Yesterday my brother and I met up to go for a stroll in the countryside. The route had been thrown together in about two minutes of glancing at maps so we didn't have too much hope of it being anything other than a bit of much needed exercise for us both. It turned out to be rather better than expected and, as long as you keep the recommended two metres away from your computer screen, you're welcome to join us!
We started at the church in Orwell and immediately had to ascend the dizzy heights of Toot Hill which is all of 100 feet (30m) above the level of the street!
It does however give a surprisingly extensive view over the surrounding area. And that's what "toot" means: a lookout or vantage point. It was probably one of the reasons why there was a settlement here in the first place. The other was the well or spring which gives the village its name, as Orwell means "the well by the hill".
Near the top there is an old clunch pit. Clunch is any slightly harder outcrop of the predominant chalk rock which was exploited for building material. It's not a particularly hard-wearing building stone, though it does have the advantage of being very easily shaped into handy shapes for construction - you can't have it both ways!
Our route then took us downhill again and across the A603 road, which follows the line of an old Roman road, and into arable farming country. This land is farmed by the National Trust as part of their Wimpole Hall Estate so there are more trees, hedges and wildlife than on some arable farms. The path leads up again onto the chalk ridge.
Once on the ridge there's a wide path which was once a road known as the Mare Way. It's a very old route indeed, sometimes thought to be Roman, but probably much older than that. It runs for several miles across South Cambridgeshire; parts of it are now road, a few short sections have been ploughed up, but most of it forms an easy, pleasant walking route. The plant adding a little colour is Lucerne (known elsewhere as Alfalfa) which occurs wild in the UK and is also grown as a fodder crop.
We then turn off down the old Wimpole road towards Cobb's Wood farm. Cobb's Wood was named after Geoffrey Cobbe who was Lord of the Manor here around 650 years ago. In 1381 he joined the Peasant's Revolt. He was condemned as a traitor and only survived because of a pardon from the king.
This is the track Les and I often follow when we walk in the grounds of Wimpole Hall, but today we turn off by the Old Wood Yard.
The buildings of the former blacksmith's forge and the woodyard house are now beautifully restored, having at one time become rather dilapidated. Behind the house we found a very long-maned horse.....
The next field had a sign warning that a bull was in it, but it was thankfully deserted. The field after that also seemed empty, till we were half-way across when some cows suddenly galloped out from the barn. And they were accompanied by.....
…..a very muscular bull. Fortunately he was only interested his womenfolk and let us walk through unmolested. We didn't even need to go through this pasture as there was another track, just slightly longer, that we could have followed through woodland, though I wasn't sure whether it was open to walkers or not.
We eventually joined up with that wooded route anyway. There was once a village called Wratsworth around here which was mentioned in the Domesday Book but had declined to almost nothing by the 14th century. There's still an old moat marked on the map.
And our walk ended back at St Andrew's Church in Orwell.
Take care.
