Bridleway
28
Distance:
800m. Direction: roughly N - S
20 19
This
bridleway forms part of the track from Hazells (formerly Hasells) Hall, across
Sandy Heath, towards the entrance to Sandy Lodge, the headquarters of the RSPB.
It starts at a small lay-by on Sandy Road, opposite Crimea Lodge, the entrance to Hasells Hall (TL
189494). This was built in 1860, made from a converted army hut reported to
have been brought back after Captain William Peel’s exploits during the Crimean
War. In 1791 Humphry Repton, the landscape architect,
drew up his plans for the Pym’s Hasells estate. In his Red Book, he suggested a
pair of fanciful pair of lodges and a gateway should be constructed at the end
of South Drive. According to Barry Groom, the Sandy historian, nothing was
built until 1858 when Thomas de la Rue, the playing card manufacturer, was
tenant of the Hall.
It was long believed that a later tenant,
General Thomas Pearson, erected the lodge but, a few years ago, a telegram was
found in the thatch when it was being re-roofed. It was addressed to De la Rue
saying the lodge was ready for collection at Sandy Station.
For
about 900 metres the track follows the western edge of a pine plantation south
across Sandy Heath. It was known as the
Short Riding and now forms part of the Skylark Ride,
East Bedfordshire’s 36 km circular horse ride from Sutton, through
Wrestlingworth, across Biggleswade Common, up through Sandy Warren to join the
Roman Road. If you don’t meet up with any horse riders, you will see plenty of
evidence of horses’ hooves in the mud along the way.
20
According to Tim Sharrock, the Bedfordshire
ornithologist,
As
the bridleway passes through woodland, one can observe that, while the trees
may not be very old, this woodland site probably is, for the ground is carpeted
with Bluebells, a sign that this may be part of the ancient wildwood that once
covered most of England. Look, too, for the purple-flowered Herb Robert and for
Spring-beauty, with insignificant white flowers borne strangely from the centre
of a coin-sized disc-like leaf. In spring and summer, Speckled Wood butterflies
each settle on a sun-drenched leaf, and then defend it against other
butterflies. The harsh cries of the Jay and the sudden “tchick” call of the
Great Spotted Woodpecker will be heard more often than their shy originators
are seen. If you are lucky, and do catch a glimpse, look out for the white rump
patch of the pinky-brown Jay as it flies away, and for the big white shoulder
marks on the black-and-white Great Spotted Woodpecker.
The
bridleway passes underneath the electricity transmission line just before it
meets the Long Riding (TL 191487), a 1,500 metre
long track running NE-SW across Sandy Heath. This would have been part of the
route taken by the local gentry, the Pyms of Hasells Hall and the Peels of
Sandy Lodge, on their horse rides. At the end of the plantation the track
passes a pylon and then continues south for about 300 metres across Woodcock
Covert, to a line of trees on the north side of the A1042 Potton Road (TL
191485) and continues into Sandy Warren as Bridleway
32.