WALK REPORTS comment from webmaster: (I will post more recent walk reports as soon as I can find where I put them!) Rural Heritage walk: Sunday 11th January 2004 At 2.00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon ten walkers (including our erudite leader John Leonhardt) and two friendly dogs set off from Ling Ride car park on the Beacon Road. Our first ‘piece of information’ from John was an explanation of name of the car park. Ling heather (the smaller flower - Bell heather has the larger flower) only occurs in a few places around Ashridge and down the drive from the car park is one - hence the name of the car park. Then next came the two tulip trees (planted by Jim Wiggins to mark his retirement as a National Trust forester) having a distinctive leaf (John found one on the ground). Our merry band continued across the Beacon Road and up to an old derelict house (believed to have been purchased for £300,000!!); now in the process being renovated by its new owners. A former owner was the well-known Ken Skinner. Behind this house could be seen the ‘header tap’ to the reservoir serving Little Gaddesden with all its water. We walked on across a stile (not so dog friendly!) into Arthur MacDonald’s plantation - started in 1949 - and now flourishing. Within its dark trees could be spotted several deer. The dark areas were mainly Scots Pine and to the left more open and lighter trees. John started to show us a Norwegian Spruce but then had to admit that he thought perhaps it was a Sitka Pine since he was shown a cone found on the ground. How honest of him - we would not have known the difference! We duly followed John into the darkness of these trees until out of the other side could be seen open land across to Dagnall and Hog Hall. One of the group spotted a very large bird box high in a tree at 45 degrees - which is designed for Tawney Owl. Then downhill following a ‘path’ until John had to consult his map and compass and inform us that we “had a choice” back uphill into the dark thick foliage or “around the edge and hope”. We agreed to the latter and John set a course of SSW. Maybe to lift our spirits one kind member of the group handed out sustenance in the form of small Jaffa cakes, which were much appreciated. We reached open land at the top of the climb and somewhat surprisingly the visibility was very good. When we reached Ward’s Hurst farm we were treated to a view right across to Totternhoe. John informed us that “Hurst” meant “look out” or “vantage position” which it certainly was. There is also Ward’s Coombe in the valley and “Coombe” means “in the valley”. The walk from Ward’s Hurst farm down to the coombe is also recommended. We continued through the farm and across Beacon Road into Ivinghoe Common to be shown the Hadden Paton Arboretum. (An arboretum is more ornamental or experimental, whereas a plantation is more functional and trees are planted in straight lines). As we walked on, a lonely dog - husky type - was noticed and since no owner could be found two members of the group took the little dog into ‘custody’. The arboretum contains a variety of trees and in the failing light (it was approaching 3.45 p.m.) we first saw some oaks - Mongolian and Algerian being two. Then we were shown several horse chestnuts, which included Red Buckeye and Ohio Buckeye. All these trees have a reference number and John (of course!) had his own crib sheet (kindly supplied by John Wilson, Head Ranger 1957 - 1991). Within this area were also several fungi on trees and a muntjac was also spotted. We returned to the car park just after 4.00 p.m. - still with our third dog. But the story does have a happy ending, the rightful owners were finally located. Despite the somewhat inclement weather we had a great walk, with many interesting “finds” (no doubt previously researched by John!) and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. David Drinkwater FURTHER WALK REPORTS CAN BE FOUND IN OUR NEWSLETTERS  < close window
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