Friday 9th October Orientation walk around Leek Staffordshire on the architectural trail. The walking trail around the town revealed the Victorian influence, many of the buildings were in the Arts and Crafts style. William Morris had an influence, spending long periods of time here as the town was a centre of silk textile industry, there is still the Leek school of embroidery here. We started our walk at the Nicholson War Memorial 90 ft high and made of Portland stone one of the highest in the country. We then explored the graveyard of St Nicholas Church where there are the remains of two pre-Norman crosses. We passed many fine examples of Georgian town houses and lost count of the number of pubs on route with unusual names such as the Silent Woman. Following our walk, we all dispersed to various eateries in the town centre. Saturday 10th October Hikers walk of 12mls across moorlands, fields, finishing with a walk alongRudyard lake. We arrived at our starting point at Rudyard miniature railway and reluctantly emerged from the cars to face a heavy downpour. On a fine day the views would have been stunning we had some periods of dry weather which enabled us to stop for snacks and drinks. We walked over the Staffordshire moorlands with heather and ferns beginning to go into a lovely golden colour. We estimated that we climbed over approximately thirty stiles in varying states of dilapidation. We had a pub stop for a late picnic lunch the manager was happy for us to eat indoors and we enjoyed the local beers and ales. We finished our hike walking along the lakeside shore and ended up at the boathouse for a group photo. In spite of the intermittent heavy rain we enjoyed a varied walk. Continue reading Leek 9 to 12 October Hikers report→
Five Polyramblers met at West Drayton Station with our organiser Val who lead the way down Drayton High street to Trout Lane and onto the canal. I was saddened to see the significant amount of rubbish in this area, however this did not detract from the interest of the canal. There were large numbers of narrow boats, and lots of coots and swans with their youngsters. We walked along to the Packet Boat bridge to detour onto the Little Britain lake. We wandered around the lake where there were a number of people fishing and it was lovely to watch the adolescent swans and other wildlife. We returned onto the canal towpath passing a working boatyard before reaching our lunch stop at the General Elliot pub. Continue reading Circular Canal walk from West Drayton via Little Britain Lake and Uxbridge→
Twelve ramblers met at Little Chalfont and Latimer station to begin our walk. It had rained the night before so unusually there was some mud underfoot.We walked through some woods and then followed the waymarked path over fields until we reached the river Chess. We admired a view of the tall gables of Latimer House on route. We followed the Chess path stopping to admire a cormorant before stopping for some elevenses at Latimer village Green. Carol had thoughtfully made some ginger flapjacks for us. We continued to the Water Cress farm and climbed the one moderately steep hill of the day before reaching our lunch time picnic destination of Holy Cross church built of flint in the 12th century. The church has a number of lepers buried there. I over heard a small child taking about Leopards leaping about the graves, a slight misunderstanding!A few of us had lunch at the Cock Inn near to the church whilst the rest of us joined them for a very pleasant drink following completion of our picnic. We were lucky as the rain at this point had stopped. Continue reading Saturday 15th August Little Chalfont to Latimer 9 miles circular walk→
Ten ramblers led by two walkers at specified distances started from Wendover station. We wended our way up Balcombe Hill and arrived at the Coombe Hill Memorial built in commemoration of the Boer War. It was a very clear day and we had a really good view of the surrounding area including a glimpse of Chequers. We were relieved to move out of the sun and walk through an ancient Chilterns beech wood following the Ridgeway signage until we emerged into open fields reaching the outskirts of Little Hampden Continue reading 2nd August ChiltERNs Walk the Ridgeway South of Wendover→
Saturday 15th February. 15 of us braved the weather to undertake a linear 5 mile London based walk from Euston to Angel. The walk took us round Somers Town at the back of Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross. There are several remarkable buildings in this area, notable because of their residents, or architecture, or historical significance. They included the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, The Polygon/Oakshott Court where Dickens lived and Mary Continue reading Sat 15 Feb – Euston to Angel→
The Polytechnic Rambling Club – Walking with friends
