Walking in Bedfordshire

A detailed guidebook to walking in Bedfordshire’s lowland landscapes, from chalk downs near Dunstable to clay country and marsh and fenland in the east. 32 circular full- and half-day walks for all seasons along rivers and higher ground, with copious local-interest information for both visiting and local explorers.

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Walk 5 - Barton & Pegsdon Hills and The Icknield Way

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Start and Finish: The church of St Nicholas, Barton-le-Clay, on the southern edge of the village (GR TL085304). There is limited roadside parking near the church (about 5–10 cars) but please avoid times when the church is in use. Adequate on-street parking can be found elsewhere in the village – please park with consideration. There is a large car park at Barton-le-Clay village hall (GR TL082307) but you will need permission to use it. An alternative start/finish point could be at Treasures Grove Picnic Area (GR TL109283) where there is a small car park (about 12 cars). This is situated on the Icknield Way, to the south of the Barton & Pegsdon Hills. A third possible start point is the parking area just off the B655 north of Pegsdon Hills (GR TL118302) with parking for about 12 cars, used by visitors to Pegsdon Hills Reserve.
Refreshments: Barton-le-Clay has several foodshops and pubs, including the Waggon and Horses, the Bull and the Royal Oak. Opportunity for refreshment en route is slightly after the three-quarters stage of the walk, i.e. the Raven pub in Hexton village.
Distance:  8.1 miles (13.0km).
Maps: O.S. Explorer 1:25,000: Sheet 193 – Luton & Stevenage, Hitchin & Ampthill; O.S. Pathfinder 1:25,000: Sheet 1048 (TL 03/13) – Hitchin (North) & Ampthill, plus Sheet 1072 (TL 02/12) – Luton & Hitchin (South-West); O.S. Landranger 1:50,000: Sheet 166 – Luton & Hertford.

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Some great walking on classic chalk Downland, reminiscent of the South Downs of Sussex. This downland escarpment is part of a range of chalk hills to the north of Luton, that stretches east from the Sundon Hills in the west of the county, almost to Hitchin in the east. There is more ascent and descent than is usual for a walk in Bedfordshire, as the route climbs some of the steep, dry valleys onto the Barton Hills to attain the main chalk escarpment, which is followed east, along the ancient trackway of the Icknield Way to Telegraph Hill and the Pegsdon range. The county boundary is highly indented in this area, and the route strays twice, for short distances, into the adjacent county of Hertfordshire. A descent to the plains of the north and a return to Barton village across well-used field paths along a short section of the Bunyan Trail completes the walk.

This is an excellent walk to be enjoyed at any time of year. The ramble over these chalk hills, where the going underfoot is usually quite firm, can be thoroughly recommended during the winter months.

Route:
From the church of St Nicholas, Barton-le-Clay, walk south along Church Road, a no-through road. The metalled surface of this lane ends just after the church, and a few metres later you reach a signpost which indicates a public footpath ahead and a public bridleway to the left. Turn left on the latter, part of the Bunyan Trail. This long distance trail is followed for the first few miles of the walk. Keep to the left-hand edge of the field to reach a bridlegate at an English Nature National Nature Reserve noticeboard which welcomes visitors to the Barton Hills. Pass through this bridlegate to climb the steep grassy bank ahead. Half-way up the hill the route uses three flights of wooden steps to reach a fence corner. Here continue ahead, still climbing, now with a wire fence on your immediate left.

Walk along the ridge of this short, compact range of hills, eventually passing through a bridlegate, still heading south and still with a wire fence to your left. Bear left where the fence does likewise to reach another English Nature National Nature Reserve noticeboard at a stile. Climb over the latter and turn immediately right, now keep­ing the wire fence on your immediate right. Where the fence turns to the right, continue ahead on a track still heading south, now towards a small wood. Pass this wood on your right and continue ahead, south, towards Barton Hill Farm. On reaching the farm gates take the clearly way­marked enclosed foot­path to the right of the farm drive. This leads to a narrow metalled road.

Turn right along the road for 150 metres to a public bridleway sign­post. Turn left along this bridleway, still heading south. Keep to the left-hand edge of fields, passing under some high-tension electricity cables. Keep ahead for about a kilometre until you reach a prominent cross-tracks by the edge of a golf course. Turn left here to head north-east along the Icknield Way, a wide, prominent track between hedgerows. The Icknield Way and the Bunyan Trail are coincident for the next few kilometres.

After about another kilometre the Icknield Way track meets a metalled road. Continue ahead here along this road, passing to the right of a house, still heading north-east, keeping to the grassy footpath along the left-hand side of the road. The road swings sharply to the left after 600 metres, at Treasures Grove Picnic Area, where there is a small car park. Leave the road at this point, walk through the car park, and at its far end leave the Bunyan Trail, which turns to the right, but continue ahead along the Icknield Way (stone axe waymark). After just under a kilometre the Icknield Way enters ancient woodland.

The trail reaches Telegraph Hill, where there is an information board at a Y-type junction of three tracks. Take the middle of the three trails, which is signposted by the stone axe waymark of the Icknield Way, and still heading north-east. This trail climbs gradually into the chalk hills. Climb Telegraph Hill and continue ahead over the summit. About 200 metres after the highest point look out for a wooden bridlegate on the left-hand side, at a wooden waymarker post and a ‘welcome to Pegsdon Hills’ information board.

Leave the Icknield Way here by turning left through the bridlegate, to head north, soon with a wire fence on your right. Where the fence bends sharply to the left, pass through the bridlegate ahead, to descend, quite steeply, on a path with a chalk ‘bowl’ or dry valley over to your right. Pass through a second bridlegate and continue downhill with a fence and trees on your right. Do not forget to stop frequently whilst on this descent to turn round to admire the sweep of the chalk hills behind you and to your right.

The path descends to a road at the edge of Pegsdon Hills Reserve. Cross this road and straight ahead on another road heading northwards. After 100 metres or so bear left at a T-junction, on the edge of the village of Pegsdon. Head north on this road, following the signpost for Shillington. Ignore a footpath off to the left at a public telephone box and post box, but about 200 metres after this turn left onto a no-through road to head towards the buildings of Bury Farm. Pass Green End Cottage and continue ahead on the bridlepath. After a further few hundred metres the track swings to the right to reach a public bridleway signpost. Turn left here to head west on a track along the left-hand edge of a field, having now joined the Bunyan Trail, which is followed back to Barton-le-Clay. The track eventually becomes metalled; remain on it to enter the village of Hexton.

A few metres before the Raven pub turn right, following the John Bunyan Trail, signposted to Higham Gobion. Walk along this minor lane for a couple of hundred metres, passing Hexton Cricket and Football Club, until a public footpath signpost is reached on the left-hand side. Turn left here, still following Bunyan Trail waymarks, and heading north-west across the centre of a large field. At the far side of this field cross over a wooden footbridge above a ditch. Continue on a path/track along the left-hand edge of a large field, with a hedgerow on your immediate left. After about 350 metres pass through a large gap in the hedgerow and continue ahead, still on a path/track on the left-hand edge of a large field. Where the hedgerow ends the footpath bears to the left and 50 metres later turns to the right, at a dog-leg clearly visible on the ground. The trail continues heading west, now with a hedgerow on your right-hand side, heading back towards the village of Barton-le-Clay.

A few hundred metres before the outskirts of the village there is a path division at a Y-junction. Take the left-hand option, signposted as the Bunyan Trail. On reaching the first gardens of the houses of Barton-le-Clay the path bears to the left for 50 metres to cross a footbridge over a stream, and then it continues as a concrete path between fences and hedgerows to reach a road in the village. Turn left here onto Manor Road (Bunyan Trail waymark), pass Ramsey Manor Lower School, and remain on this road until you reach a T-junction at Hexton Road. Turn right along the latter for 50 metres and then left, back into Church Road to return to St Nicholas’s church in Barton-le-Clay.

Places of Interest:

Barton-le-Clay
Barton-le-Clay or Barton-in-the-Clay, lies by the A6 north–south Bedfordshire trunk road, immediately beneath the Chiltern Hills. The Barton Hills, part of the chalk escarpment of the Chilterns, rise steeply from the south end of the village. Some consider them to be Bunyan’s ‘delectable mountains’. Walkers may come to curse the name of the village, particularly during the wetter months when conditions underfoot in this neighbourhood can be rather trying, but once on the chalk hills beyond, this improves dramatically.

The original village was focused on St Nicholas’s church where there are still some old thatched cottages. Developments in the second half of the twentieth century have greatly increased the size of the village, which is now rather sprawling. To some extent it is a dormitory town of Luton.

Church of St Nicholas, Barton-le-Clay
The church is mainly thirteenth century, but with a fifteenth-century tower. The attractive roof is adorned with carved winged angels, saints and bosses. A curiosity is a fireplace with no chimney. The old rectory, situated near to the church, is Tudor in origin.

Barton Hills Country Park
These are a compact range of chalk hills reminiscent of the South Downs, particularly the characteristic ‘bowls’ or ‘coombs’ of the downland hills. Like the neighbouring Pegsdon Hills to the east they are merely a short section of the Chiltern range which forms the central sweep of chalk ridges that cross southern England from Salisbury Plain in the west to North Norfolk in the east. Although quite small in area and low in stature the Barton Hills are a delight, sure to get the heart racing from both effort and anticipation, and provide a great viewpoint from which to survey the plains to the north and to escape the pressures of modern life, if only for a brief period.

The Icknield Way
A prehistoric route across southern England, the line of which has been used to establish a modern long distance path. See Appendix 1 for details.

Telegraph Hill
This Nature Reserve, managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, is a mixture of chalk grassland and scrub, fringed by old beech trees. The site contains a wide range of wildflowers, such as the rock rose, salad burnet and common spotted orchid.

Pegsdon Hills Country Park
The name Pegsdon means ‘valley by a peak’. The Pegsdon Hills are the most easterly of Bedfordshire’s downs, the Country Park consisting of an area of chalk downland, part of the Chilterns, located above and to the south of Pegsdon village. The land, now a Nature Reserve, was purchased by the Wildlife Trust in 1992 after a public appeal, and offers some of the finest chalk downland in Bedfordshire, with steep, dry valleys, a neolithic barrow and strip lynchets. The views from the top of the escarpment, looking north over the Bedfordshire plains, are superb. The reserve centres on Barn Hole, a steep-sided dry valley, and apart from the chalk downland also includes a small area of secondary woodland and over a hundred acres of former farmland on which the Trust is attempting to recreate chalk grassland. The reserve is part of the Deacon Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Many rare and beautiful wildflowers grow on the chalk grasslands that are unfortunately mere remnants of the extensive pastures that once covered much of the downs in earlier times. When sheep became less profitable pastures were ploughed under, the grasses and wildflowers disappeared together with the insects, birds and other wildlife associated with them. The slopes of Barn Hole show what has been lost: thyme, marjoram, basil, rock rose, harebell and other flowers once covered the hillside. Skylarks, now a threatened species in Britain, nest on this open land in the long grasses.