Mother’s Day - a mother writes …
Posted on Wednesday 5 March 2008 by Rona Wightman
Some mothers get pampered by their families on Mothering Sunday and taken out to lunch. Your leader today dragged her family and six other hardy souls out on a brisk ride in the Hertfordshire lanes!
Concerned that pubs would be full of namby-pambies and their mums, and thus a good lunch at a fair price would be even rarer than the normal hens’ teeth rarity, we hightailed over to Southdown (a district of Harpenden) for brunch at the Brown Box cafe. No hens’ teeth, but omelettes, chips and Heart Attack All Day Breakfast Specials fortified us for a scamper over the rolling countryside via Leasey Bridge, Marshalls Heath, Mackereye End, Porter’s End, Kimpton Grange, Claggy Cottage and The Holt to Whitwell.
First stop the watercress beds at the west end of the village, where we purchased freshly picked cress and various fruit and veg. Second stop Emily’s tea room, what a brilliant place Superb home baking and a range of inner tubes available to purchase. This was our furthest out point. We rolled down the Mimram valley to Kimpton Mill, then hoisted ourselves up Tanyard Lane into Ayot St Lawrence, then down to cross the Lea again, making use of the track that brings you out just east of Wheatampstead. Straight over the Belgic Oppidum to the Roman Road into Sandridge and then back into St Albans by Jersey Lane.
Good company, good food, good weather (could have been warmer!), playstops at Southdown and Marshalls Heath, bit of history, lovely landscape, some well-surfaced bridleway, some gravel-strewn quiet lanes. What a great day out!