Pootle with Mum

Friday 2 April

We fancied a couple of hours of aimless bumbling around and decided to try and locate where in Bailey Park the former open-air swimming pool would have been. The pool was apparently opened in 1938 and closed in the mid-1990s, although it wasn’t demolished and filled in until around ten years later. This picture taken in 2003 shows a picture of the then-derelict pools.

Looking across the yard of the tyre place to Blorenge beyond

There’s an Abergavenny Lido Group campaigning to bring an open-air pool back to the town - no idea what their chances of success are. This plan from the website of the ALG shows the footprint of the pool at the north-west side of the park, which helped us locate it.

We walked through the town and across Fairfield Car Park into the park beyond. This bit of the park seems to be set up as some sort of sensory garden. Beyond this, there was an abandoned-looking stretch of grass which was pretty clearly the former pool site. It’s this bit circled in black on this snip from Google Maps.

Site of the open-air pool

We left the park at the north end and turned right along Park Avenue and then left onto Hereford Road. We walked up as far as the junction with Grosvenor Road and looked briefly for any evidence of the railway cutting that crossed under the Hereford Road at this point. There’s not much to be seen – the wall on the west side of the road is quite high and on the right there’s just a small patch of wasteland before some housing begins. Guessing much of the trackbed has been built over.

Blorenge, looking south from Hereford Road

Bridge over the former railway line, courtesy of Street View

The railway line that passed here was the Merthyr, Tredegar and Abergavenny Railway. Mum and Dad had an interesting 1916 map of the town, which showed this line clearly. The line ran between Abergavenny and Merthyr Tydfil, stopping at such places as Govilon, Brynmawr and Ebbw Vale. It closed to passengers in 1958.

We turned down Richmond Road and went down the steps onto Ross Road, where we joined a path running through a grassy area between the road and the river Gavenny. This eventually reaches a footbridge, which we crossed and walked up along the river coming out on Sycamore Avenue, just by the a residential conversion of the former Pen-y-Fal Hospital.

The River Gavenny from the footbridge

Path alongside the river

The hospital is shown on the 1916 map as the 'County Lunatic Asylum'.

The snip from the 1916 map also shows the Asylum Chapel, which for a while now has been in the process of conversion into apartments. The development appears to be on the market via Savills.

Pen y Fal chapel

After leaving the Pen y Fal site we walked briefly down the road and turned left onto Coed Glas Lane and followed the lane through to where it comes out on Holywell Crescent. We made our way back to Mum and Dad’s house via Holywell Road and Fosterville Crescent, stopping for a snoop at this enormous semi which has been a single residence until relatively recently but is now undergoing conversion.

Houses on Fosterville Crescent

House undergoing work

Walk to the south-east of MK, 10.9 miles

Sunday 21 March

Bit longer than planned, this one. But it was nice to get out with Hai again and explore an area I’ve not walked in before.

We walked from Hai’s place through Walnut Tree and past the big houses in Wavendon Gate to Wavendon village. Stopped to take this picture of the church, and then took the footpath opposite leading through the recreation ground and another field to come out on a lane. We stopped briefly here to look at some ponies and then eschewed a further field in favour of just walking down the lane to come out on the A5130 (or I should say the former A5130 - the Wikipedia entry says it was declassified a few years ago).

St Mary's, Wavendon

Ponies

Here we turned right towards Woburn Sands. As we approached Frosts garden centre, Hai suggested checking whether the café was open – it wasn’t, but I did take the opportunity to use their toilets. We carried on through Woburn Sands, over the level crossing (which was closed to traffic but we were allowed to walk over it with care) and along as far as the little road signposted to Aspley Heath (Church Road), which we took. The Royal Oak has gone all-out setting itself up for outdoor drinking, with heaters and cute little pods, so I really hope it makes some money once it’s allowed to open. We carried on up the road past the church.

Church Road is dead nice with a variety of housing, including some swish new-builds – I’ve just ‘been up’ the road again via Street View, but the capture date is 2016 so it doesn’t show the new builds. It does, however, show this Huf Haus under construction – it’s now complete, with a gate obscuring part of it but I recognized the distinctive roof (plus, there’s a sign outside with the company’s name on it).

Huf Haus under construction. Pic from Google Street View

We turned off onto a lane leading onto some heathland and walked along paths here for a while.

I wanted to head in the direction of Bow Brickhill in order to make it a circular walk, but neither of us could get our bearings, and there wasn’t much signage (should really learn how to use that compass). We ended up coming out onto a minor road a little east of Longslade Lane car park, and had to walk westwards along this for a while, eventually reaching Woburn golf course. Loads of people parked along the road here, with mountain bikes and suchlike. 

Where we came out onto the road (pic from Street View)

Woburn golf course

We took the little road leading straight ahead that eventually descends a steep hill. The village of Bow Brickhill seems entirely set out along this hill – some cute little houses but must be a devil of a road to drive up or down, especially as there were cars parked all along one side. I wasn’t envying the drivers.

Bow Brickhill

After this point the walk turned into a bit more of a slog, though we did stop at The Wheatsheaf on Station Road at Hai’s suggestion for a takeaway cup of tea, which we drank on one of the tables out the front. After this we crossed the V10 and walked through Caldecotte Lake Business Park and up the lake path for a bit before turning back up through Walnut Tree to Kents Hill.

Our route:

Walk to Stony Stratford and back, 6.4 miles

Some exercise on a pretty grey Saturday morning. I should really have driven to Stony and parked there, as if you walk from Wolverton a large chunk of the mileage is taken up with trekking along Stratford Road and back again. However, for whatever reason I didn't feel like driving this morning, so walked from my flat.

Walking west out of Wolverton along Stratford Road

I walked along Stratford Road as far as Watermill Lane and then turned down the lane towards Wolverton Mill. I think the mill building is residential now.

Wolverton Mill

A path - part of the Ouse Valley Way - crosses the road in front of the mill here. I turned left (by the yellow post in the picture) and continued along the path into Stony Stratford Nature Reserve. The path passes under the A5 and comes out on the road near the bridge over the Ouse.

Path about to go under the A5

I crossed the road and walked into Stony Stratford. Turned off the High Street down York Road and walked along Mill Lane and Silver Street, passing Market Square.

Streets around Market Square

Sat briefly by the war memorial on Horsefair Green. Walked a bit of the way down Calverton Road but then turned back towards Wolverton (not wanting to end up walking through Fullers Slade or Greenleys).

War memorial

Returned to Wolverton Park via the Old Wolverton Road industrial area. Not very scenic but at least different from the outward route.

Old Wolverton industry

Map of route:

Unboxing

Unboxing. It's a thing, apparently. Putting the term into YouTube reveals any number of videos of people taking new purchases out of boxes. There are child unboxers, and there’s been the inevitable debate about whether children should watch these videos.

Google claims that the questions on the right are the sorts of things people ask about unboxing. Slightly puzzled by the second one, as I would have thought the answer was "open the box and take out the contents", but perhaps there's a lot more to it than I realise.

Anyway. Here are a few photos of things I have unboxed during this delightful past year. I wasn’t going to film myself exclaiming over the contents.

Exhibit A: Kimchi from 'Kimchi With Everything'. I'd been finding it hard to get hold of the Chongga kimchi that's my favourite, so thought I should try another brand, and this one seemed to be well reviewed. It was OK. It came with a small advice card, apologising in advance for any leaks and advising that lids on fermented products can't be overly tightened as this "will eventually cause a small kimchi bomb from pressure build up". A messy thought.

Sticking with the Korean theme: Shin ramyun. And Clearwipe lens wipes. Both from Amazon.

And more of the same.

Online purchases from Boots: first time I'd ever shopped online with them. New hot water bottle and some facial products.

A Sonos speaker. Bit more of an extravagance, this one, but mainly paid for with Quidco cashback from signing up to a new BT broadband and TV deal last year.

And here I am warmly embracing it.

New Nike Pegasus trainers. My third pair of these, I think.

And finally. Not unboxing, more un-packeting. But who knew you could get click-and-collect M&S underwear?

Walk near Caldecotte Lake, 6.8 miles

Saturday 27 February

Met up with Hai for our first walk since before Christmas. This was a gorgeous day and really felt spring-like. We were both wearing sunglasses and I took my coat off about half way through.

I drove to Hai's place in Kents Hill and we set out across through Walnut Tree and Walton Park to join the path running alongside Caldecotte Lake. We followed this around the northern edge of the lake and across to come out on Simpson Road, where we joined the canal towpath heading south.

Northern bit of Caldecotte Lake

The canal passes under the A5 and then down past industrial areas, then through Fenny Stratford where we sat for a couple of minutes by the lock while I did some map-consulting. Hai (who is twenty years younger than me) commented on the fact that I'm still carrying paper maps. Well, yes I am. I do like maps, although I'm not the greatest map reader; I'm OK with roads and footpaths but a bit shaky on things like contour lines and field boundaries.

Passing under the A5

Canal near Fenny Stratford

Fenny Lock

After the lock, we carried on down the towpath as far as the Millward Drive development (where I once viewed a flat) and turned left onto Watling Street. We walked a little way along, past Pink Punters and turning in by Dobbies. The road becomes a footpath with the River Ouzel on your left. This stretch has a bit of a wasteland air about it. The path goes under the railway (the Bletchley to Bedford line) and then under the A5 (again). 

Between the railway and the A5

Back at Caldecotte Lake

I had meant to get on to a footpath taking us across the railway and along to Bow Brickhill, but managed to miss this and we ended up back on the path around Caldecotte Lake. Loads of people out - families with pushchairs, runners, cyclists; we had to continually dodge cyclists, but it was quite nice to see people out enjoying the sun.

We carried on up the lakeshore path to where we'd joined it and then walked back to Hai's. Our route below in red.