James decided to have a weekend at home whilst that was still an option so this was the first three-person leg. By now the drive to the start was getting noticeably shorter. We only needed to get to Junction 8 on the A1(M) but taking the first rather than the second exit put us on the bypass and we had to do two extra miles.
We started with photos at the Little Wymondley village sign that I had failed to notice the previous time we were here, despite it being only about five metres from the Plume of Feathers pub sign where I had taken a photo. Then it was up the hill to the water tower and football pitch. James commented that it seemed strange that the shortest player on pitch was in goal. That's exactly what I had been thinking.
We dropped down and crossed the familiar bypass. The guidebook offers a one-mile extension via a bridge to avoid having to throw yourself in front of the bypass traffic, but for those of us used to crossing the A414 when running to and from the Gravel Pits this was no problem. Today was to be a pub day rather than a church day. We had already passed The Plume of Feathers and The Bucks Head, and now we came to The Hermit of Redcoats.
On the way up to Almshoe Bury on top of the far hill we came across another newly ploughed field with a path that had gone missing. We had a short debate with local dogwalkers about where the path was meant to go and how to get round the field and finally set off to run round three sides of it. The farm complex at the top of the hill was littered with ruined cars, old army trucks and a burger van scattered around the various outbuildings and enjoyed panoramic views, including back down to the Lister Hospital.
The next pub to appear was The Rusty Gun which had clearly put some effort into providing outdoor eating facilities with a large canopy tied down over the beer garden. The path was getting busy and we passed several groups of walkers who are clearly much more active on Sundays than mid-week.
We somehow missed the ruins of Minden Chapel which should have been somewhere in a plantation at the top of the next hill, but you really couldn't miss the enormous overgrown chalk pit on the way up to the attractive Hill End Farm. The next field seemed to be completely carpeted in stones after the recent heavy rain. There was a mandatory photo stop at the entrance to the manor house at Stagenhoe that is now a care home. The ornamental gates are between two brick pillars each topped by a large stone stag. This somehow led us to conclude that the name was pronounced stag-en-hoe rather than stay-gen-hoe.
Next up was the even bigger and more impressive estate around St Paul's Walden Bury. At this point it is apparently a rule that you have to explain that this was "the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother". The churchyard of All Saints Church contains a large memorial to her to enforce this point. We did a tour of the outside as the morning's service was ending. The vicar saw us looking around and asked us in. Helen checked if masks were needed given we didn't have any with us, but they seemed fairly relaxed so we had a look inside. Painted ceilings, stained glass, memorial statues and all the things you would expect in a church like this, but we didn't have time for the full tour so we pressed on. The main house was at the end of a very long tree-lined avenue. Further along the track there were monkey puzzle and eucalyptus showing that this wasn't your average Hertfordshire woodland.
Down the hill and we came to the first real river of the adventure. This was the River Mimram and proved a little disappointing if you were expecting anything major; just a short stretch of chalk stream emerging from a concrete pipe under the bridge. Hopefully, the rivers will improve as we progress further. The field on the south edge of Whitwell was the end of the Hertfordshire Way for today, and we then aimed for the water tower visible in the distance to start heading back. At this point somebody chose Sunday morning to phone me up for software support for the Routegadget website that I maintain.
Dropping down hill from the water tower we arrived at Nine Wells watercress beds on the River Mimram. This has its own railway track to allow a trolley to move through the beds to collect the watercress. The track has seen better days, but there was a trolley in the distance so it looks like it is still used. The path led back up through fields and parkland behind Bury Hall and Stagenhoe and then along the edge of Hitch Wood which looked very runnable from what we could see of it from the path along the edge.
Hitting the road again we passed a very attractive farm complex. Later research showed that this was Minsden Farm designed by Edward Lutyens. The road sign claimed that we were on the St Albans Highway which seemed a little optimistic given how narrow and out of the way it was. By now we were desperate to stop for something to eat and decided it would have to be at the far corner of the next field whatever the view was like. It turned out to be OK, with a view into the valley to the north, and yet again the Lister made an appearance.
The path then dropped back down and The Rusty Gun appeared again. We managed a few short detours on the rest of the way back to run round different sides of fields. Two new teams were now playing football on the hill above Little Wymondley, but the goalkeeper selection process appeared strangely predictable. We soon arrived back at the car after what had been a much more interesting day than leg 3 had been.
On the way home we dropped off 1000 copies of the new Welwyn Garden City photo trail map. This was produced as part of the Welwyn Garden City Centenary, which picked just about the worst possible year and has seen most events cancelled. I fitted in an hour and a half walking round Stanborough Park to update the map for the event in November, and there was just enough daylight left to run the 10 kilometres home across Ellenbrook Fields.
