Moor Park to Hatch End
"A very green and quite short section” says the guide. Thus encouraged having completed Section 13 instead of doing the sensible thing and walking to Moor Park Station, getting the Underground back to the car and being home early I chose instead to carry on to Hatch End. Only another 4 miles or so, can’t be too bad. From the path junction just outside the Moor Park Estate I headed away from the Metropolitan Line trains passing behind the trees and struck out on a broad grass path towards some electricity pylons (yes I know the correct term is towers but everyone calls them pylons) and across Sandy Lodge Golf Course. Does anything sound more Home Counties than Sandy Lodge Golf Course?
The route goes right across the course so there are lots of signs warning you to beware of flying balls from the left or right where you cross a fairway. Although quite what you’re supposed to do if there’s one coming at you I don’t know. I’ve no idea what the protocol is either, who gives way to whom? Golfers or walkers? Anyway I made it across without incident then through a small wood and out onto a lane and turned right down to a T junction near a petrol station. There are supposed to be fine views to the north over the Colne Valley here but they must have been hiding behind the summer foliage. Having crossed the road at the island by the petrol station and after a couple of goes found the right path, (which does not appear to have a green metal squeeze barrier that the guide indicates any more) I found myself climbing up into the woods again following the way marks until I emerged onto the tree-studded open area of South Oxhey Playing Fields, cutting straight across to a welcome sturdy bench, ideal for stopping for a drink of squash and a Twix.
I was undisturbed while I took a break, distant dog walkers being the only other sign of life apart from the distant houses that lay ahead. Pushing on out of South Oxhey Playing Fields and a brief bit of road walking through South Oxhey’s northern edge I entered the woods called Old Furze Field at the end of a short street called Nairn Green. I’ve been to Nairn, the town in Scotland and it’s not especially green. It is considerably less muddy than these woods though. Following the way marks wasn’t too hard but in places the going was quite unpleasant, on a few occasions the path was too gloopy and jungle-bashing was needed to find a way past. And all this time I was still going up. By the time I’d climbed up to drier ground and crossed Prestwick Road I’d renamed Old Furze Field as Fox Ache Woods in my head.
At a T junction of paths in Nanscot Wood I had a decision to make. Turn left and follow Section 14 proper which the guide says some of the fields can be impassable without wellies after wet weather or turn right to follow a route along better drained tracks and roads but missing the view over London which is probably the most notable feature on Section 14? Not without a little trepidation I turned left. Shit or bust, what could possibly go wrong?
Nothing as it turned out. The possibly impassable field turned out to be so dry that the only small risk was turning an ankle in a dried-up hoof-print. You do get a good view over London and despite it being a little hazy Wembley Arch was easy to make out and I could see the top of The Shard because where can’t you see it? I went downhill into Pinnerwood Farm yard, squeezed between the parked vehicles to locate the path out the other side through another wood and along the drives of the cottages hidden in the woods and past the early 18th century Pinnerwood House, glimpsed between the trees and across its garden pond. It was home to the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the 1830s. As well as being an author he was a politician and cabinet minister but he’s far away, buried in Westminster Abbey, probably not on a dark and stormy night fitting as that might have been.
A short walk along a concrete drive, left along a narrow footpath and across a couple of untidy paddocks, through a broken gate and along the back of a row of houses and I reached the signpost marking the end of Section 14 and start of 15.
London Loop Section 14 ✔︎
The alleyway in the above photo took me out into suburban Hatch End where I walked to the station. I’ve no idea what was going on here with these unattended items. No one seemed to be taking any notice of them, no one appeared to be with them. Alien abduction?
Anyway the TfL Go app suggested a bus to Rayners Lane and Piccadilly Line back to Hounslow West so I left the station and hopped on the H14. Shortly after which it began raining so that was bloody good timing! It had stopped by Rayners Lane and since it was already gone four o’clock I went for coffee in Costa next to the tube station before getting the rush hour tube. Not too busy to Acton Town but predictably the first westbound train was rammed. I let it go and was delighted to find the next one was half empty. Win!
Not sure which section I’ll do next, they’re starting to get further away from home.
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