November 1st - grey, overcast skies, rain and drizzle all day.
November 2nd - bright and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky.
That's England!
So it was November 2nd then to take a walk in the countryside. And here we are climbing gently away from the village of Lilley at 08:45 on a Friday morning, towards a lone tree on the skyline, which makes a handy waymark as there's not much else to mark the path here. I'm on a planned 11 mile walk but today's installment will just get to half way, with more to come in the next post.
We're walking in that little outlier of the Chiltern Hills which lies to the east of the town of Luton. Despite the proximity of a large town this is a rich area for wildlife, Red Kites and Buzzards circle overhead and a large flock of Fieldfares flew up from a hedgerow as I approached. Not only that but there was a Skylark singing away on high, apparently under the impression that it was spring.
On days like this everyone has a cheery hello for you and sometimes complete strangers stop and have a conversation with you. And we all agreed that Luton had never looked lovelier!
Yes, we're soon on top of Warden Hill which overlooks Luton. Over recent years the town has gained an unenviable reputation as the site of many gang stabbings and shootings. Those tower blocks you can see are part of the Marsh Farm Estate, a bit of well-meaning 1960s planning that went disastrously wrong in the following decades. In 1995 it was the scene of serious rioting which was only calmed down, rather ironically, when a rave was organised attracting 1,500 away from the scene of the riots.
From Warden Hill the path leads on towards Galley Hill. Although it all looks very pleasant today it has a dark and macabre history - you see, it was once called Gallows Hill.
One of the main roads to the north passed through Luton and beneath the hill. A number of highwaymen operated in the area to such an extent that people chose other routes and the trade of the town suffered. The authorities in the town rounded up the criminals and had them hanged on the gallows up on the skyline to act as a deterrent to other robbers and also to advertise to travellers that this was a safe road to travel. In order to maximise the effect the corpses were taken down and soaked in tar to preserve them before being hoisted back onto the gallows.
It was a dark and stormy night - I can't help it, it really was - and the gallows was struck by lightning. A huge column of fire was seen to shoot up and a monstrous dog leapt about in the flames. This was thought to be none other than Black Shuck, the fiendish hellhound that frequently turns up in the folk tales of East Anglia, none of them particularly jolly. Black Shuck is supposed to haunt the hill to this day, though all I encountered was a well-spoken lady with an Airedale terrier.
On the path went, across the corner of the golf course, then into a small plantation called Maulden Firs, which despite the name appeared largely deciduous, then alongside fields, making its way towards the village of Barton-Le-Clay.
These little fungi would probably have escaped my notice, had I not sat down on the fallen log from which they were sprouting, to have a drink and eat a banana.
The path descended easily until I realised that I'd walked straight past something I'd hoped to photograph. Jeremiah's Tree is one of very few individual trees to be named on OS maps and was another place where the once popular pastime, and indeed former spectator sport, of hanging people occurred. The original tree has succumbed to the effects of the passing centuries, but a replacement has been planted. Never mind, I'll check it out another day.
The descent continued through a beechwood which has invaded an old clunch pit where a hard band in the chalk rock was exploited for building purposes.
And this is the church at Barton-Le-Clay with its attractive chequer-board stonework.
That's about half-way into my walk. In the next post we'll turn around and walk back via the Barton Hills and Wardswood Lane to Lilley.
Take care.
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