My Adventures 3: Gilston Park to Harlow Circular 19th February 2021

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On Friday the 19th February 2021, I drove to Gilston Park and parked up by St Marys Church.

The church lies at the end of a lane which peters out into a farm track, with only two cottages for company, but this timeless setting is threatened with imminent destruction by short-sighted planners. The government intends to drop 10,000 houses on the parish in the near future.

The church is locked, but there is a notice in the porch, and the key is at the end cottage opposite.

The small church set behind hedges was rebuilt in the thirteenth century and the deeply recessed west door is of the Early English style.

I leave the church and walk down the Lane to the two cottages and shortly afterwards take the footpath on my right.

The first Snowdrops I've seen this year, Springs not far off!

Along this track/path (Gilston Park) are some lovely properties and a giant Pudsey Bear!

I follow the path into the grounds of Gilston Park House.

Gilston Park House is an outstanding Victorian Country House designed by Phillip Hardwick, the building was originally constructed in 1852 in a Tudor style with Gothic touches, subsequently altered and extended in 1903 and now converted into private homes.

A 3 bed apartment currently on the market for £575,000.

I follow the footpath out of the grounds into farmland.

Look back to Gilston Park House

I follow the path across more muddy fields, huge clumps on my boots.

I walk out onto the road turning right and follow it up to the junction at Pye Corner and The Plume of Feathers Pub, really hope the pubs open again soon once out of lockdown.

Once a 17th century house now a pub.

On the opposite corner is the village War Memorial.

I follow the Eastwick Road for a way alongside the Fiddlers Brook, passing the Village Hall.

Up ahead I take a footpath on my left pass a Log place and follow the Fiddlers Brook. As I near The Stort Navigation, the path is flooded and with no clear way around, I walk through standing on clumps of grass to minimise the depth but still its halfway up my walking boots.

I make it through and only felt one small speck of water get through, I turn left and follow the Stort Navigation.

With the growth of the malt trade in Bishop's Stortford in the early eighteenth century, attention turned to providing better transport facilities. The River Stort joined the River Lea, and the malt trade at Ware had benefitted from improvements made on that river. A similar solution was therefore sought for the Stort, and a public meeting was held on 11 December 1758. The chief promoter seems to have been Thomas Adderley. A bill was duly submitted to parliament, and became an Act of Parliament in March 1759. It was entitled An Act for making the River Stort navigable, in the counties of Hertford and Essex, from the New Bridge, in the town of Bishop Stortford, into the River Lea, near a Place called the Rye, in the county of Hertford. Commissioners were appointed to oversee the work and to raise the capital to fund the project. They failed in this duty, and the powers of the first act lapsed, as it imposed time limits during which the work had to be completed.

A second Act of Parliament was sought after three men proposed to the Commissioners that they would fund the scheme in return for the tolls. This met with the Commissioners' approval, and the new Act was obtained on 30 March 1766. It was entitled An Act for making and continuing navigable the River Stort, in the counties of Hertford and Essex, and it empowered Charles Dingley, George Jackson and William Masterson to build the Navigation and to collect tolls. They had five years to complete the work, and the powers of the first Act were repealed by the second. Work began on 24 September, under the direction of Thomas Yeoman, who was also the surveyor for the Lee Navigation, and was completed in autumn 1769. The navigation, which included fifteen locks, was officially opened on 24 October 1769.