Parametric data
- Route name:
- Hatfield
- Start point:
- Hatfield.
- End point:
- Stevenage.
- This route on OS maps:
- https://explore.osmaps.com/route/15785298/ ...
- Distance:
- 11.1 miles walked, 9.5 miles flown.
- :
- 3.9 hours.[1]
- :
- 4.2 hours.[2]
- Topology:
- Point to point (northward).
- Ascent:
- 173 metres.
- Stiles:
- 0 (zero).
- Landmark of note:
- Welwyn Roman Baths[3].
- Feasible excursion:
- A straighter route without the 1.6 mile zig-zag, perhaps. A more radical alternative would be to start from St Albans[4].
- Waypoints:
- Birchwood, Stanborough, Lemsford, Welwyn, Oaklands, Woolmer Green, Knebworth, Broadwater.
-
: -
6°C,[5] 🌫️ Dank,
with early mist.
-
: -
12°C,[5] 🌥️
and with unpleasant gusts of wind.
-
Avoiding roads: -
Walk along the Great North Road not in it 😌
-
Footpath construction: -
All tarmac.
-
Footpath condition: -
Rural footways are never swept. Tree debris builds up.
- Fuel:
- Lasagne at The Red Lion.
-
Vistas: -
The highest point is at the turn for Ayot Green, but there
is no view until opposite Deard's End Lane.
Blackberries:[6]-
It's February. As a largely roadside trek, opportunities
will be few.
Route map.
Route notes.
Oh bliss, oh joy, there is extra waiting to endure because of a
"shortage of train crew" on the way up and "trespassers on the
railway" on the return. The pain is all the more excruciating
because it needs almost £50 in train fares to reach
😫
I was so comfortable during my years as a couch potato. That,
however, was before February 2023 when I first attempted this
route. I then opted for a route free from winter mud, and it was
my furthest venture north to that date. Most of these notes were
written after attempt #1. The weather then was not enticing,
either, but I have deluded myself that the fine spring weather
this year might continue today.
I leave the station along with a dozen students heading for Hatfield Pol ... excuse me, The University of Hertfordshire. Fifty years have passed since I was at risk of being mistaken for a student rather than a knowledgeable local and so, pausing to get my bearings, I am asked for directions to Beaconsfield Road. Unfortunately, arriving at Hatfield feeling disorientated, I have to plead ignorance. When it dawns on me that I am already by the Great North Road, I point myself in a northerly direction and put best foot forward.
You don't need an education to follow this route. Once the mist lifts, you just follow the signs. One mile from the start I hit J4 of the A1(M) and, over the next four miles, I am treated to an earful of motorway. That's the price paid for mud-free walks during winter. The question is whether a shorter, quieter route can be found for use in the dry season. That's harder than you might think. Without waypoint hints, the OS App comes up with 12.1 miles. Its choice of route typically favours the rural while avoiding major roads, keeping even further west than the motorway and cutting through the grounds of Knebworth House toward the end. Whatever doubts there may be about this walk, that the week following proves this to be the better choice. Hmmm🤨
Little worth noting occurs until 330 metres before the roundabout at Stanborough on the A6129, when the OS suggests that you leave the perfectly good footway you are following, and continue your walk in the northbound carriageway. Its reasons for this advice are unfathomable.[7] Happily, you simply ignore it, continue using the footway to the next roundabout, cross there, and survive to walk another day. At Lemsford Springs the Survey again eschews a footway heading towards the roundabout. Use the path off to the left of the GNR.
Well, I think it is a good walk spoilt.
Sam Loates.
Before I leave Hatfield, be assured that I shall not bore you here with details of my paternal ancestry, as supplied after previous walks. Hertfordshire is the seat of the Smith, Ewington and Warner families who feature prominantly on my mother's side and you will find it of the greatest possible interest to learn that seven of these womenfolk were named Etheldra or Etheldreda. A possible explanation of this curious phenomenon I today learn from the church of St Etheldreda in nearby Old Hatfield. Unlike UoH, I make no charge for such valuable educational material.
Never mind, at least I have now escaped that scourge of the
walker in Surrey: golf courses. No chance, therefore, of
blundering into one at
Welwyn,
Brocket Hall
or
Knebworth, then. Splendid 👍
The next sign pointing west is a clue that
Shaw's Corner
is a couple of miles away. In my schooldays he was a
set text. I struggle to recall the previous stage production, or
the last broadcast of his work on TV or radio. In contrast, his
compatriot Oscar Wilde regularly enjoys top billing. Was
Harold Nicolson
right about the place after all? A few minutes later I am
passing
Sherrardspark Wood. Looks quite enticing, but I'm not taking the dog for a
walk.
I'm noticing road signs a lot today. The one coming up for Woolmer Green gets my attention because it confirms that I am still on the B197 that Wikipedia claims took the Great North Road from Hatfield to Stevenage. In 1862 Datchworth was home to James Howe Smith: my maternal gt2 grandfather, born in Suffolk during 1824. A genealogist has his work cut out researching anyone with the name Smith, but in James' case your task is doubly difficult because he moved around this area of Hertfordshire a good deal. Eventually, he pursues a career as a waiter in the Capital, and died in Fulham during 1889 whilst married to his third wife. Until you have been obliged to pursue around London of the Victorian era an individual named James Smith then you do not know the meaning of the word misery. More agreeably, Woolmer Green today provides me with a good lunch at the The Red Lion. Assistance is also there forthcoming with my unexpectedly pancaked battery.
Skirting Broadwater, birthplace of my gt3 grandmother Frances Warner (1785-1867). Doubt that she would recognise a square inch of it today.
To conclude, this route was just right for the 2023 winter walk, and was enjoyable in 2025 as well. However, nearing the end of the driest March for 60 years I should have gone off road for a quieter, green route instead of tarmac.