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Walk 3403 - printer friendly version

Chipperfield to Kings Langley Circular Walk

Author - Donald Morton

Length - 5.0 miles / 8.1 km

Ascent - 500 feet / 152 metres

Grade - easy

Start - OS grid reference TL045015
Lat 51.702522 + Long -0.48920439
Postcode WD4 9ES (approx. location only)

There are two car parks at Chipperfield Common - one outside the church and one parallel to the road facing the cricket pitch and opposite the pavilion. This Hertfordshire walk starts from the latter (Grid Ref. TL045015).

Facing the cricket pitch, back to the road, turn left to the corner of the pitch and follow the path into the woods (easy access route, local path no 8). Follow this broad obvious path straight through the woods, ignoring paths to left and right, until reaching the Apostles Pond with its 12 new lime trees planted in the 1980s and rather fewer old trees from the early 18th Century. Pass to the left of the pond and on reaching a cross track turn left (leaving the easy access route which goes right) along a bridle path; after going through a gate it becomes a tarmac drive leading out to the road.

Cross the road and turn right along a bridle path which has been created to run parallel to the road. Go over the first stile on the left and walk diagonally right across the field, the point to aim for (grid ref. TL056008) being just to the left of the end of a solid conifer hedge - behind this hedge is a house reputedly associated with the forebears of ex-President Jimmy Carter. (The path may not be restored after ploughing so the de facto line rather depends on the walkers who pioneer its reinstatement and create a newly beaten path possibly not going directly between the two points; an alternative, simple to follow, is to continue on the bridle path until it turns left just before a house and follow it round the field edge to a gravel drive where a left turn will bring you to the end of the path across the field, just where it joins the gravel track.)

If you follow the path across the field, turn left when it reaches the gravel track. Where this track swings right there is a sign post on the left by a gate with a board "Rookery Wood Farm". Go through the gate and follow the path signed to Kings Langley across and down the field; head towards the white barn on the horizon. At the hedge go over the stile and through a staggered fence and continue straight on, down and up with hedge and fence on the right. Keep close to the fence, ignore a path on the right and come to a gate by a chalet-bungalow leading into a farm yard.

Go through the gate and continue straight on. In a few yards Turn Left at a concrete cross track; go past a pond on the left; swing right past a Georgian-fronted farm house and come to a path junction (TL063015). Here turn right and follow the farm road over the A41 to come out on the A4251. Once over the A41 there is a noisy ten minutes since the farm road and A41 run parallel, but there are fine views of traffic, quite probably stationary, on the M25 on the viaduct over the river Gade, and to the left of a single wind turbine the original 1932 white buildings of the Ovaltine Model Farm which supplied eggs and milk; Ovaltine ceased production at Kings Langley a few years back and the factory has been converted to dwellings as was the Model Farm in1982.

On reaching the main road, cross over - to the pavement - and turn left. At the round-about continue straight on. You are now in Kings Langley. After another 100 yards or so cross the road and take the footpath on the right of Cedar Lodge (Grid ref. TL074021). You are now on the Hertfordshire Way. Go through a kissing gate by the side of a building, up a narrow path and out onto a broad enclosed path. Go straight on, ignoring a couple of paths to the right, and where the enclosed path ends following a hedge on the right. At the end of the field swing left through a gate and shortly, at a path junction, right over the A41.

Once over the bridge go right down the embankment through the gate and straight on across the field to a gate visible in a hedge gap on the far side. Go through the gate and straight on to the field edge. Then go down the edge of the field with the hedge on the left. The path becomes enclosed. Go through two kissing gates, ignoring a path on the left, and carry straight on. Go through two more kissing gates and again straight on, now with hedge on right. After passing through a gateway, the fence is now on the left; the fence becomes a hedge. Go through another kissing gate and still go straight on but with the hedge on the right. The next kissing gate leads into an enclosed path and thence through two more kissing gates into a garden with a fence on the right. Exit the garden through another kissing gate and straight across the field to one final kissing gate which leads into an enclosed path, parallel to a drive, onto the road (Grid ref. TL050012).

Cross the road and take the path going straight ahead signed to Commonwood Common. Go over a crossing bridle path and at the next junction turn tight onto path number 4. Follow this back to the Apostles Pond. Here turn right and retrace your steps on path number 8 back to the starting point at the cricket field car park. From here you can see the Two Brewers pub if you need refreshment.

Walk 3403 Route Map

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