🥾 Walk 452 - Forty Green, Winchmore Hill and Penn

Sunday 9th May was a bit grey to start with, but was considerably less wet and windy than the previous day. Ten of us gathered in a car park on the outskirts of Forty Green, near the Royal Standard of England pub. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, the leaders explained that this was reputedly the oldest Freehouse in England, dating as far back as 1100, and had been a safe haven for Charles I during the English Civil War.

We started the walk by heading into Forty Green and through Knotty Green, then out into the countryside on our way to Winchmore Hill. I've never walked in this area before and wasn't sure what to expect. It certainly isn't flat, but the hills were gentle. We passed through open fields and woodland with plenty of bluebells on show.

When we reached Penn Street, a hamlet only a mile or so from the village of Penn, we stopped for lunch. There were a few benches on the green where we sat to eat our packed lunches. One of our group realised that she'd worked in a Christmas card packing factory nearby, many years ago. Small world!

After lunch we passed two pubs on our way through Penn Street, which seemed plenty for such a small place. Then we entered a strip of woodland, carpeted with bluebells. Passing Penn House, we entered Charcoal Grove, where a mighty rhododendron bush looked down upon us. A mixture of woodland and fields brought us to Penn village, which wasn't much bigger than Penn Street. Beacon Hill was next and then more fields and woodland took us back to Forty Green.

We arrived back at the car park at 3pm. See our route on Google Maps. Here we said our goodbyes to some of the group and then the rest of us went to the Royal Standard of England pub (as previously mentioned). The walk leaders had booked a table for us, which is part of the current Covid regulation, but was also necessary as all the other tables were full when we arrived! It's obviously a very popular pub. Luckily it was a dry day, as all the tables were outside. (Covid regulations again.)

At first it seemed quite strange, going to a pub again after such a long time in lock-down, but soon we were enjoying a pleasant drink and the conversation was flowing. Almost like old times - except that you needed to put on a face mask to go inside the pub to use the facilities.

Thank you to Ann and Kathy for leading this walk.

📸 Back to Volume 36

Return to volume index