About this notebook
Walden, Offley & Lilley is a notebook about three villages on the chalk of the Chiltern edge, between Hitchin and Luton. King's Walden sits on its spur with Ley Green and Wandon End close by. Great and Little Offley share their parish with Cockernhoe and Wellbury. Lilley runs along its street below Telegraph Hill and the Icknield Way. Between them lie big arable fields, flint churches, old hedges and a good many miles of footpaths.
The notebook covers the things people who live here, or walk here, tend to ask about: where a path goes and what it passes, why a village stands a mile from its church, which plants put up with thin dry soil, what that bird on the plough was, and what the lettering on an old wall tablet means. Some pieces are practical, some are history, and a few are simply about the turn of the seasons.
Who writes it
Five neighbours write here, each under their own name.
- Hugh Pemberton walks the rights of way of the Chiltern edge with a paper map, and writes about footpaths, stiles, route-finding, weather and walking kit.
- Alice Fairweather gardens on thin chalk soil, keeps an allotment and writes about cottage-garden plants, vegetables and gardening for wildlife.
- Nathaniel Crisp reads parish histories, enclosure maps and church fabric, and writes about old buildings, flint, monuments, bells and manors.
- Bryony Laycock watches birds and hedgerow wildlife, from farmland birds and hares to wild flowers, and tells you what to look and listen for.
- Sunil Dhar came here from a nearby town and writes about country customs, hedgerow food, family days out and the village year.
How we check things
History on this site comes from the published record wherever possible. The starting point is the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, which describes each parish, its manors and its church as they stood in the early twentieth century. For buildings we use the Historic England list entries. For paths we work from the Ordnance Survey Explorer map and the definitive map of public rights of way kept by Hertfordshire County Council. Where a story is folklore rather than record, such as the old tale linking Offley with King Offa of Mercia, we say so.
Walk notes here are general descriptions, not turn-by-turn instructions. Paths get diverted, stiles are replaced with gates and field edges get ploughed. Carry the OS Explorer map for the area, follow the waymarks on the ground, and keep to the public rights of way. The churches are written about as historic buildings; they may be locked, so check locally before you go to see inside.
Links and books
Some pages mention books or walking kit and link to them on Amazon. If you buy through one of those links, the site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We only mention things where they help with the walk, the garden or the reading, and we never claim to have tested a product.
Writing in
Corrections, old photographs, memories of the villages and questions about a path or a building are all welcome. You can write to us through the contact page. If you know something the records do not, we would like to hear it, and we will note on the page when it has been corrected.