A glorious country walk passing the site where the Ashdon meteorite landed 100 years ago in March 1923
For a small village, it has many claims to fame, such as being the possible site of the Battle of Assundun (where, in 1016, Edmund II was defeated by Kind Cnut) and the focus of an agricultural strike in 1914. The Village Museum is open infrequently but provides a wealth of information (ashdonvillagemuseum.co.uk). Just to the north are the Bartlow Hills, extraordinary mounds of Roman origin containing cremation remains. The Parish Church of All Saints contains a memorial to Elizabeth Everitt, a local lady tragically killed while trying to rescue the crew of a US Airforce bomber, which crashed in the village in 1944.
Also buried in the churchyard is eminent Scottish geologist John Smith Flett, who settled here in later life and died in 1947. The windmill passed on the walk is one of the few surviving Essex post mills. Built in 1757, it fell out of use in the early 1900s but was fully restored at the beginning of this century by villagers.
The walk
1. Starting at the pub, head down Radwinter Road opposite, past the Baptist Church, left onto Kate’s Lane then onto the footpath signposted on the left. Across the stream, the path leads uphill to a T-junction at a waymarker post. Turn right and follow the field edge for 275 metres, where it passes through a waymarked gap in a hedge onto the next field edge. Keeping the hedgerow on your left, the path leads to a bridleway. Turn left and pass some pink cottages before passing the windmill.
2. Beyond the windmill a footpath marked by a concrete fingerpost leads off the track along the edge of a parking area and then heads downhill across the field. On the opposite side, it crosses a stile into a pasture and then another stile to reach a road. Cross this and take the footpath along the driveway of Waltons, via a wooden gate. This becomes a handsome avenue between trees, alongside horse paddocks, before passing through a wooden six-bar gate and beside a wood to emerge onto fields. Turn left and keep to the edge of the wood, admiring the views to the right across rolling countryside into Cambridgeshire. At the bottom of the wood, bear right towards the football pitch, just past which the path emerges, beside a wooden five-bar gate, onto a road.
3. Cross carefully and follow the lane opposite, past the sewage works and over a bridge. Pass the entrance to Lang Meadows on the right, then head left along a signposted bridleway. This well-defined track follows the field edge for 1.5km. At the black Pantiles Barn, take the path signposted left just after the building, which then crosses a field and continues southeast on the edge of the field, with the ditch on your left. After two fields, the path passes through the eastern edge of Harecroft Grove wood, then continues, hedged on both sides. At a path junction, turn left and cross a footbridge; the route is still attractively wooded on both sides and eventually leads to some steps, another bridge, then across a narrow field before turning left on the field edge leading to Ashdon Street Farm.
4. Head south along the tarmacked lane for 350m, then turn right at a black fingerpost onto a bridleway, heading downhill. Emerging onto a track, turn left with a brick wall on your right. Keep on the track, which bears left and then skirts Halt Cottage; the driveway to Springmead follows the disused railway line and the old carriage marking the Halt can still be seen in situ. Head east along the lane and, just before a bridge over a stream, turn right onto another field edge. At the field corner, a waymark indicates the path through a gap in the hedge and over a footbridge, continuing on the next field edge with the hedge on your right before forking right and then in 200 metres meeting the road. Turn left along the verge, past a property called The Lamb, then cross and take the footpath on the right, on a farm track with a view of the church to the left. Skirt a green metal barrier and the track climbs a slope, gaining a concrete surface near the top.
READ MORE: The day when a meteorite landed in the Essex countryside
5. Just before the right-hand bend is the site of the March 1923 meteorite strike. This is shortly to be marked with a commemorative carved-oak post, though there is no crater to show the exact spot. Once ready, continue on the track and turn left at the end. Keep right, heading towards an oak tree, then the route becomes fenced on both sides before emerging onto a lane at Burnt House. Towards the bottom of the lane take the path on the left, through a wooden gate, across the corner of the field to a bridge. Once over, turn left and the path soon links with a bridleway. Turn left along it, past Moor Pasture Cottage, and keep on the bridleway for 750m, at which point it crosses the stream and emerges onto the road beside the Ashdon Village Museum. Turn right and the road returns you to the Rose & Crown.
COMPASS POINTS
Distance: 7.1 miles (11.4km).
Starting point: The Rose & Crown public house, Crown Hill, Ashdon, postcode CB10 2HA, grid reference TL586421.
Access: On street parking is available. There is a bus stop at the pub, served by the 319 Haverhill - Audley End route (essexbus.info).
Map: OS Explorer 209 Cambridge.
Refreshment: The Rose & Crown was built in the early 17th century; the pub is reputed to be haunted and to have been partly used as a prison by Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War.
