ISE VALLEY VAGABONDS

Bedford Country Park & Town Trail BWF App No PT211

START & FINISH:  Beefeater Steak House, Priory Marina,

Bedford  MK41 9DJ

OS map 152    Grid Ref TL072494    Distance 10km

Fee £1.00

Route last updated on 14 December 2008

This route description is valid until 31 December 2009

This walk has been established by members of the Ise Valley Vagabonds Walking Club (BWF Club No 70) and is a qualifying event in the IVV award scheme.  It can be walked at any time.

There are a number of hard paths on this route.  Please feel free to walk on the grass, which edges these.  Bedford Borough Council staff mows paths across many of the riverside water meadows.  These will help you to go in the right direction.

Walk to the end of the car park and opposite the pub entrance, turn left into tarmac path through the hedge toward the lake.  At lakeside path turn left.  Pass the visitor centre on your left. (Toilets can be found to the left of the building).  Straight on past the labyrinth on the left until you have woodland on your left.  At the entrance to ‘Finger Lakes’, turn left down a few steps into woodland path.  Follow this past a picnic bench on the lakeside on your right and, at the marker post with a red and a green arrow, turn right.  Follow this path with ‘Fingers’ lake occasionally on right.  Keep straight on into an open meadow with trees and fence on your right.  At the marker post turn right following the green arrow, with the fence still on your right.  Follow this as it bears right, now with the river on your left and ‘Finger Lake’ on your right.  Continue straight on until you see the main path around Priory Lake ahead and to your right.  Go straight on across the grass past the end of the lake and turn left on the footpath and cross the footbridge over the lower end of the Canoe Slalom.  (During the holidays, and sometimes at weekends, large blocks are placed in the course to create a slalom and the sluice at the upper end, which you will cross later, is opened to create a white water torrent.  Maintained by the Borough Council, this is used mainly by school canoe clubs from Bedford).

Bear left along path into the trees, cross a second bridge and follow the path to the river and Cardington Lock.  (Downstream from here the River Great Ouse is navigable to the sea at Kings Lynn).  Turn right (signed Riverside Walk) along the river bank and walk straight on with the river on your left.   Cross the bridge over the Slalom Course sluice.  Walk straight on to cross a bridge over a small weir and, in a few metres, straight on at the fork along riverside path, with the Bedford Boat Club Marina on the opposite bank.   Ignore all paths off to the right and continue along the riverside path.  After about 1km follow the path slightly away from the river to cross the water access to Priory Marina over the Fish Ponds Bridge.  (You have now walked 3.3km).  At the fork bear left and in 130m turn left to cross a wooden footbridge.

QUESTION 1.  WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE FOOTBRIDGE?

Turn right along the meadow towards the steel bridge ahead of you.  (This bridge once carried part of the L & NER railway line from Bletchley to Cambridge across the River Great Ouse.  The Pyramid on the opposite bank of the river is the Oasis Indoor Swimming Pool).  Walk ahead until you reach the riverbank.  Follow this and bear right on a narrow path close to the river under the old bridge.  In about 30m you meet another path.  Turn left on this path towards the end of a metal footbridge.  Pass the footbridge on your left and walk straight on across the grass to go under the road bridge (King’s Bridge).  Bear left to leave the tarmac path and continue straight on staying on the grass between the river on your left and Longholm Boating Lake on your right.  Bear right around the end of the lake, and walk past an open-air café on your left.  (Just before the Café you will see coin operated toilets).  Turn right and then turn left to cross the Butterfly Bridge.  (Look left upriver at this point toward the town to see the spire of St Paul’s Church rising over the roofs of the town).  Turn left again and walk along the Embankment with the river on your left.  (Bedford Embankment Park and Gardens were created in the 19^th century.  Financed by wealthy citizens and industrialists of the town, they were opened in 1888).  Walk past the Suspension Bridge on your left and shortly you will see a memorial on your right between the flowerbeds.  (At this point you are half way round the trail having walked 5km).

QUESTION 2.  SEVERAL CONFLICTS ARE COMMEMORATED HERE.  WHICH CONFLICT OCCURRED FROM 1950 – 1953?

At the end of the Embankment Gardens, turn right to cross the road just before the mini-roundabout, then turn left to cross Newnham Road.  Bear right along the path toward Castle Mound passing a Mosaic of the old town on your left.  At the bottom of the Castle Mound turn right to take the ramp up to the top of the mound and enjoy the view from the viewing point and read the history of the Siege of Bedford Castle.  (Castle Mound is the only remnant of the castle built by the Normans after 1066, although there was also evidence of Roman occupation on the site of the town, and a ford across the river in the days of King Offa).  With the viewing point behind you, walk across the mound to the steps on the far side and go down these.  At the bottom turn left and in 25m turn right up a few steps to the forecourt of the Bedford Museum  (Admission free) and Cecil Higgins Art Gallery.  (The Cecil Higgins Gallery has a world-renowned collection of paintings, Watercolours as well as Oils. You might wish to take a culture break here).  Turn left past the Museum entrance to reach Castle Lane (no street name visible at this point).  (Castle Lane is undergoing a major re-development into a cultural and visitor area with an open-air archaeological park).  Turn right along Castle Lane and stay with it as it bears right at the junction with Ram Yard.  At the end of Castle Lane, turn left, St Cuthbert’s Church is on your right and the John Bunyan Museum on your left.  In a few metres at the next junction cross the road with care and turn right along Mill Street and then turn left into St Cuthbert’s Street.  Follow this to the traffic lights at St Peter’s Street.  At the traffic lights, cross St Peter’s Street and turn left.  After about 100m, follow the path along the right hand side of a small park.  Walk to the far end and next to St Peter de Merton Church, turn left towards the statue of one of Bedford’s famous citizens next to the road junction.

QUESTION 3.  WHO IS REPRESENTED BY THE STATUE?

With the statue behind you, cross the road at the pedestrian crossing and walk along High Street.  In 70m turn right to cross the road at the Pelican Crossing and then turn left to continue along High Street.  After another 100m turn right into ‘The Arcade’.  Follow this to the other end where you emerge at a pedestrian precinct, this is Harpur Street.  Cross the road slightly to the right into another arcade, ‘Church Arcade’.  Walk through this to reach Church Square (known locally as Pigeon Square) and its new “water feature” in the centre.  Cross the Square to the other side.  This road is Allhallows. (This area is in line for an extensive redevelopment between late 2008 and 2011).  Turn left along Allhallows and at the end, at H Samuel Jewellers turn left along Midland Road.  Pass Boots the Chemist on your right and turn right along Harpur Street.  (Bedford has become a town of Markets and these take place in Harpur Street and St Paul’s Square on Wednesday and Saturday, the ‘General Market’, Thursdays ‘Gourmet Market’ and on Friday the ‘Flower Market’).  Walk past the Harpur Centre shopping complex in the right.  (The façade, erected in 1833, is that of the original Bedford Modern School, which was reconstructed in 1976 to house the shopping centre.  The Harpur Trust, set up by Bedford-born Sir William Harpur, Lord Mayor of London in 1561, runs four independent schools in Bedford).  At the end of the pedestrian precinct, turn left along St Paul’s Square.  Pass The Corn Exchange, which is now Bedford’s main theatre.  (See the dedication to the bandleader Glenn Miller on the front of the Corn Exchange. The Glenn Miller Orchestra held concerts here for the many US and other Servicemen based in the area, as well as making live broadcasts from here on the BBC during 1944.  There are public toilets on your left close to the bus stops).  Continue to the top of St Paul’s Square and turn right to cross the road at the pedestrian crossing to the church side of the Square.  Walk ahead with the church on your right, past the statue of the man who was the High Sheriff of Bedford from 1773 and a renowned prison reformer.  He travelled Europe encouraging prison reform there, and died of fever in the Ukraine in 1790.

QUESTION 4.  WHAT WAS HIS NAME?

Continue ahead, using the pedestrian crossings, towards Town Bridge and cross it.  (Half way over is a plaque giving the history of the bridge and the fact that in the 13^th century a bridge was constructed using the stones from the demolition rubble of the Bedford Castle).  At the far end of the bridge turn right on the path to the riverbank.  Turn right to pass under Town Bridge.  Pass the Bedford Rowing Club and cross a footbridge and in a short distance the Rink Island Bridge.  (You are now on Rink Islands.  To your right is the luxury town-house development of Duckmill Crescent).  Continue ahead to cross Abbey Bridge.  At the next junction, turn left and left again to cross over Duckmill Weir Bridge with green railings.  (At this point the river follows its old course to the right and the rowing course is to your left).  Follow the path through the park straight on over the Bedford Lock.

QUESTION 5.  WHEN WAS THE BEDFORD LOCK REOPENED FOR NAVIGATION?

(This was refurbished by British Waterways to make The River Great Ouse Navigable for another 3 miles upstream as far as Kempston).  Walk straight on past the bandstand, either to the left or right, past the Suspension Bridge and then cross over Boatslide Weir Bridge and Boatslide Bridge.  Walk straight on past the Harpur Schools Rowing Club, and Café on your right, Butterfly Bridge on your left.  (Crossing your outbound route).  Continue to the end of the Park with the river on the left and before you reach the white Newnham Bridge, turn right to follow the path under the road bridge.  At the cross paths, turn right to cross over the metal girder footbridge.  At the next path junction turn left (signed Priory Park & Willington).  You are now on the old railway bed of the Bletchley to Cambridge railway.  (You passed under this bridge on the outbound part of the walk).  Continue ahead for 800m to arrive back where you started at the Priory Park car park.  Turn right into the Beefeater Car Park and the finish.

We hope you have enjoyed the walk!

The Ise Valley Vagabonds have established other Permanent Trails at

 Bedford (2), Chester, Daventry, Kempston, Kettering, Kings Lynn, London (2), Marston Moretaine (2),

 Oxford, Rugby, Stamford, Stratford upon Avon, Warwick and Wellingborough.

They are all qualifying events towards the IVV award scheme. 

Further information about these walks, the IVV, the club and all its activities can be found by visiting our Web Site www.vagabonds.org.uk

THE ORGANISERS ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ACCIDENTS, THEFT, AND/OR DAMAGE TO PROPERTY. 

 EVERY EFFORT WILL BE MADE BY THE ORGANISERS TO MAKE THIS A SAFE, ENJOYABLE AND MEMORABLE EVENT.

ISE VALLEY VAGABONDS
PERMANENT TRAIL INTERNET REGISTRATION FORM

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