Day 4 Moor Park to Elstree

I didn't even take my jacket with me! The BBC weather forecast said it was going to be good and I believed it. Today was a day of sun and scenery, golf  courses and mud, the occasional incident, lots of wandering and the odd wonder-where-I-am. And some nice friendly people. No canals.

Back to Moor Park station, and a traverse of my first golf course of the day. I'm not really used to golf courses, so I was slightly anxious whenever there were people nearby actually threatening to wield a club. Although to be fair, I don't think I saw anyone do the deed. Is it mostly walking and not much hitting? I didn't see a single golf ball all day. Leaving behind Sandy Lodge Golf Course I strode out across South Oxhey Playing Fields. Not only were they pleasant, green and litter-free but two men asked me if I was "London Looping" and made sure I knew the way out of the park! How friendly :-)

Oxhey Woods were lovely, the trees aren't fully in leaf so there's a lot of light still especially on a sunny day like today. I think it was in here I saw something the colour of a red setter but bigger disappear across the path ahead of me. It didn't look like a dog but there was no owner about so I was left clueless. As usual! The usual search engine tells me nothing of any wildlife. What I did like is that the book says "you may encounter mud in places" which seemed to mean "on the paths".

From there, Pinnerwood Farm showed that farmhouses aren't all Home Farm and Blossom Hill Cottage.

Victorian Farmhouse at Pinnerwood Farm

Pinnerwood House a moated farmhouse

Shortly after was the first 'incident'. Followers may recollect some issues last year with over friendly cattle. Today, a "dilapidated kissing gate and footbridge" had transformed itself into a quite new wooden stile complete with a horse facing me on the other side and lots of its friends close by. Helpfully, the London Loop sign confirmed that this was the correct route. The stile guardian shook its head and trotted off but a much larger black horse came over to check me out. All the while two of the friends were eating the grass to the side of the stile. There were 15-20 horses in this field of varying sizes but not calm, they were being active, running around, arguing with each other a little. I didn't know how accustomed to strange walkers wearing bright orange t-shirts they might be. I climbed the stile. A different little horse (pony?) came up and wanted to nuzzle or ask for food, so I patted it, the others seemed fairly disinterested (I'll think about whether that or uninterested is the right word later) and so I slowly but steadily made my through their paddock. A couple of their chums were so nonplussed that they were less concerned than I when I walked between them.

The stile without horse

The friendly little brown horse/pony

The original grey stile guardian & no2 checker

I lived to tell the tale but I did have versions of the local news story going through my head 'Walker found trampled by horses - what was she thinking of  (was clutching book)'.

Onwards through Hatch End and off to Harrow Weald Common, where I misplaced my posts. It did mean that I found a very fine house and took time to take some pictures but I was very confused as to what I had or hadn't done. I was going in the right general direction but the descriptions in the book weren't making sense. The house in question is Grim's Dyke and "was designed by R Norman Shaw in 1872 for Frederick Goodall, painter; and was later home of W S Gilbert, writer and librettist, from 1890 to 1911, who drowned in the lake". The odd thing to me is that the official path doesn't take you to the house, which really is worth a view. It's now a hotel, so not averse to people wandering up and around.

Grim's Dyke

Blue plaque for W S Gilbert

View over one of the gardens

I don't really know this area of greater London at all. It's got a lot of green spaces and what looks like some very nice places to live. Little quirky things of interest pop up too. For example, Bentley Priory house is Victorian and impressive. It was Fighter Command HQ in the Battle of Britain.

Italianate tower at Bentley Priory

Stanmore Little Common was very picturesque, complete with senior couple on a bench as well as a friendly cat. Who knew London could be like this? I'm not sure where Waitrose is though.

Pond

I crossed under the M1 and had to leg it across Watling Street. I finished walking across yet another golf course. How long do you think it is before they hand out helmets for you to wear before you walk your dog or go for a run on a golf course? Arriving at Elstree was fascinating and I've now learned that the tired end of the day is not the best time to make judgements :-) I'll be back there in the morning. I'll leave you with some signs from today.

How do you know if they're telling the truth?

Attendants, staff, personnel but not members....