10 off the train, with a further 2 already waiting outside the station, i.e.: 12.

No mud, plenty of sunshine , fine far views, gentle but interesting landscape, lowly but sufficient water levels in the Flit River, plenty of fine old buildings to look at, a gem of a village pub, fine company: that kind of sums it up.

There was a shoot going on in the fields between Flitwick and its Moor, and we saw a whole copse's floor covered in snowdrops (by Cainhoe Manor), some turkeys in an allotment (just south of Maulden) and a few muntjac (in the final wood just before Flitwick).

In Wardhedges, the group split 7 to 5 into short walk and long walk, with the short walkers eating at The Flying Horse, then migrating up to The Stone Jug (the much better beer pub but with only sausage rolls as food options), leaving 2 of their lot there and moving on. Us long walkers split into 3 joining the drinkers at The Stone Jug and 2 walking down to The Horse for nourishment. The Jug was very busy despite not serving food, with everyone but us clearly being regulars. Looks like the local car drivers go to the Horse, as it's on an A road junction, while the village folk (and some walkers) frequent The Jug. And what a nice traditional pub it is!

The 3 of us then picked up the Horse folk, while the 2 drinkers continued along the Main Walk route, but 1 of the Horse folk then decided he had had well enough ascent for the day and rather walked back the shortcut route to then retrace the outbound route for an early bath. 4 thus marched on, back along the rest of the short route onto the long route, eventually catching the 2 drinkers at Maulden Church.

On through Flitton and Flitwick Moors, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed, and 5 of us then spend half an hour in The Crown for drinks, while 1 went for the next train. Farewell Drinks to a lovely day out.

Intend going.

4 of us on this enjoyable day out - overcast light winds . One chose the short walk option; 3 of us lunched at The Flying Horse.

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Most Thameslink services this morning have been cancelled due to damage to overhead lines in central London, but the 10:03 from East Croydon is scheduled to run, calling at London Bridge (10:21), Blackfriars (10:27) and St Pancras (10:36), arriving at Flitwick at 11:24.

An army of gremlins had been at work overnight on the Thameslink route, causing problems with the overhead elec wires on the Central London section, so most trains in the morning rush were cancelled, incl. the posted SWC train. 9 walkers disembarked from the first on-time departure after that, just 15 mins after the poster's intended train, though.

This incl. 2 first-timers, frequent London-visitors from the US of A, who had previously ventured on our walks just by themselves with book in hand.

Despite a leisurely Wednesday pace, the group split into parts and all walked the short version, as posted. We got to The Flying Horse around 1 o'clock, I think, where we met 2 others (incl. the walk poster) who had caught an earlier, much delayed train from St. Pancras. It was the first day of the autumn menu at the Horse, so service was a bit slow but it did nae matter, as the converted-barn-look main room is a very pleasant place to wait for your food.

On up through woods to the Greensand Ridge, with fine views to the plain and beyond to the Chilterns. Some interesting buildings, lots of thatched cottages and Flitton and Flitwick Moors kept up the interest. I had - somewhat pessimistically - put on gaiters after the last few days' of heavy rain, but the forgiving (i.e. quick draining) Bedfordshire soil meant they looked 'as new' at the end of the walk. Even the couple of arable field crossings were non-events...

Back in Flitwick in time for the 16.29.

11 sunny with a chill

This looks interesting. I may do the pre-lunch shortcut, which cuts 7.1 km (4.4 mi) and 120m of ascent/descent and has a rating of 3/10.

3 on this walk. sunshine all day . A very pleasant walk in Bedfordshire. Lovely quiet villages and old churches and definitely a different feel to the walk as compared to the usual counties we walk in. I thought Wrest House (a stately home) was particularly attractive however I was horrified to see modern (100% functional 0% beauty) buildings had been erected all along one side of the beautiful house. I mentioned this to a fellow walker who thought I was being a bit precious/snobby. I doubted myself for a second or two until I saw yet another hideous building called Capability Brown House. Capability has designed numerous beautiful and elegant gardens all over England and I am thus sure would be turning in his grave if he new such a building had been named after him. Anyway, walker number two raced on to try and make it for lunch at the pub and I was left with the philistine! All in all though, the general variety of the walk made it a great day out. The philistine and I never did see the third walker again.

You can't leave us in limbo Brightspark - we demand to know who the philstine is

Is this what you were referring to ?

Picture 53 seems to just about show the offending new construction over to the left

https://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-venues/wrest-park-house-gardens_4875.htm

and this is Capabilities effort that I notice is vacant - no surprise there?

https://www.vacantunits.com/listings/capabilityhouse_wrestpark/

Planning to do the main walk. Anyone else?

Me too

12, sunny spells followed by cloud and intermittent drizzle. Two stopped at the mausoleum and never rejoined the group, six diverged after an hour onto the short cut leaving four hardier types to do the main walk. An interesting and varied walk with plenty of sights and fauna to enjoy although a bit too much mud. On arriving in Clophill we found the Stone Jug doesn't do food on Sundays, while the Flying Horse and Green Man were both fully booked out for Mothers Day and the corner shop was shut. We soldiered on bravely to the George in Malden, taking an unintentional detour on the way and three stayed for a very late lunch, while one pressed on to get an earlier train, and just two stayed on for the final pub stop back in Flitwick.

Just to supplement the above report, the main walk certainly includes a number of interesting features -- including the remains of a Norman castle and a very atmospheric church that we spent some time exploring. In terms of fauna, the highlights were also very varied....including some very young lambs, two male turkeys with full tail plumage and a muntjac deer on the outskirts of Flitwick.

aiming for the 9.00 train (arrives 9.42) to walk the full walk

Thinking of doing the full walk.

Planning to catch the 10-04 hrs train.

14 alighted from the posted train, to set out on the short version of today's walk, with the walk author one hour ahead doing the 15 mile "Full Monty" version, so that made 15, including one first timer.

Weather very mild and sunny with no rain. Some muddy paths beside the River Flit in the morning but nothing too bad, although in deep winter making progress in muddier conditions will be hard work. Our regular Wednesday walker and boatswain took us off piste later in the morning (too much chat and not enough concentration on the directions !!) but after some road walking we were soon back on route, across fields, and over the A6 road, into the village of Clophill and the Flying Horse pub, where the walk author was patiently

waiting for us short walkers to join him for luncheon. Just 3 of us partook of the fare on offer, served by friendly staff (although drinks took a while to arrive). Most of our sandwich eaters headed off before the diners were ready, although 2 did stay back, so 5 of us set out together on the afternoon leg, still in mild and sunny conditions. The section on the Greensand Ridge through Maulden Wood, with trees now bare but with a thick floor covering of colourful leaves, was particularly nice, followed by two nature reserves and the re-appearance of the River Flit, before a final stretch over Flitwick Moor as the sun was setting. Tea or a pint for some in the Swan pub, next to the railway station, before we kept our appointment with the 17-00 hrs train back to London.

A walk of pleasant variety in mild and sunny conditions, lovely nature reserves, a good water feature, and the usual excellent mid-week company, made it not too bad a day.

Sounds very promising. Thanks for putting this on.

Going.

17 overcast and mostly dry

7 walkers off the posted train for the full walk, one more descending the stairs to the platform to declare that there had been two other walkers off an earlier train, making it ten, and later 1 other overtaking the backmarkers, having missed the train through it departing from the Southbound platform at City Thameslink. The 2 early walkers were of the 'follow a line on a screen'-variety (one of them anyway), and took the wrong turn where the out- and back-route intersect, resulting in them walking the majority of the walk in reverse, to much hilarity (they will claim that it opens up Wrest Park as a tea venue, but that's just an attempt to camouflage their error, don't be deceived).

At the lunch pub we met 5 short walkers, incl. the walk poster, meaning we had both SWC-'ghost walkers' on this walk: the one that often disappears w/o trace after lunch, and the one that often appears w/o former trace at lunch.

Then there was the one sandwiching long walker that popped in to the pub to proclaim that 'Christine' had arrived and they would now move on independently. So if 'Christine' is a real person, that makes it 17. Else 16.

As for the walk: some early drizzle was barely perceptible but real. Overcast for the rest of the day. Sun? None. Mud? None.

The morning part admittedly has some indifferent parts (most of which are better in spring and summer) and plenty of tarmac (which is why it's the morning part, and not the afternoon), but everyone seemed in good spirit at lunch, which was cheap but tasty in a friendly family-run pub, The Stone Jug.

The afternoon part is more interesting, first along and through Maulden Wood, with some Chiltern Views and then through Flitwick Moor, which seemed to entrance everyone, incl. the SWC resident fungi-expert, who gave us backmarkers some interesting insights into what we could see pathside.

One more drink at The Crown. 18.20 train for the slowcoaches, 16.04 for the fastest ones, so I hear...

Indeed the early birds caught tea and brownies and cut off, illegally I admit but then why change my lifelong habits, a boring triangle just before the glorious Wrest Park which was sadly closed due to a wedding. The hall and reception rooms are well worth visiting but the most splendid part is the glorious landscaped garden: full of sculpture and 'fake ruins', a deep bath etc. think Rome and you are almost there. And of course, don't ever forget the Cafe loaded with scrumptious cakes inclusive gluten free, which those who erroneously claim to have taken the right turn/route completely missed.

Remember, fellow walkers, there is no such thing in the SWC, or in life, as a right or a wrong route: as long as you are in the right company, have plenty to banter about, lovely vistas, loads of fresh air, no mud or rain IT IS ALWAYS THE RIGHT WAY TO GO. I for one had a splendid day.

I felt pleasantly surprised when I opened the travel supplement of The Guardian last Saturday which featured a large photo of one of the follies in the garden (to illustrate their offer of free English Heritage subscription if you join the Guardian). So one option would be to reverse the route, going clockwise instead, make it shorter by doing part of the shortcut and then going south-east via Silsoe to WP. You would need at least 1 to 1.5 hour to visit the 90 acres of wonderful gardens and house properly ( house 30 min is plenty and if not EH member expensive). Just an idea for the landscaped garden and follies lovers amongst the walkers.

Look at english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wrest-park

I also noted that the Sunday walkers at Tonbridge were rescued by following a line on a handheld device. It's great if you have some walks stored up on the gps failing which you will have a map showing the paths provided you have the OS map on it. An old fashioned map also does wonders in case of cancelled trains, provided it covers the area of your station. Walking instructions on their own become suddenly quite worthless.

GPs: You can walk anytime, anywhere. What more could I desire!

Taking a "wrong" turn on a SWC walk is not a mistake; its an adventure. (The philosophy of Nicholas Albery, our founder.)

right turn, wrong turn and N. Albery apart...

I'm not a big buyer of routing walks specifically to lead past stately homes, sculpture parks, NT/English Heritage properties etc. to enable visits, unless the best route leads past them anyway, for the simple reason that - in my experience - only a very few walkers are actually interested, unless there's a decent cafe involved and it's close to the finish (which WP wouldn't be): the only walk I can think of where more than a handful of people turned up and paid up (rather than walk past) was the first two times we posted a walk past the Henry Moore Sculpture Park... But correct me if I'm wrong.

So - in this case - as the pub comes much too early if walked clockwise, and as the shortcut taken by the 2 on Saturday is actually a Private track, not a footpath, the walk will stay as is.

Generally though, there's nothing stopping any of you from asking in the appropriate place (the 'Walk Requests' section of This Weeks' Walks) for a special routing of a walk to be posted as a garden/stately home/sculpture park/birdwatching/airshow/nostalgia train/folk festival/morris dancing etc. pp. outing, part map led or otherwise.

I'm sure you'll find a walk poster happy to post it if there is deemed to be sufficient interest (me, for one).

What a relief to be in the good company of the great Nicholas. I am a great protagonist of adventures; life would be very dull without them and I am lucky enough to go on another one tomorrow, walking and camping in the desert.