News December 2022:
4 new walks published
Download the Walk Guides from The Walks Page
December 2022 saw the publication of 4 new Walk Guides including two with a difference: we have now expanded into the realms of podcasts and YouTube videos! Thanks to Paul S, Jeff and Paul M, respectively, for their work in putting the first three walks together and to Paul M for the YouTube videos of his exploits when researching the route! The 4th walk is published in partnership with The Word Garden as part of their Adventurers project and has an accompanying downloadable podcast.
Sawtry to Wood Walton
‘follow in the footsteps of the monks’
The first of these four walks starts in Sawtry, named after salt, once a precious commodity made in the Fens. It passes the site of Sawtry Abbey and then visits the iconic (and once deserted) church of St Andrew’s situated on a lonely hill north of Wood Walton before finishing at the village green. The geology is nearly all Oxford Clay (including the hill!) except for a patch of Peat in Sawtry Fen that fills a bay formed by periglacial (freeze/thaw) effects during the last glaciation. The walk was developed in partnership with the Great Fen Heritage Group as it passes the south western corner of the Great Fen, a wildlife-rich area that includes Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve, It is the first walk on the western fen edge to be published.
Haddenham to Wilburton
‘on the Isle of Ely: from the high ridge, along the ancient causeway to the river’
The second walk is the third to be published on the Isle of Ely, following on from the walks from Witcham to Mepal and then Sutton on to Haddenham. From the heady heights (38 m OD) of the centre of Haddenham, it takes you via Aldreth and the Old West River to Wilburton, crossing seven types of geology in total! This is a lovely area, full of history, and with views down from the high Kimmeridge Clay, Woburn Sands and Gault clay ridge that runs east to west along the south of the Isle of Ely. The walk follows the Aldreth Causeway as you descend onto Ampthill Clay and cross the Terrace Gravels of the Ouse ‘system’ as well as Peat and Alluvium near the river. It is in the area where the ‘New Life in the Old West’ project is running and we hope to work with them in the future to arrange joint walks.
Somersham to Earith
‘over river terraces on the edge of the marshes and along the famous Old Bedford drain’
The third walk is the penultimate walk to be published of the 6 walks that link Ramsey with St Ives. Starting in Somersham, where the walk from Warboys finishes, it takes you via Colne and on to Earith, the start of the walk along the river valley to Needingworth. Only the final section, from Needingworth to St Ives remains to be published. After a pleasant walk through fields and along farm tracks to Colne, you pass through the Somersham to Earith fen edge which is now a land of flooded sand and gravel pits but was once the first dry land after travelling west from the Isle of Ely. It is an area that has seen significant (Pleistocene) geological research and there have also been important archaeology finds here. The bedrock here is Ampthill Clay (younger than the more famous Oxford Clay that outcrops to the north west) but it is mostly covered by Terrace Gravels and more recent Alluvium that, together, tell part of the complex local history of the Ouse; once an extensive delta emptying into the Fen Basin and later its single channel transformed by fen drainage.
The fourth walk has been developed in partnership with the Word Garden. More information here.
