Baldock to Ashwell

Category	East England, Walks
Miles	6.7
Description	A simple but muddy walk across the gently rolling hills and fields in Hertforshire from Baldock to Ashwell Village.
Rating	(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)  Loading ...
OS Maps

Baldock
About 45 minutes out of London Kings Cross, Baldock is a small rural town on the way to Cambridge. On a cold, grey January Saturday we decided to follow a walk from the book, “London Walks for Bad Map Readers” leaving from Baldock train station up north through the fields towards the edge Cambridgeshire and the small village of Ashwell, before heading west over the A1 and back south down back to Baldock.

Setting off
Unfortunately there isn’t a great deal of sunshine, this Saturday and the weather is threatening to close in and pour with rain at any second so we decided rather than set off immediately we would explore a bit of the town of Baldock. From the little section we walked round, there didn’t seem to be much besides a close group of local pubs, Indian and Chinese restaurants and one huge Tesco’s. That said, the very wide high street and old buildings made for better views than a grey London suburb. Looking at the OS map for the area we decided loop round an inspect what was marked as, ‘site of roman settlement’. With visions of grand Romanesque architecture we walked round to discover… a field. Not the greatest start.

Back over the fields
Walking back past the train station we followed the path out over the muddy, wind-swept fields towards Ashwell in search of a suitable place to stop for lunch out of the wind. Looking back down the path back towards would normally greet you with a stunning view of the town with its church spire, although on this occasion it was grey, cold and the spire was covered with scaffolding and white plastic. Heading further up the path you pass a trig point with views over Cambrigeshire to the left, Berkshire behind and Hertfordshire to the right. All which look pretty much exactly the same, gentle rolling fields under a grey sky. I’m sure the view during the summer months must be much better with crops in the fields and a bright blue sky, unfortunately we just and grey and mud.

Entering Ashwell
The path passes a small airfield before joining the road connecting Ashwell and Baldock and climbs up towards the final hill separating the two. Passing some derelict farm buildings and climbing further up the hill along a very muddy track we finally got our first view of Ashwell as the sun began to break through the clouds for a brief moment. This path skirts round the edge of a field before dropping down between some hedges, past some houses down the the western edge of Ashwell village. It was mid-afternoon by the time we finally reached Ashwell so we thought we would check the bus times back to Baldock out of interest. The next bus was due to stop in the next 2 minutes, and we’d only just arrived. Sod it. We’ll let it go otherwise all we’d seen on this walk were clouds, mud and fields. not the most inspiring of walks. The next, (and final) bus was due in 2 hours so we decided to explore the village, have a look round the church and then try and find refreshment in one of the local pubs.

Ashwell Springs and St Marys Church
The village has examples of different architecture spanning many centuraries, from the medieval cottage to the fine town house, plastered or timbered, thatched or tiled, in Tudor, Carolean or Georgian brick. The parish church dates almost entirely from the 14th century and is renowned for its ornate church tower. The church also contains some medieval graffiti carved on its walls which highlights the plight of survivors of the bubonic plague, the Black Death

Ashwell apparently also has a village lock-up that was used to detain drunks and suspected criminals, although we were unable to find any information on its location within the village at the time. The village used to be home to a number of local breweries and, accordingly, a variety of public houses in its past, but currently has just three pubs: The Rose and Crown, the Three Tuns and the Bushel and Strike.

Cutting our losses
After deciding to deliberately miss the penultimate bus back to Baldock and watching the weather close in, wind pick up and sun set, we decided that it would be better to sample one of the local pubs rather than get lost in a dark, muddy field. With just over an hour to kill we selected the ‘Three Tuns’ as it was the closest although not the best reviewed pub in Ashwell. However it was quiet, sold a good pint of ‘St Edmunds’ from the Greene King brewery, (ubiquitous in these parts), Aspells cider on draught and a large, unhealthy serving of pub chips.

Back to Baldock
After beer, cider and chips we rolled out of the pub to catch the last bus back to Baldock and looking out of the window decided we had in fact made a wise choice in not continuing our walk back. 15 minutes later we were back in the center of town ready to find another pub in which to wait for the next train back to London.