On Saturday 28 March we held our AGM at St George’s Campden Hill with 34 attendees
Following the meeting and a plentiful buffet lunch, 16 walkers set off to amble through the Royal Parks. The sky was a mixture of brilliant blue and a few grey clouds. Luckily we didn’t have a repeat of lasts year’s deluge. We passed through beautiful flower beds along the side of the Albert Memorial, crowds of tourists taking in the afternoon sunshine and heard the shouts of the demonstrators on what looked to be a peaceful march through the Hyde Park area.
A few walkers dropped out at Green Park. In St James Park we spotted one pelican and a heron. Pam went on a hunt for a Metropolitan water trough around the Whitehall area – sadly no sign of it as the seating area for Trooping the Colour blocked any view. The rest of us finished our walk at Westminster Tube station.
The sunshine attracted 16 Poly Ramblers on this walk in historic Bexley village and along the Cray river to Sidcup. Nobody in the group knew what their home town or village were worth. But I could tell them that Bexley, in the Doomsday Survey of 1086, had 41 inhabitants, with 100 pigs and 10 ploughs, and was valued the equivalent of £20.
In spite of the best efforts of the Metropolitan Line signalling system, 13 walkers finally assembled at Chesham station on a sunny but cold Saturday morning in January. By the time the train arrived we were nearly an hour late so we set off at pace to warm up and make sure we could complete the circuit of the town before dark. A number of valleys converge on Chesham and any walk in the vicinity involves a lot of up and down. Continue reading CHESHAM CIRCULAR – 10 JANUARY 2026→
It is said that some plants and trees give off volatile organic compounds (phytoncides) that protect them against attacking organisms such as bacteria or fungi. And that “after only a short amount of time in the arbour of a forest, stress levels are reduced. Walking among trees decreases the body’s stress response, which in turn lowers your levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. As a result, you feel calmer.” Well it worked! The group was very calm and friendly, walking through the autumn leaves and looking out for fungi. Continue reading EPPING FOREST CIRCULAR WALK – 25 OCTOBER 2025→
Twelve Poly Ramblers and two guests gathered at Berkhamsted station on the last shopping Saturday before Christmas. We would have been one more but Geoffrey was unable to find any parking and ended up going home. It was a lovely sunny morning and the first part of the walk took us on a loop through fields and woodland to the north of the town with beautiful views, returning through Berkhamsted Common. A few people peeled off to attend to Christmas preparations while the rest had a picnic or a quick drink and snack in the Boat pub on the canal. After lunch we did an easy, flat circuit on the canal towpath on either side of the town and we finished up following a Blue Plaque trail along the High Street of this historic market town. We saw old coaching inns, the impressive gothic style town hall and the childhood home of Clementine Churchill. We should have seen the birthplace of Graham Greene too but I managed to miss it in the fading light. Having had our fill of history we dispersed to the station or to tea and mince pies. Thanks to everyone who chose walking over Christmas shopping!
