Excursion to Ashridge Estate

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We didn’t remember the last time we had visited Ashridge Estate – the vast countryside estate, managed by the National Trust on the northwest outskirts of London – but our happy memories brought us back again on Friday, 15 May.

By morning on 15 May, it had stopped raining in London – the grey gloomy clouds had disappeared but a blue sky had appeared. We took the train from Euston and got off at Tring Station.

We did remember the way to access the country walk – a few minutes’ walk from the station – and it is off the main road. At the start point, we found the signposts for Aldbury village, Bridgewater Monument and Ivinghoe. We started walking for Aldbury village. We followed the footpath flanked with wildflowers, walking past the grazing field, saw sheep eating grass, wheat field, on the way to the village. Aldbury village hasn’t changed at all. We walked through the centre of the village – the post office, the pond with swans and ducks, timber-framed houses, ivy- and wisteria-covered house – looked as picturesque as other unspoilt English villages.

We started on the footpath for Bridgewater Monument on the north edge of the village. We had to walk uphill on the way to Bridgewater monument. All of the trees and shrubs had green foliage. We found carpets of green ferns and bluebells on foot of trees. It was lunch time when we reached the summit of Ashridge Estate on which Bridgewater Monument stands. We had brought a leisure sheet and a picnic lunch, and sat down on one of the fallen trunks. There were quite a few school children having a picnic lunch at the same time as us.

Mark had prepared the circular walk from the Internet. The walk led us to the woodland. We found various shapes of trees. Some of these trees looked very old – the trunks and branches growing horizontally, the roots were covered with mosses and lichen, and fungi were growing on the trunks – and they all showed us atmospheric, mysterious scenes, together with carpets of bluebells. We walked past the grazing field and found a herd of deer, cows. Admittedly, we only see trees, seasonal wildflowers while following the woodland walks. They all look the same whichever we go – it often makes it difficult to find the direction. Mark mistook the route and we got out to the middle of the mysterious woodland area – with the slightest sign of the civilization – where we were more likely to come across wild animals than humans. We found a herd of greyish wild deer flocking behind the bushes, which were a few metres away from where we were walking. I managed to take a couple of crucial photos of the wild deer walking through the woods. It was a great pity that the DHL car appeared – its noise of the industry car seemed to distract the wild deer – they ran away while the DHL car was going through the winding concrete road. In the meantime, Mark decided to go back to the junction where the circular route along the grazing field started. He found the correct route, and it led me to the Ashridge Common and we walked back to the summit of the Ashridge Estate. We sat down on the trunk a bit in the warm and sunny afternoon.



We popped in the National Trust gift shop and bought some jam and a book. The weather turned brighter and warmer; we enjoyed walking through the woodland, seeing the lush countryside and pastoral landscapes on the way back to the station.

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