Walks

A gentle potter along the High Street by Kathryn Shreeve, from Roman times to the coaching days. It’s all on the level and works with a pushchair or wheelchair, apart from a couple of narrow pavements.

• Number 19: Tudor house, Georgian front, coaching archway and a clockmaker’s shop window
• The turnpike milestone outside number 16, from around 1742
• The Wealden house of about 1500, later The Bull inn
• The Crown & Falcon, built around 1530, where Pepys may have stayed
• The site of The Bell, the biggest coaching inn of all

• Starts at Huntsman Close car park, off the High Street (SG11 1RD)
• Route by Standon Parish Council: Walk 13 leaflet (PDF)

A fairly flat loop that takes in the old parts of both villages and follows the line of the old Buntingford railway along the River Rib. About 1.5 miles is on footpaths. There are no stiles, just a few steps.

• The High Street’s 16th-century houses and the old Fordhams store
• St Mary’s, Standon, with its separate tower and the Sadleir memorials
• Knights Court, a courthouse and then a school for about 400 years
• Standon’s old market place, The Star and The Bell
• The site of the Roman town where Ermine Street met Stane Street

Paths by the river can be muddy, and giant hogweed grows beside one stretch: don’t touch it. OS Explorer map 194.

• Starts at Huntsman Close car park, off the High Street (SG11 1RD)
• Route by the Hundred Parishes Society: Walk 105 leaflet (PDF)

An easy stroll for after Sunday lunch, out past Hole Farm, recorded as the manor of ‘Holle’ in 1307. In spring the fields are full of cowslips, primroses and bluebells.

• Hole Farm and its farmyard
• Waymarked field paths and kissing gates
• Spring flowers along the hedgerows

The route crosses the A10 dual carriageway on foot. Traffic is fast, so take great care, and choose another walk with children or dogs.

• Starts at The lay-by near the petrol station, where the old A10 meets the A120
• Route by Standon Parish Council: Walk 2 leaflet (PDF)

Out along the River Rib and the old railway line to Gatesbury, then up over the fields for one of the best views of Puckeridge. In the first century BC this was one of the most important trading places in southern England, and the Roman town of Braughing that followed stretched from Wickham Hill down to Puckeridge.

• The riverside path beside the old Buntingford railway
• Gatesbury House, from the early 17th century, and the site of a 1656 corn mill
• Buzzards overhead, and herons and kingfishers from the bridge
• The Iron Age earthwork at Gatesbury
• Spindle trees fruiting bright pink in autumn

• Starts at Community centre car park, Station Road (SG11 1TF)
• Route by Standon Parish Council: Walk 9 leaflet (PDF)