Start : The Red Lion, The Green, Preston, Hitchin (SG4 7UD). Grid ref: TL 180 247
(S/E) Take School Lane from the village green, heading South with the brick wall of the school on your left. You will shortly come to the entrance to the Princess Helena College with views of the college to your left. (A)
(1) Here you cut off a corner in the road by taking a permissive path to your left – head half-left from the road (East) across the field, just to the left of a copse of trees.
(2) You rejoin the road at a T junction. Take the lane half-right signposted to St Pauls Walden and Whitwell, passing to the left of Minsden Farm. The road starts to descend and curve to the left past some houses and you come to Hitch Wood (B) on your right shortly after. You will see a path into the wood from a passing place.
(3) Take this track and turn left at a junction just inside the woods. Follow the path parallel to the road to the bottom corner of the wood.
(4) As you near the bottom corner of the wood you will see a noticeboard ahead of you. Just before you reach it, turn right on a winding, permissive path climbing steadily into the wood for 150m. (Alternative start)
Turn right on a path that traverses across the slope for 350m. The path bears left over a low ridge before swinging right and descending into a dry valley. Cross the valley, turn left at a path junction and ascend up the shallow valley. You pass a bench then in another 150m turn right at a waymark post in front of a holly tree. The signed route leaves the gully and climbs through the wood, curving to the right. As the path starts to level off, you come to a signpost indicating a sharp left turn.
(5) Take this turn onto a fainter path, almost back on the way you've come. In 150m you reach a broad track. Turn left onto it and follow it to the edge of the wood. Turn right along the field edge for 100m.
(6) Turn right again back into the trees. Pass through the wood and continue on the same path for the next 1000m, the path becoming a track then a lane. Where you hit a public road at the edge of the village, keep straight on and take the footpath to the right just past the village school. This passes between gardens and soon brings you back to the village green. (S/E)
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