{"id":2544,"date":"2014-06-15T16:53:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T16:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:13:26","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:13:26","slug":"on-the-icknield-way-royston-to-great-chesterford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2014\/06\/on-the-icknield-way-royston-to-great-chesterford\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Icknield Way – Royston to Great Chesterford"},"content":{"rendered":"

I walked this stage of the Icknield Way Path expedition<\/a>\u00a0at the end of May 2014.<\/p>\n

I arrived at Royston and picked up the Icknield Way east towards Great Chesterford, a hike of about twelve miles.<\/p>\n

Leaving Royston took me over the Greenwich Meridian<\/a>, a good place to check that one’s compass is actually working (mine was).<\/p>\n

\"Greenwich
Greenwich Meridian outside Royston<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Half an hour later I was on the trail proper.<\/p>\n

\"Icknield
Icknield Way marker post<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The countryside looked and felt exuberant in the early summer light.<\/p>\n

\"Countryside
Summer on the Icknield Way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a couple of hours I discovered\u00a0I had crossed the county border and was now in Essex. \u00a0This came as something of a (pleasant) surprise as I was expecting to be in Hertfordshire.<\/p>\n

I haven’t hiked in Essex at all but am keen to do so, it’s a large county just asking for exploration.<\/p>\n

\"Essex
Essex!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the village of\u00a0Chrishall I came across an old water pump.<\/p>\n

\"Old
Old pump, Chrishall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and a rather spooky abandoned cottage. \u00a0Looks like something out of the\u00a0Blair Witch Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Spooky
Spooky cottage, Chrishall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I ate my lunch beside\u00a0the fine church at Elmdon.<\/p>\n

\"St
St Nicholas church, Elmdon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The countryside was gently rolling and very inviting in the afternoon sun. \u00a0I sat down for a break and watched fighter jets from the nearby Duxford air show as they looped-the-loop and\u00a0pirouetted in the summer sky.<\/p>\n

\"Near
Near Strethall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did consider a short siesta but time was against me as I wanted to catch the hourly train at Great Chesterford.<\/p>\n

\"Near
Near Strethall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last half hour or so of the hike took me across\u00a0fields…<\/p>\n

\"Towards
Towards Great Chesterford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…and through\u00a0 green corridors.<\/p>\n

\"Green
Green corridor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then, suddenly, I was on a footbridge above a busy dual-carriage way and jogging the final 100 metres to Great Chesterford\u00a0station where I could see my train pulling-in. \u00a0Just on time!<\/p>\n

Essex is a fine county indeed, one I’m looking forward to seeing more of. \u00a0As for the Icknield Way, the next stage is a long one, 18 miles or so, perhaps this calls for a cheeky wild camp? We’ll see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walked this stage of the Icknield Way Path expedition\u00a0at the end of May 2014. I arrived at Royston and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,109],"tags":[110,75,32,142,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2577,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}