Sat 19th June 2010 - Leg13 : Bishop's Stortford to Hare Street - 11.4 miles

It was a fresh and breezy morning when at 9.20am President David, the Diplomat, the Alpaca sheerer, Pharmaceutical Consultant and Construction Engineer left Bishop Stortford on the penultimate leg of the Polio+ walk. The town meanwhile was girding ups its loins for the annual Fete and Fun day.


Bishop Stortford dates back to well beyond the 11th century when Bishop Maurice of London built Waytemore Castle to oversee the very key position, the ford over the River Stort, for William the Conqueror. Wayte means place of ambush and more a fen or marsh. The ford was a troublesome spot before the fort was built.
 The town has two other people of great distinction. Cecil Rhodes of South Africa fame, who was born there, founder of the two Rhodesia’s and the owner of what was then the largest diamond mine in the world, Kimberley. It is still being mined to this day. The second Sir George Jackson opened the canal in 1769 and was a major shareholder in it. He was also a promoter of Captain Cook who later named Port Jackson in New South Wales and Point Jackson in New Zealand in his honour.

It was but a short walk from the station and down the high Street and through the playing fields to the countryside. The ground under foot was cracked and dry but despite the longish dry period we have had, the fields and hedgerows were verdant. The latter were peppered with blushing pink and white dog roses and there was an abundance of Elder Flowers which people were already starting to collect for Elder Flower cordial and wine. Judging from the sloes on the Blackthorn they did not suffer too badly from frosts.

After passing under the A120 we entered Hadham Park and soon reached the Hall. Hadham Hall is a Tudor building parts of which date back to 1575. It was once owned by the ancestors of the Earls of Essex. The 2nd Earl of Essex, Robert Devereaux, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I suffered the fate of ambitious men of the time by being thrown into jail for his failure as a general in Ireland. He was later banished and finally beheaded on his return for leading a rebellion against her.

Outside the gatehouse you will find a boulder of pudding stone but no Crème Anglaise. Pudding stone is in geological terms known as a conglomerate and as such fairly rare. Hertfordshire Pudding Stone consists of well rounded flints and sandstone pebbles cemented together by a matrix of silica quartz. Similar stones can also be found in Essex. In cross section it looks like concrete.

The hall grounds are now an upmarket housing development and business park.

Our next port of call was Partmore Heath which has an outstanding area of grass heathland and as it is such a scarce habitat in the south east is a SSSI. It’s the heath has a number of rare plants and its ponds are the home for thee forms of newts including the locally rare palmate newt.

Lunch was taken after 6.2 miles at the Catherine Wheel in Gravesend where we arrived at 11.30 am. The hospitality of the house was first class and both the food and drinks were reasonably priced.

The afternoon stroll to Hare Street was unfortunately spoiled by a few short sharp showers, none of which got us a wet as having to fight our way along a previously cleared path through chest high oilseed rape. Under the weight of the seed it had bowed over to cover our route. Unfortunately the path had previously been trafficked by horses which made the ground below the rape dangerous underfoot.

In addition to the dog roses the hedge rows and field edges were covered with oxeye daisy, red and white campion, teasles, blackberry and many other flowers. The remnants of last months May could be found and their seeds were setting ready to feed the birds through the winter.

Along the way we saw many Burdock plants. In my younger days we used to enjoy the soft drink made from dandelion and burdock which has I believe has been drunk since 1265. Can it be found today? The root of the burdock also has many herbal uses. It seems, in the past, to have been used as a cure all being a cure for common colds, arthritis, sore throats etc. and it was taken as a diuretic and for purify the blood. In modern medicine it is use in oncology and also reputedly used to treat other serious health problems.

As we walked through Mutfords, we past a field full of post war vintage Austin and Rover cars.

We arrived at Hare Street at about 3.00pm having enjoyed yet again a great day out in the Hertfordshire countryside.

Jim Webb

Approaching Little Hormead