Central London CTC blog

The one star trio enjoyed a really sensational ride. For the eyes, plenty of green and blue and white – blue sky, blue carpets in the green woods, white clouds, cow parsley rioting in the verges. For the nose, we were lucky enough to come upon a verge-trimming tractor, so we inhaled the scent of new-mown grass. Our ears were entertained by the songs of the birds, including a yellowhammer trilling ‘little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese’. And for our skin, the warmth of the sun and the contrasting coolness of the woods, most marked when we passed along the northern edge of Ayot Montfitchet wood, where the air had not been touched by the sun’s rays and the overnight chill could still be felt even in the afternoon. Wildlife interest included the bluebells and the cow parsley already mentioned, plus a pair of kites circling in the thermals north of Kimpton and a startled deer in Simonshyde woods. As for the taste buds, may we recommend the cakes at Emily’s.

Enough of the pastoral rhapsody you murmur, what about the cycling, and the railwaymen come to that. Well, with a threesome well matched for speed, we fairly spun along, and covered 53km from the station to the signal box. We headed out along Jersey Lane, across Nomansland, over the old Great Northern line which ran from Welwyn to Dunstable (and beat the Midland to Luton by ten years) and the Lea and round to Kimpton on the small lanes. Some even tinier lanes took us the circuitous and hilly route to the valley of the Mimram and the watercress beds at Whitwell.

We picked up some green stuff at a farmyard stall in an outbuilding that is one of the Telegraph newspaper’s top 50 farm shops, and then we headed for lunch at Emily’s. All the customers had arrived by bike it seemed, and from all corners of the cycling fraternity, from sleek racers to mums with baskets, from mountain bikes to Moultons. After our quiche with potato salad and watercress garnish, cake and coffee, we ambled off southward to Kimpton Mill. Down the Mimram then up to Ayot St Peter, and a pause to persuse the exterior and churchyard of the 1874 Arts and Crafts church. Next we rode along a section of the Great Northern route now called the Ayot Greenway, to ford the Lea just east of Wheatampstead. Southwards to Oaklands and onto the Alban Way, another Great Northern route, this one from Hatfield to meet the LNWR St Albans terminus, again predating the Midland by 10 years. Our chance to pay tribute to the Midland was at the St Albans South Signal Box, a listed building dating from 1892, taken out of service in 1979 and newly restored and now opening on the second and fourth Sunday afternoon of each month. Upstairs you get to pull the levers, downstairs is tea and biscuits!