Pootler

  Route GPX File   Greensand, Gravel & Great Ouse This is a route across a variety of country landscapes which only involves about 200m climbing overall but does include some off road paths. It is configured to start at Sandy Rail Station but could be equally well started at Bedford or Flitwick. It follows the Greensand Ridge and Marston Vale before visiting Bedford and following the Great Ouse river back towards Sandy. Most of it is on minor roads but the stretch of the National Cycle Route network is on cycle paths. Zooming in: Highlights: Olde villages. Ickwell Green, Ampthill etc. Shuttleworth Aerodrome The countryside of the Greensand Ridge The NCR cycle path along the Great Ouse. Bedford. The riverside cycle route. The usual ghosts, ghouls and absurdities Route Tips I suspect that the cycle path alongside the Great Ouse might suffer after heavy rain. There are more trains stopping at Bedford than Sandy and Flitwick Station is 2 miles off the route....

Previous posts sketched the history of the rocks and roots that shaped the regions' landscape. Now I want to hurry through more recent changes, reckoning that many will be familiar to you.  Between the latter part of the Enclosures, through the Industrial Revolution to today, t he population of England has risen, from around 10m in 1800 to perhaps 30m in 1900 and 55m today. A lot more people needed feeding, housing and a place to work.  The medieval transport network was threadbare.  T he  responsibility for maintaining the roads rested with the parishes, so they were usually just rough tracks.   Things got better from the 1600s. The Enclosures and other innovations in farming increased trade and this, coupled with the increasing use of wheeled vehicles, demanded new or improved roads.  Many fords were replaced by bridges and turnpike roads were introduced, run by trusts established by Parliament. The first, in 1663, is now part of the Great North Road...

'Ancient' in this context doesn't mean 'dead and gone'. Rather, like me, Ancient countryside shows definite signs of antiquity, but is still very much alive. It suffered less from planned Enclosures. A mong the hills, valleys and woods, the terrain often made the creation of large, contiguous fields impractical, both before or after the Enclosures elsewhere. Now, it can be hard to understand how what we see, the random pattern of fields, woods and paths seemingly leading nowhere, can have  emerged from the tumble dryer of history.  It all makes for better pootling.  In the last post I said the distinctions between the Planned and Ancient countryside could be blurry. (Apologies. One result might be duplication between the notes here and in previous posts).  In both cases farming had to make some accommodations with practical and legal realities. But surprisingly, the  difference between the two is often clear(ish) on OS Maps. I illustrated this in the previous po...