We'd already seen three buzzards, a red kite and a muntjac by the time we got to Bayford which seemed like a good start for the first leg of the year. We did a quick lap of the village before finally deciding to park at the church.
After a few more team photos by the village sign we set off north through the fields along the edge of the railway towards Hertford. It was pretty much all downhill for the first four kilometres which was bad news for the return journey. We found the first few pine trees in the woods behind Bayfordbury Mansion but had to cross the footbridge before reaching the Pinetum.
We had made it to the edge of Hertford and now had a long road run through houses on the way down to the centre of the town. The first major sight we came to was All Saints' Church, the second-largest church in Hertfordshire after St Albans Abbey. This has a large and overgrown graveyard, but the church itself was definitely not like any of the other churches we had seen so far. This turns out to be because the original church burnt down in 1891 and this is a Victorian replacement designed by a Lancastrian architect using stone from Runcorn in Cheshire.
It sits right next to the very unattractive A414 dual carriageway, but after crossing via the underpass we were instantly in amongst the historic buildings of old Hertford. We passed the decorative white plasterwork on the outside of the Salisbury Arms Hotel (with a date of 1570 highlighted in black) and came to the War Memorial in the middle of Parliament Square. We'll be back again since this is also the end of the alternative loop from Cuffley to Hertford that we will be doing next.
The scenery kept coming as we passed the Hertford Theatre complete with a sculpture commemorating the synod in 673, found a life-size statue of Samuel Stone who founded the town of Hartford, Connecticut, crossed the River Lea with a view across to Hertford castle, and ran past a memorial to the Boer War. Then it was back to housing as we ran down Port Vale towards Bengeo.
A theme then emerged as we ran down Molewood Road past Molewood House and Molewood Lodge and a big new house being built at High Molewood before going under the railway to reach Great Molewood, a road leading into Great Mole Wood. The only thing we didn't see was a mole or even any evidence of one.
By now we had reached the open meadows of Waterford Marsh and had a very pleasant stretch along the banks of the River Beane. The weeds were freshly cut and almost the first thing that appeared was a grey wagtail. This was the second I had seen in two days, since one had also turned up on the River Ver the day before. Wrens were making a lot of noise all along the river and two red kites flew overhead. At the far end we could see St Michael and All Angels Church, Waterford, on the hill up to the left before getting to Vicarage Road and the end of today's section.
We set off up the road and over the railway to get to Waterford Heath Nature Reserve which has a convenient car park for next time we are here. The Heath was reasonably busy with people walking in all directions. The steady climb up to the top of the hill passed through a large field full of teasels, and we then had a brief stop to admire the view north over the heath and west across to the large house on the Goldings estate.
There was then a muddy path down through Great Mole Wood (still no moles in sight) before we went under the railway through a puddle too big to avoid and got back to the river.
This is another part of Hertfordshire with a limited path network so we had to settle for a long road run to get across to Panshanger. The Goldings Canal lay in the fields off to the west. This is an artificial loop in the River Beane and is part of the ornamental gardens for the large house at Goldings. The estate now includes a rare breeds farm complete with its own coat of arms showing two dolphins plus rare breeds of cow, horse, sheep and pig.
We passed Hertford Cemetery and got to the top of the hill in Sele Farm before coming out at what was a large field last time I was there. It was now completely fenced off with a high blue wooden fence and the signs showing that this would become Blakemore Manor which is apparently an "exciting new community" of around 250 houses. We cut through the housing development on the footpath which awkwardly dissects the site and got to the first block of woodland in Panshanger Park.
The path led down through the car park where parkrun would start every Saturday in normal times. The last time it was run here was March 14th when 255 runners took part. It now looks like there will be a gap of at least a year until it happens again. Panshanger was also meant to be the Hertfordshire Orienteers April 2020 Saturday Series so that was one of the first orienteering events cancelled because of Covid.
The car park was full and the park was busy with people out walking in what was now bright sunshine. We went through the parkrun finish and down towards the marshes and reed beds. The noticeboards displayed the dragonflies and damselflies that could be seen but it wasn't quite the right time of year for that. Even so we stopped for snacks and looked optimistically around the ponds in the reeds to see if anything had turned up early. The view across Osprey Lake brought a selection of mallard, tufted duck, moorhen and coot plus a distant heron hiding in a tree.
We crossed the River Mimram and ran alongside it through the underpass under the A414 to Hertingfordbury. A heron sat on a fence post in the sunshine across the other side of yet another field of horses and we soon came out in Hertingfordbury. Just off to the east lay the junction of the River Mimram and River Lea. Off to the north was the perpetual rumble of the A414.
The village itself had a mixture of old buildings (The Old Mill, Old Forge House and The Old Bakery turned up) and some rather more modern things including an impressive life-sized statue of three cheetahs that just happened to be chasing across somebody's front lawn. The village also has some strangely high house numbers: I got to at least 253 Hertingfordbury Road, but that seems to be because Hertingfordbury Road is now the A414 and goes most of the way in to Hertford.
The road climbed up past St Mary's Church and then under the disused railway which used to be the Hertford, Luton & Dunstable branch line from Welwyn Garden City to Hertford North but is now known as the Cole Green Way.
It was now uphill pretty much all the way back to Bayford. We passed an old quarry that now seems to have a big new house being built behind a high fence, and as we climbed we started to get views across what is technically the Lea valley (it will get bigger on subsequent legs) towards Bayfordbury Mansion. Another old quarry had now been landscaped (although Helen was unimpressed at the lack of trees) and we reached an area where most of the old quarry machinery seemed to have been saved for whoever might take an interest in such things.
There was one final muddy hill to Bayford, although it did go through some pleasant woodland. Less than a kilometre from here there were at least two white wallabies hiding. We knew we were close to them since we got the odd glimpse of Stratton's Tower above the trees.
A few final fields full of horses and we arrived back at Bayford Church and the first leg of the year was done. Having made it to Hertford for the first time we have decided that we better do the loop from Cuffley to Hertford before pressing on to the end at Royston. So next time, whenever that will be, we have to go back three legs and find a new way to reach Hertford.
