A family day out on the chalk: short walks, picnics and things to spot
Planning a summer family day round Lilley, Offley and King's Walden: short walks with children, stiles and cattle, picnic manners, butterflies and ticks.
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Three villages on the chalk
King's Walden, Offley and Lilley sit on the last high ground of the Chilterns between Hitchin and Luton. This notebook follows their footpaths, reads their old churches and enclosure maps, and keeps track of what grows in the gardens and hedges.
Open the notebookOn the notice board
A first walk
Great Offley out to Little Offley and back over the chalk, with notes on mud, waymarks and the map.
Details hereReading the flint
Knapped flint, clunch, tufa and brick: how to date the three churches from the outside.
Details hereHow long will it take?
The walk timer turns distance and climb into a fair estimate using Naismith’s rule.
Details hereIn the rucksack
Maps, field guides and the few bits of kit that earn their place on these paths.
Details hereThe three villages and their churches
OffleySt Mary MagdaleneGreat and Little Offley on the high road to Hitchin, with the Icknield Way along the parish edge.
LilleySt Peter’sA street village under Telegraph Hill, with the open ground of Lilley Hoo to the east.
King’s WaldenSt Mary’sA village that moved to the road and left its church in the park, with hamlets scattered on the chalk.Lately in the notebook
Reading an OS Explorer map on the Chiltern edge
How to read an OS Explorer map around Lilley, Offley and King's Walden: rights of way symbols, contours on gentle chalk, grid references and bearings.
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Choosing binoculars for birding on open farmland
8x42, 10x42 or 8x32? A plain guide to choosing binoculars for farmland birds: exit pupil, field of view, close focus, waterproofing, prisms and eyecups.
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Winter bird feeding for a cottage garden on the chalk
What to feed garden birds in winter, how to keep feeders clean, where to hang them away from cats and glass, and which winter visitors to look out for.
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Your first season on a flinty chalk allotment
Taking on an allotment on thin, flinty chalk: clearing it in stages, feeding the soil, growing brassicas well and a month-by-month plan for year one.
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Sloes, blackberries and good manners: hedgerow foraging on the chalk
Picking blackberries, elderberries, sloes, rosehips, hazelnuts and crab apples from the hedges, with the lookalikes to avoid, the law and simple etiquette.
Read the pieceFor the armchair
- Words on the walls: brasses, tablets and boards, and how to read them.
- Mothering Sunday: the old mid-Lent customs, simnel cake and violets.
- Why King's Walden sits a mile from its church
- Lilley Hoo and its racing past
- Maps and field guides worth owning before the first walk.