agents were handed their kit before boarding the small planes, Lysanders and Halifaxes, which would take them to their mission on the continent. The historian Mark Seaman giving one of the talks on the Sunday stressed that the people who flew out of Tempsford were agents, whose mission was to send information back to base, liaise with the local resistance, to sabotage and disrupt life for the enemy, not ‘spies’ such as the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service aka MI6) operatives, working out of Godmanchester, who have gained more notoriety and were the object of Roger Leivers’ talk we listened to on the Saturday. As a lot of the relevant information is still classified and evidence needed to be destroyed as soon as possible to minimise the chances of it falling into enemy hands, it is often difficult for historians to research details of the agents’ activities. Continue reading SANDY TO TEMPSFORD – 1ST JULY 2023 →

It was a dry somewhat dull day with a fresh breeze when twelve Polyramblers gathered at Hadley Wood station for a walk to Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire.  After the usual safety briefing, we set out across wet fields crossing over two busy roads taking traffic out of London to the M25.  After walking under the M25, we started to leave behind the constant drone of traffic and the landscape became more peaceful and countryfied.  It also became more wooded as we entered into Northaw wood, part of an ancient wood stretching back to Norman times.  From here it was a short walk into the village of Northaw where we stopped for lunch.  Most of the party decided to have lunch at a pub and restaurant called Judges.  I had been a little unsure of Judges as a suitable venue for a group of walkers with muddy boots because it was more of a gastropub serving proper sit down meals restaurant style, rather than the pub grub we are normally used to.  And of course the prices were more than we usually like to pay.  But I need not have feared as everyone enjoyed their food, which was good and tasty, and the service was efficient and friendly.  We were unable to use the pub just down the road as I had originally intended as it had closed over the Christmas period, but we were lucky there was a second pub alternative, even if it was a gastro pub and things worked out just fine.  

Refreshed and full, we joined those who had had packed lunches in the bar, reunited ourselves with our boots and set out on the rest of the walk.  There was still no sign of the sun but at least the weather was remaining dry, something to be grateful for after all the recent rain.  Our route took us along the main road out of the village until, on a bend in the road, we reached a footpath sign for the Hertfordshire Way.  We took this path, glad to get off the main road.  It took us into another wood with a fast running stream running alongside our footpath.  Eventually after crossing over another main road, and walking along a lane, we reached a famous local landmark, the Folly Arch, so called because its function was a gateway and not a castle which it gives the appearance of being.  It marks the entrance to the former extensive grounds of the Gobions Estate house and ornamental gardens built in the eighteenth century.  These have long since disappeared with the arch and lake in Gobions Woods all that remains.  From here we had our first encounter with serious mud as our footpath took us across a ploughed field into Gobions woods.  By the time we came out of the wood and into Brookmans Park our boots were caked.  This did not stop some of us from stepping into a lively pub for hot drinks and beers before going to get the train to take us back to London.  

Mary King
Walk Leader

Photos by Mary, Melida, Nita and Chris

A walk followed by a carol service was a regular entry in the pre-Xmas Club programme from 2004, when Dominique arranged a trip to Ely. The last was in 2019. just before the pandemic. It was a popular event so it was reinstated for 2023. St Albans was the venue for the third time, the first one in 2010 being particularly memorable for the amount of snow that fell on the day.

Thus, twenty two members assembled at the Abbey Station for a figure of eight circuit around the city. We first followed the River Ver, a chalk stream, reputedly only one of about 200 on the planet. Enroute, we stopped at the remains of an old nunnery before crossing over to the north bank via a disused railway bridge. Here we visited a wildlife nature reserve, once a commercial watercress beds and a market garden. Threading our way through quaint streets, past a decorated post box, we reached the midpoint of our walk by the cathedral. We then crossed Verulanium Park to a nondescript building which housed a very impressive Roman mosaic. Returning via the village of St Michaels and the Abbey mill stream we reached the Cathedral for lunch.

Some used the cafe while others picnicked outside. To finish the day, the majority of us then joined an intimidating looking queue to get seats for a half-hour carol service featuring many traditional favourites, lustily sung by some of our number.

Danny

Photos courtesy of Ida Kwan and Nita Patel