In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen. This month in the SE of England it’s an Indian summer and yesterday Bertie and I went to Hertfordshire.
It’s a county I have tended to go through in a car or train or fly over. Yesterday we went to Stanstead Abbotts; north of the M25, close to the A10 and midway between Luton and Stansted airports. Pevsner cannot work up much enthusiasm and only mentions its two churches. We saw one from the outside but of the one we didn’t see (St James’) he writes “there are few churches in the county which have so well preserved an 18th-century village character”. It is Grade I listed as being of outstanding interest as a medieval church with an unrestored 18th-century interior.
I chose Stanstead Abbotts for a walk because it is halfway between Barons Court and a friend who brought her Labrador. We started north into open country before circling round down a beautiful valley with the River Ash running through it.
The Ash is a chalk stream and work is in progress to improve it to benefit brown trout, water vole, kingfishers and make the habitat more attractive for other fauna and flora. Then as we looped back towards SA we came to the Amwell Nature Reserve centred on a re-purposed gravel pit. It’s known for having twenty-one species of dragon fly and being a haven for migratory birds in the winter. We saw swans, cormorants, an egret, a buzzard, gulls but others more patient and with binoculars were seeing more.
The nature reserve is on The River Lee Navigation. The River Lee (or Lea) runs from Hertford to the Thames and was canalised to make it navigable. There are houseboats moored along the bank and, nearer SA, a marina with those funny little white boats with hoods and chrome rails that look like floating prams – definitely common.
Our circular walk was five miles and took two hours. There was plenty for us to see and for Bertie and Perdita to smell – they were off leads most of the time. Lunch with fish in a pub garden ensued.