20 Sept 2020: St Albans to Jordans and Chesham

It was forecast to be the last sunny warm Sunday for the foreseeable future, so we decided to have an early start and get back home before the heat of the afternoon. As I write this nearly a week later wearing more clothes than I can remember, now with the central heating on it seems a lifetime ago!

Gary, Steve H and Ronny joined us at the Blacksmith's Arms and we left St Albans along the Ragged Hall Lane and Serge Hill route to Bedmond before heading south west through Chandler's Cross to Chorleywood and The Swillet. As the weather was dry, we followed a bridleway downhill along Old Shire Lane to the back of Newland Park, before climbing again to near Horn Hill. This cut out a long detour around the road, but was a bit scary going downhill on a path that was much stonier and rougher than I remembered. We went through Chalfont St Peter (taking a time-out to use the public toilets which are impressively open 24 hours a day except for Christmas Day) before using Welders Lane to get to Jordans village shop. Unfortunately their coffee machine was out of order, so we had to have cold drinks with our snacks, which we ate on the village green. The shop has been there since the 1920's when the village was built by the Quaker movement.

Jordans village store

After our morning break we retraced our steps and paused to look at the Quaker Burial ground next to the Jordans Quaker meeting house where William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, is buried. We next passed the millionaire's (or maybe billionaire's these days) mansions of Seer Green and the edge of Beaconsfield before travelling along Penn Bottom, then through Holmer Green and Little Missenden before dropping down to Chesham to have picnic lunch in the garden of The Pheasant pub. We sat by the river in the sunshine for a while before making a direct route back via Flaunden (where the newly re-opened Green Dragon was doing a roaring trade) and Chipperfield, getting home at about 2.45 after 53 miles.

Carol