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A new
challenge - A walk from Baldock to Royston in a day - part 1
Not far from my hometown of Royston lies
Baldock, a town in North Hertfordshire that I have long admired, situated
some 33 miles from London and close to the River Beane. It is a town steeped
in Roman history as well as the history of the
Knights Templars. Two Saturdays apart, the first towards the end of October,
the day after my birthday and the latter early in November, I took the train
from Royston down to Baldock, the aim being to return to Royston on
foot across the north Hertfordshire countryside, following segments of the
Icknield Way.
The purpose of repeating the walk was to
try out slight variations of what was basically the same route linking
a number of villages I knew and loved, each with a small church as the focal
point. I wanted establish a definitive route for myself.
I could in reality refer to it as the
church walk, as indeed the villages of
BaldockGM,
ClothalGM,
WallingtonGM,
RushdenGM,
SandonGM,
KelshallGM,
TherfieldGM and
RoystonGM, each with their own unique character and beauty,
all boast a church at the heart of the village. Each walk provided some
fresh discoveries.
In one of these villages, through which
passes a road I had cycled on more occasions than I care to remember, I
learnt that I had passed the very home where George Orwell had once lived,
without realising it. The person responsible for enlightening me to this
astonishing fact also accompanied me on the second of the walks described.
In fact, the week before, on the October
walk, which I had completed alone, I had passed within viewing distance of
the home, located along the Baldock Road, which she shares with partner
Dougie Bisset. Both are colleagues of mine.
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Baldock
was founded by the Knights Templar in the 1140s. Perhaps for this reason, one
theory of the origin of the name Baldock is as a derivation from the Old French
name for Baghdad Baldac which the Templars had hoped to conquer during the
Crusades. Other theories include that the name is derived from "Bald Oak",
meaning a dead oak. The modern layout of the town, and many buildings in the
centre, date from the sixteenth century, with the earliest dating from the
fourteenth century. The town grew up where the old Great North Road and the
Icknield Way crossed. Despite the construction of the A1(M) motorway in 1970,
which bypassed the town (and which was called the Baldock Bypass for some
years), it was still a major traffic bottleneck until March 2006, when a new
bypass removed the A505 road (old Icknield Way) from the town. Due to its
location, the town was a major staging post between London and the north: many
old coaching inns still operate as pubs and hotels, and Baldock has a surprising
number of pubs for its size. From the 1770s until 2008 the high street (London
Road) was very
wide, a typical feature of medieval market places where more than one row of
buildings used to stand. In the case of Baldock, the bottom of the High Street
had three such rows, until Butcher's Row was demolished by the Turnpike
authorities in the 1770s. In late 2008, a town centre enhancement plan included
a narrowing of the road and subsequent widening of paved areas.
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View along Whitehorse Street towards
Sun Street, Baldock, with the tower of the 13th Century church of St
Mary covered by scaffolding. |
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Baldock's Methodist Church on
Whitehorse Street; The point where Sun Street leads off from Whitehorse
Street. |
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The finely carved door and fluted
Roman Ionic pilaster surround at the entrance to Baranite House; The
Victoria Pub, Sun Street, Baldock. |
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View of Baranite House and Victoria
Pub, where Sun Street leads off from Whitehorse Street, St Mary's Church
and tower in the background. |
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Baldock has since the 16th century been a
centre for malting, subsequently becoming a regional brewing centre with at
least three large brewers still operating at the end of the 19th Century,
despite a decline in demand for the types of beer produced locally. The 1881
Census records approximately 30 drinking establishments (the town's population
was at that time around 1900). There has been human activity on the site well
before the modern town was founded. Prehistoric remains on Clothall Common date
back as far as c3000 BCE. Many Roman remains have been discovered during
building work in and around the town, and the core of the Roman settlement is on
Walls Field near the Hartsfield Primary School in the town. Earlier Iron Age
remains have also been uncovered in the same general location, which may be the
earliest town ever to develop in Britain. A medieval leper colony, on Royston
Road, was located during excavations in 2003, having been thought for many years
to lie to the south-east of the town on the former Pesthouse Lane (now Clothall
Road), the A507. Baldock's positions at the crossing of two ancient
thoroughfares, the Great North Road and the Icknield Way has made it a stopping
point for a number of illustrious visitors, including Charles I, who passed
through Baldock en route for London after his arrest in 1648, and supposedly
Dick Turpin. Preacher John Wesley came to the town in 1747. However, perhaps one
of the town's most famous visitors was Ludwig II of Bavaria, (builder of the
famous Neuschwanstein Castle) who came to the town in 1879 on the recommendation
of Sir Richard Wallace, to whom he had written for advice on England's medieval
architecture. Wallace advised Ludwig to take a tour of the English countryside
in order to survey a variety of ecclesiastical buildings, that he might draw
inspiration from them for future building projects. In a letter to Wallace,
Ludwig expressed particular admiration for the buildings of Hertfordshire, which
he toured extensively. |
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View down Sun Street towards
Victoria pub, where it joins Whitehorse Street, a main road in Baldock
town centre. |
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RJ Chapman & Sons, the Baldock
butcher where I regularly acquire South African delicacies such as
biltong, Mrs Balls chutney, Pro Nutro breakfast cereal and Pro Vita. |
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View down Sun Street; View down
Church Street at the junction with Sun Street. |
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Days of Ashwell, a local bakery up
London Road (the High Street), Baldock. |
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The ornate Georgian doorway at No 9
London Road (the High Street), Baldock, adjacent to Days of Ashwell bakery. |
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The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, commonly known as the Knights Templar, the
Order of the Temple (
or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the
Western Christian military orders.The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the
Middle Ages.Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity
throughout Christendom, and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar
knights, in their distinctive white
mantles with a red
cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the
Crusades.
Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure
throughout
Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of
banking,
and building many
fortifications across Europe and the
Holy Land.The Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land
was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret
initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Phillip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the
situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested,
tortured into giving
false confessions, and then
burned at the stake.Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a
major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends,
which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day. |
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View down Baldock's London Road (the
High Street)
towards St Mary's Church. |
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Baldock's Community Centre building
and its colourful clock. |
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Arches of former coaching inns, the
London Road (the High Street), Baldock. |
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Taste Cafe and Bar, 24A London Road
(the High Street), Baldock. |
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Baldock's London Road (the High
Street) skyline. |
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The brick used in the construction
of this building in Baldock London Road (the High Street) is typical of many buildings in
Hertfordshire. |
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The almshouses purchased and built
by monies bequeathed by John Wunne in his will in 1617, to house the
poor. |
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Two views up and down Baldock London
Road (the High Street). |
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Staffy B, a gift shop in Baldock;
STARS Baldock Speech Therapy. |
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The Greene King pub towards the top
end of Baldock's London Road (the High Street). |
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