12 Jul 2025: Woodland delight, a 10 mile circular walk around Chipperfield and Bovingdon

This was a circular walk of 10 miles from Chipperfield, N to Apsley, W over Felden, SW near to Bovingdon Green, then SE to Chipperfield.

The usual stats:

Event led by Tom M.
Attendance: 6 men.
Distance: 10.01 miles (16.1 km).
Altitude per GPS: low 505ft (153.9m), high 761ft (232m), climb 603ft (183.8m), descent 675ft (205.7m).
Time: start 11:09, end 15:52 (sunset 21:16), lunch 34 minutes, other breaks 15 minutes.
Speed: moving arithmetic average 2.58mph (4.2kph).
Weather: sunny, temperature up to 30°C, easterly wind ~12mph (19.3kph).
Number of sewage works: 0.
Number of churches: 0.
Number of golf courses: 1.

Points of interest:

Much of the route was very rural and very quiet, featuring gorgeous views over fields – including an interesting and nuanced view over Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead at lunchtime – and a fair selection of well-maintained countryside residences.
One part of the route was ruthlessly urban, a short walk along the London Road at Apsley, a suburb of Hemel Hempstead, infamous for hosting medium-sized retail parks. After a very steep set of steps to cross the West Coast Main Line railway, we returned to the countryside.
The route took us across Roughdown Common, part of the Box Moor Trust Estate, is a chalk hill which dominates the south side of Hemel Hempstead and is one of Hertfordshire’s few remaining examples of unimproved chalk grassland. It was designated as an SSSI in 1953 for the number of plant speices found on the terrain. The citation notes that the land is grazed by sheep to maintain it; today, we saw little evidence of sheep, and the grasses were notably taller than one would have expected of sheep-grazed.
The Box Moor Trust Estate also owns Bury Wood. Open Spaces Society claimed that the Planning Inspectorate granted its application to register Bury Wood as common land on 12Sep2023, a prior application in 1968 having failed due to one objection.
Unexpected Morris dancers in the pub area! At the start of the walk, a troop of Morris dancers were finishing a dancing session outside the Two Brewers Pub, Chipperfield. Oh, well, we missed them, then. Shame. At the optional pub stop at the end of the walk, somebody noticed a sign that Morris dancers were to arrive imminently. The Morris dancers included troops from Wimbledon, Harrow and Nottingham, all three troops of which performed two set-piece dances each, followed by a finale that featured all three troops at once. A most entertaining and pleasant surprise! A notable feature of all of the dances – particularly those involving sticks – is the extreme discipline and timing of the dance. Another notable feature is the role of “the fool”: typically a leader of the troop, the “fool” is the dancer whose moves interrupts – or seeks to interrupt – the flow of other dancers, sometimes forcing a rotation of the dance partners. Throughout, musical accompaniment comes from one or two Morris dancers playing traditional instruments, typically performing a ditty, or a diggly-diggly piece, in strict tempo, and at a fair pace.

Golf courses:

Shendish Manor Golf Course, a rather well-appointed private golf club what also does an hotel. It is keenly priced for familes amongst the hoi-polloi, centred around golf with enough entertainments for the non-golfers. Such entertainment includes, “take a short drive for shopping to Apsley or Hemel Hempstead”.

6 members attended the optional pub stop at The Windmill pub, Chipperfield.

For more pictures, see https://bit.ly/GOCChipperfield072025pics .