Kings Langley's Lost Legacy

1 From the car park walk up Langley Hill. Turn left into Archer Close. Go right on to a signposted footpath, initially between garden fences and then with fields on the left and the Rudolf Steiner School on the right. The path curves right to a stile, then runs along a road, turning left to cross the A41.
Descend the hill (with housing on the right) and, opposite No 102, go left over a stile into pasture. Follow the hedge south through five pastures, descending to a valley bottom. Turn left before a stile (do not climb it) to follow a hedged path, then go over a stile and turn right on to a green lane. Pass some farm buildings on your right. At a footpath sign turn right, with the boundary wall to Langley Lodge alongside and Berry Bush Farmhouse on your right.

2 Follow the concrete road to the left, with a pond to your right. Turn right, guided by a painted sign on a farm building, to go over a stile and straight on in a cattle pasture. Ignore a left turn and carry on alongside a fence. Go through a gate and continue along the right-hand side of the fence, descending steeply to the valley bottom. Go uphill through a hedge, then head diagonally left across arable land, towards a group of trees. Pass a gate and turn left on to a green lane, signposted 'Langleybury Lane'. This follows the parish boundary downhill, back into the valley. Beyond a gate the bridleway swings right to follow the valley bottom. Ignore paths meeting and crossing the lane. Continue as it goes left to climb out of the valley between hedges. At the crest pass Model Farm. Beyond it the track becomes a tarmac lane within a lime avenue. Passing through woods, the lane crosses the M25.

3 At the road turn left and walk downhill. On the right is Langleybury House. You get a good view of its north east front as you descend to Hunton Bridge. Pass St Paul's Church, built in flint and stone bands by Henry Woodyer in 1865.

4 Cross the busy A41 into Bridge Road. Past the brick and flint former school of 1858, turn left before the bridge to descend to the Grand Union Canal tow path. Follow it north through the water-meadows of the River Gade, past Lock 71, North Grove. Pass under the M25 viaduct, a rather graceful curving one on channelled piers. Continue past Lock 70 and then a boating lake on the left. Go past the large 1930 Ovaltine factory along the opposite bank. Leave the canal at a road bridge. Turn left on to the road that bears left and then right uphill, now Church Lane, to Kings Langley's parish church. On the right you'll see Church House built in 1805 as a brewery maltings but now offices.

5 From the church turn right into the High Street. Beyond the Saracens Free House turn left, back into Langley Hill.