We have reached point 2 on our map TL 335065.
We
come out on to West End Road,
which runs to our left.
White Stubbs Lane is on
our right.
We can see the white road sign for West End Lane and also a sign “The Woodman” with an arrow pointing down it to our left.
We stay on this side of West End Road and go right,
straight across White Stubbs Lane
and on to a footpath
“Public Footpath 25, Pembridge Lane ¼”.
We go over a wooden bridge to a
proper wooden kissing gate
and out into a field.
A butterfly waymark confirms the direction we should take.
There is a lovely line of poplars away to our right.
The difference in degree of autumn colouring gives them a stripy effect. I
wonder why the poplars were planted. Was it for sheer elegance - to enhance the
landscape?
We
can see the metal kissing gate we need to aim for.
Through it, we are into a meadow. We keep on in the same
direction making for the gap in the high tree line to be seen in the photograph
below.
It
is a mistake to aim for the more obvious gap in the bushes lower down: we want
to be left of that.
What we are looking for is a kissing gate
that
is hidden behind blackthorn bushes
with trees to the left exquisitely deformed.
If the deformity were not man-made - hedge laying, I presume - we could get
philosophical about beauty and deformity.
To the left of the metal kissing gate is a wooden post on which we can see the butterfly and yellow footpath waymarks showing that there are rights of way going off in two directions from here. This is useful to pinpoint your position on a map.
We want to go left.
(I would dearly like to say we shall be coming back along the path on the right: all we would have to do is continue on the track that runs roughly north east/east north east right through the centre of the greater woodland stretch from Broxbourne Woods through Cowheath Wood, Bramble's Wood, Highfield Wood and Hoddesdonpark Wood. At Cowheath, we would link up with the butterfly NNR trail, go southeast then due south on it to join the path ahead. But, no. The 440 yards of track from Broxbourne Wood to Cowheath is not a public right of way.)
This parting of the ways is point 3 on our walk.