Take a step back in time
Above: Ivinhoe Hills
THE Ashridge Estate covers six square miles of woodlands, commons, downland and farmland in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Most of this land is open access to the public and is owned and managed by the National Trust.
The area supports an amazing diversity of birdlife including goldcrest and the lesser-spotted woodpecker. Wild fallow deer are a common sight and muntjac deer, badgers and the rarely found dormouse are also resident. The main focal point of the Estate is the granite monument erected in 1832 to the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, the Canal Duke.
The Ashridge Drovers walk follows typically Chiltern sunken lanes that criss-cross the area. This network of ancient green lanes would have been used over hundreds of years to move livestock from the villages of Aldbury, Ivinghoe and Pitstone to their common lands. This movement of livestock was called droving and the paths had to be wide enough to accommodate cattle at least two abreast. You will notice on several paths that ancient hedgebanks and ditches with steep sides often enclose the paths. These sunken tracks were known as hollow-ways and many of the routes on this walk are informally known by descriptive names, such as ‘Back Hollow’.
Much of this walk is through common land. Common land is unusual, insofar as the ‘commoners’ have rights to grazing and other activities, such as cutting turf, although they are not the owners of that land. There are very few commoners left today. The three villages surrounding the Ashridge Estate, Pitstone, Ivinghoe and Aldbury, have their respective commons within the estate.
These three commons would have been clear of woodland as recently as 100 years ago. The commons within Ashridge were then used to graze cattle, sheep and pigs from the adjacent villages. Fuel for heating homes was also collected from the commons along with bedding for animals and heather and birch for making brooms.
Most commons were heavily grazed and, over the centuries, lost their woodland cover except for a few large trees. There has been very little grazing in the last 100 years and, as a result, many commons have been re-colonised by woodland. What you see today is a mixture of open grassland, ancient trees and relatively new woodlands.
The route
1. From Tring Station turn right. Follow Station Road, after the junction take a track left over a cattle grid and continue straight on at a junction of bridleways.
2. Turn right onto a footpath leading into Aldbury. Stay in the field and follow the footpath left behind the pond, then right across a fence and down the edge of the playing fields. You should come into Aldbury beside the Greyhound Inn.
3. Cross the road and head up the bridleway which forks to the left off Toms Hill Road. This is signposted to the National Trust Visitor Centre and is quite a steep climb.
4. At the top, skirt around the green until the Bridgewater Monument is on your left, take the Ashridge Boundary Trail on the right.
5. For the shorter walk, turn left onto a footpath and descend out of the woods into farmland. After crossing Stocks Road, follow a bridlepath through Walk Wood onto Stocks Golf Course. The path goes around the outside edge of the golf course and meets up with the bridleway you first took from Tring Station.
6. For the longer walk, continue to follow waymarks for the Ashridge Boundary Trail. This will fork left following the woodland edge and across open downland to meet
with the Ridgeway.
7. Follow the Ridgeway National Trail’s distinctive black fingerposts, bearing an acorn, over Pitstone Hill and through Aldbury Nowers back to Station Road. The Ridgeway National Trail follows much of what is thought to be Britain’s oldest road. Starting in Wiltshire, it travels for 137km passing through the Chilterns to finish at Ivinghoe Beacon.
Start walking
Start and finish Tring Railway Station, Aldbury
Distance Short: 4 miles (6.5km); Long: 6miles (10km)
Time Short: 2 hours; Long: 3 hours
Parking Tring railway station Long Stay car park
Refreshments Pubs in Aldbury Village and Tea Shop at Bridgewater monument.
Transport Tring railway station is on the London, Euston to Birmingham line. The Grand Union Canal towpath links Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted with Tring Station for walkers and cyclists. Bus numbers 30 and 327 stop outside Tring railway station. For bus and train details call the Hertfordshire Traveline on 0845 7244344.
OS Map Explorer 181