19.8.2017 Section 12
Other commitments, weather etc. etc.
But now I did it, another segment has been done.
Saturday morning, great weather. What else does one need.
After a lengthy tube and train ride Elstree & Borehamwood Station was reached.
Around the station some markers celebrating the former film studios and the stars which performed
here.
Harrison Ford, Barbara Windsor just to name two of many.
The walk started rather dull on the pedestrian walkway across Elstree. Up the hill the old oak woodlands
of Scratchwood are reached quickly.
Passing through this at times rather dark woodland its country park neighbour of Moat Mount are reached,
a once big hunting estate. Unfortunately the road designers paved the A1 right through, so a rather length detour
to cross the A1 via foot-tunnel is necessary.
Fortunately on the other side the noise of the motorway fades very quickly into the background and a very
pleasant walk for about 4 m on the Greenwalk of the Dollis Valley awaits the walker.
Alongside a little stream, the Dollis Brook, the path leads me into Totteridge Fields, a London Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve. 
Nature around me at all times the walk leads via several kissing gates to an ancient meadow landscape
with hedgerows on the sides. This is London !
Quickly High Barnet Tube Station is reached, but this is not for me. I head on leaving the station to my left and
going into King George Fields. This piece of land was acquired way back in the early 30th to celebrate the reign
of George V.
Up hill Headley Green is reached. From it’s highest point a great view of London.
Headley Green was also the likely location of the Battle of Barnet on Easter Sunday 1471.
No remains of the battleground can be seen, so one has to believe the story.
Heading on the charming village of Monken Hadley is reached where the famous explorer DavidLivingstone lived
for a short while in 1850 after his return from Africa.
Almost next to “his” house the Wilbraham’s Almshouses for “six decayed housekeepers”.Sir Roger Wilbraham build them in 1612.
Around the corner to Loop path guides me through some white wooden gates into “Enfield Chase” a part of a once vast
Royal hunting ground. Only in 1777 during the reign of George III the grounds where parcelled off but the villagers of
Hadley claimed grazing rights and saved this way about 240 acres for them: the Hadley Common.
Now path passes through the Hadley Common, only to be “interrupted” by a railway bridge crossing the Kings Cross to Scotland line.
Passing through another set of white gates ( the other end of the common )
the end of todays walk, Cockfoster Station, is reached.
Some more pictures of this section can be found here and a map with todays waypoints can be found here
This concludes the 12.section: 10 1/2 miles, 54 3/4 miles still to go.
