Walk Haynes to Sandy 4 7.5 miles/11.5km
1 With care cross the A600, turn left and follow 4 Turn left and follow Thorncote Road for 440m the road verge for 40m to a permissive path then take the track on your right after passing on your right. The path through Warden the thatched cottages on your left. Follow Great and Warden Little Woods is permitted the waymarked track, across Bedford Road through an agreement between the landowner and continue through an avenue of trees and (Southill Estate) and Central Bedfordshire between arable fi elds onto Beeston Green. Council. The route cannot be used between 1st November and 1st March. During this 5 Turn left and follow the road for 160m to period minor roads to the south and east must The Crescent on your right. Go through an be used (see map). alleyway, use the footbridge to cross the A1 and head north along the pavement. Turn 2 At the road, cross straight ahead to Old Warden right into The Baulk that narrows from a road railway tunnel. Continue on the waymarked between houses into a hedged path that track that becomes a grassed headland before crosses the River Ivel. At this point, the route joining the lane immediately north of Sweetbrier crosses the ‘Kingfi sher Way’, a walk along the Farm. Turn left and follow the yew hedged lane River Ivel. before taking the second footpath on the right. 6 Turn right at the weir and follow the surfaced 3 Follow the grass track which leads down the path, crossing the river again after 500m and slope to a kissing gate in a tree belt. Continue leading into Ivel Road. Continue ahead to the through the horse paddocks, past Highlands High Street, Sandy. Farm and a small belt of trees; then follow the headland to Home Wood. Follow the waymarked woodland rides to a kissing gate. Leave the wood and pass between horse paddocks to a staggered barrier and continue along the track to Bedford Road. Turn right and follow the road into Northill with its 14th century church on your right. Barn owl
Northill Church
www.greensandridgewalk.co.uk Old Warden Tunnel St Mary’s Church, Northill Highlands Farm The 882 yard long Old Warden Tunnel St Mary’s Church dates from the 14th Century. Highlands Farm is a distinctive R was part of the former Midland Northill gets its name from Nortgivele, the Georgian farmhouse which iver Iv Railway between Bedford and Hitchin northern territory of the Gifl e tribe, in turn was used during World War 2 e (1857 – 1962). Before the Bedford taking its name from the River Ivel. to house prisoners of war who l Sandy to St.Pancras line opened in 1868, worked on nearby farms. this was the only rail route from this direction into London, linking with Home Wood the Great Northern Line at Hitchin. Home Wood contains a rare network of Sheerhatch 6 The The mounds above the tunnel are medieval fi shponds within a moat-like feature. Wood Pinnacle managed as a nature reserve by the It is thought the bank within the moat served Hatch Bedfordshire Wildlife Trust. as a rabbit warren. This site was an important Thorncote ‘living larder’ for the Lords of Northill Manor! Beeston 5
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u d a Haynes B St Warren e h r d a T a o t fo R w r e d 5 N 1 The River R Crescent oa Ivel d d R Beeston rd ha Green rc O A1 All maps are reproduced from Ordnance Survey material with River Ivel the permission of Ordnance Survey Keepers on behalf of the Controller of The River Ivel is the Warren Her Majesty’s Stationery Offi ce main watercourse in east Southill © Crown copyright. Unauthorised Bedfordshire. Fed by the Rivers Park reproduction infringes Crown Chicksands Ireland Hit, Flit and Hiz, it fl ows into Wood copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. the River Great Ouse to the Beeston Rowney north of Tempsford. Once Warren Central Bedfordshire Council 100049029 2012. an active navigation channel, Beeston was a medieval fl anked by many water mills, settlement, built around the river is now a haven for the large village green wildlife, supporting otters, which is still the focal Walk 4 kingfi shers and water voles. point of the village today.