Most people think that you have to spend at least a couple of hours on the train, in a bus, or driving narrow byways to experience the fabled English countryside, wandering through hidden villages and lunching in quiet country pubs. The people who live in the tiny, little-known (to outsiders, at least!) communities that surround the capital like it that way. They want you to traipse off to the Cotswolds or the Lake District in search of rural life and leave them in peace.
But I want to take you to a cluster of small towns and villages just north of London. All it takes is a short ride on the train and three or four miles of easy walking, no more than you’d do just walking around London, to get a genuine feel for small-town life in England. There are places like this all over the London area, but these are easily accessible by train, and you won’t find another tourist anywhere in sight.
Our journey starts at Kings Cross Station … but not the mainline station most visitors know. We’re going to Kings Cross Thameslink, two blocks east on Pentonville Road. Thameslink is an inexpensive commuter rail service that tourists seldom use, running between London and dozens of nearby towns. (If it’s more convenient, you can begin this trip at one of the other stations in central London served by Thameslink: London Bridge, Blackfriars, or City.)
Thameslink trains are frequent, three or four an hour and you don’t need a reservation, just a ticket from one of the machines in front of the turnstiles. If you board in the morning, you should have no trouble finding a seat beyond Kings Cross, because all the commuters are going in the opposite direction. Take the train north (toward Luton), and check the lighted signboard on the platform. We’re going to Radlett, and only about half the trains stop there. Trains bound for Bedford don’t stop until just past Radlett.
The trip to Radlett takes only 20 minutes or so, about seven stops, but when you get off the train, you feel like you’re about as far from London as it’s possible to get. Instead of the grimy urban station on a traffic-choked street surrounded by concrete where you began your trip just a few minutes ago, you alight at a sleek, modern building on a quiet street surrounded by trees. Even when you walk up to the high street (called Watling Street in Radlett), just a few steps away, the feeling persists. You could be in Small Town, Anywhere.
Radlett is a delightful small town of about 8,000 people built along the old Roman Road (Watling Street) that ran from London to St. Albans. There’s much more here than you’d expect from a town this size – charming restaurants, excellent shopping, and a good cultural life: the Radlett Centre presents a barrage of choices from movies to live theater to musical groups of all sorts. It’s a rare day when the Centre doesn’t have two or three events going on.
There’s a rich world of opportunity in Radlett because, well, Radlett is a rich city, named Britain’s wealthiest area in the most recent census – even beating out London’s Mayfair area! The average (not the fanciest, mind you, just the ordinary one) single-family Radlett home sells for almost £800,000. That’s about $1.5 million … for an average house. Even semi-detached houses (an American would call them townhouses) average about £300,000 – a cool half-million dollars.
We won’t spend much time in Radlett – we probably can’t afford to – but we will take a walk through it and soak up some of its charm.
When we walk the 30 yards or so from the railway station to Watling Street, we see a street of low buildings and shopfronts, like small towns everywhere. Let’s turn left and stroll about 300 yards to get a feeling for the high street, with its usual mix of markets, cafés, and merchants. We’ll pass a synagogue and the post office on the right, and soon get to Aldenham Avenue. Just across that street is the modern Radlett Center. But we’re going to turn right and stroll along Aldenham Avenue for a few minutes.
You’ll find no shops and businesses here. Like most of the town, this is all residential, and as we follow the curving street down the gentle hill, we’ll see some nice homes. They’d better be at these prices! Just wait: They’ll get better.
We’ll follow this street for a bit less than a half mile, just an easy 10- or 15-minute stroll, to where it comes to an end at Loom Lane. Now: Right or left? Actually it doesn’t matter at all. Either way and we’ll end up in the same place. But let’s turn left and follow the street a couple of hundred yards to a very English-sounding street turning off to the right – The Ridgeway.
The homes get even nicer here. We’re probably in million-pound territory now. And they all have names: Windsong, Eleven Candles, Little Manor … some fanciful and some ordinary. But it’s bound to generate a discussion about what a suitable name would be for your house back home. We had enough trouble agreeing on names for some of our kids; I can’t imagine how hard it would be to settle on a name for our old house. “Maples,” maybe – we had two trees and they were both maples.
You’ll stroll and gawk your way along The Ridgeway for about a half mile when this road, too, comes to an end. Ahead of you and off to the left you’ll see a farm. That’s the direction we’re going, although we won’t stop here – yet. But turn onto the common lane on your left. That’s not a criticism or the road – that’s its name: Common Lane, although it’s hard to find a sign that admits it.
Now we’re in for another easy half-mile stroll along the road. We’ll pass the farm on our right and just enjoy the silence. Ambling through Radlett, admiring the beautiful homes, is a delight, but this is where the nicest part of the trip really starts for me, at least. I love London. It’s my favorite place on Earth. But after awhile, even the most congenial urban environment begins to press on me.
Just yards outside Radlett and less than an hour from busy Kings Cross, I’m away from the noise, the crowds, the exhaust fumes of London. Suddenly I’m aware of the birds, of the sunshine, of the breeze. Now, as I walk down this country lane, I begin to stride instead of stroll; the fresh air fills my lungs. It’s glorious.
Don’t ignore the roadway altogether: The lane is narrow, just a one-lane asphalt road with passing places every hundred yards or so, and occasional cars do come rolling past, usually headed for the farm. (We’ll see why a little later.) This refreshing air has already been worth the roughly £6 the train ticket cost, but the best is yet to come, and one of the highlights is just ahead.
About a half mile down Common Lane is one of those little places we’re making for. (It seems like today is our day to work in half-mile increments.) We’ve arrived at the little village of Letchmore Heath.
I can’t say that it’s exactly undiscovered, because it’s been an occasional backdrop for a few episodes of British TV comedies and dramas, including The Avengers, The Saint, and, of course, As Time Goes By. Your chances of encountering a film crew are more remote than your riding the winning horse at Ascot next year, though.
As we enter the village, we’ll bear left on one of the hamlet’s few streets, the aptly-named Back Lane, passing old cottages of whitewashed brick. They have names, too, although sometimes for no discernable reason: I couldn’t find a single vine on Honeysuckle Cottage. Back Lane will take you straight into the heart of the village, and the village will go straight to your heart.
It’s charming beyond words, but I’ll try. Letchmore Heath has only about 150 homes and the total population is only about 450. A stroll along its few streets – Back Lane, The Green, and New Road, won’t take long at all. Many of the cottages are Victorian, dated in the 1880s. One has a touching memorial to the man who lived there, and went off to fight – and lose his life – in the Great War (World War I).
In the center of everything is the small, perfect village green, with a memorial in the center to local men who died in the War To End All Wars. Sadly, more names had to be added after subsequent wars. If you can’t take a memorable photograph from here, turn in your camera – you’re a menace to photographers everywhere!
At one end of the Green stands the village’s favorite building, the Three Horseshoes Pub. By all means, stop for a drink here, even if it’s only mineral water, although they have a nice selection of real ales. This is exactly what a country pub ought to be like.
You’ll recognize this from the outside, at least. Here is where Lionel parked his hired car while he and Jean went into the pub for a noisy, abortive attempt at lunch, and where he was unable to squeeze into his hemmed-in car when they tried to leave.
The building was there as early as 1586, although parts of it are much more modern – the result of some work in 1803. The interior shots in the episode were done in the studio. 
In reality, the pub is very old inside with lots of dark beams, utterly charming. Conversation among the locals here seems to center on football (soccer to this visiting Yank), but then we visited during the World Cup playoffs. But you’ll also pick up lock of local news. We listened, fascinated, to the debate over whether a local farmer’s horse ought to be given an injection because of some sort of unspecified ailment. The locals all knew, but it seemed a bit cheeky for an outsider like me to stick his nose in.
This is a great place to stop for a drink. By now you’ve been walking for close to an hour, probably, and will be thirsty. After a little liquid refreshment has restored you from your invigorating walk, rest your legs just a little longer by walking a hundred yards across the green to sit for a bit on one of the three benches beside the small pond. But be forewarned: The pond is home to a veritable horde of ducks who take it as their right to be fed by whoever sits down there. Bring bread! I also have to mention something you might catch sight of as you leave town. Just southwest of Letchmore Heath is the ornate Bhaktivedanta Manor, the headquarters in Britain of the Hare Krishna sect of Hinduism. The manor is a hundred-year-old mock-Tudor mansion set in 17 acres of rolling countryside just outside the village. It was donated to the Krishnas in 1973 by rock star George Harrison of the Beatles.
There’s much more country charm in store for us, so now let’s set out down one of England’s famous country footpaths. A word about these footpaths would be appropriate first, I suppose. They are as much a cherished tradition here, and in Wales and Scotland as well, as the royal family. (Actually, in Scotland, footpaths are certainly far more cherished than English royalty!) Hundreds of miles of pathways crisscross every bit of Britain and the law has established with certainty that property owners cannot restrict reasonable public access to the paths that cross their land. Many footpaths are hundreds of years old … perhaps much more. Fences cannot be erected across then unless absolutely necessary to control livestock, and gates and stiles have to be provided for walkers. At the same time, walkers have obligations, too, to keep only to the paths, to leave nothing in their wake, and to ensure that all gates are secured behind them. It’s a most civilized arrangement. Footpaths are normally marked with small signs where they intersect with roadways, and usually marked with occasional arrows or signs in open country.
Several paths make their way from Letchmore Heath. If you want a long walk – about three miles – you can take the footpath near the pond, which, if you bear to the left, will take you to a lovely reservoir and the stately Hilfield Castle, an impressive home built in 1803. That’s a walk of about a mile, but from there you have a rather uninteresting walk of about a mile off to the right up Hilfield Lane, and one little more interesting of about another mile to the right on Summerhouse Lane.
But that’s not why you came. you want to see THE path. So go left from the duck pond, past the pub and the houses on The Green, until you reach Grange Lane, just 300 yards or so away. As you leave the village on Grange Lane, you’ll come to one footpath on your right. This is the one to follow; this is THE path. I must tell you that it’s not overgrown at all, despite the way it looked in the show. Follow it (that’s why you’re here, after all) and you’ll have a pleasant half-mile (naturally) stroll through English meadows and fields. After two or three hundred yards you’ll come to another footpath, veering off to the right, but pass that by, or you’ll end up back in Radlett and miss a delicious lunch.
The walk through the fields is flat and easy and won’t take more than 15 minutes. You’ll soon reach a line of trees and your path will parallel them for the last hundred yards or so. When you come to a road, that’s Summerhouse Lane. Just turn left here, walk about one minute to the small road on your right, and make for the small pub you see just up the road on your right – the Round Bush Pub. You’ll know it in a flash – the Country Hotel!
It’s not a hotel at all, but a pleasant country pub. The interior looks nothing like what you remember from the TV show: those were studio shots. But the exterior shots were done right here.
The pub is about all there is in the one-time hamlet of Round Bush. There’s no real village here to speak of, just an auto garage (you’ll recognize it as the place Lionel stopped to ask directions to the Copper Kettle), some houses, a small lane (The Spinning) behind the pub with old almshouses that have been turned into attractive cottages, and that’s all. But the pub is worth the walk.
The Round Bush isn’t as old as the Three Horseshoes. This newcomer has only been around since the 1850s. But it’s a delight for the eyes in any case, has a lovely garden in the back that’s perfect for summertime lunching, and the food – well, it’s definitely worth the walk. I’m a big fan of that pub staple, the Plowman’s Lunch, and this one served up the best by far that I’ve ever had anywhere. They loaded my plate with two enormous slabs of aged white cheddar (nothing at all like its wimpy yellow American cousin), an entire baguette, a monstrous pickled onion the size of a tennis ball, a great splash of chutney, and a huge green salad. I struggled to finish it, and I had a big appetite when I reached the pub. Wash that down with a cold cider or strong ale and you are definitely set for the afternoon. The size of my lunch was in no way remarkable for this place. They were all like that, and delicious. Barb’s portion of coronation chicken was equally huge and served with just as many accouterments.
When you’ve finished (if you can finish), let’s make a brief stop in our third village. This one isn’t even the obligatory half mile away.
Turn right from the front of the pub and make for the busy road a 1-minute walk away. This is Highway B462 heading back to Radlett. Traffic whizzes past here so be careful when you cross the road, but when you do, follow the sidewalk to the left, stroll down the hill, and you’re in Aldenham Village.
Only 200 or so people live in Aldenham nowadays and there’s not even a pub here any more, but it’s an old place, mentioned in the Domesday Book. The big attraction now is a golf course on the other end of town, and there’s a small plat of new houses near it. But Aldenham was modestly important once, mostly a farm owned by the Abbot of Westminster Abbey, and home to retreats for wealthy Americans like J.P. Morgan and Joseph Kennedy.
Today, though, we really don’t need to go much further than a short walk up Church Lane to see the reason we’ve come: the church: St. John the Baptist Anglican Church.
Yes, you’ll recognize this one, too. Rocky and Madge were married here, and you saw both inside and outside in that episode. Alistair and Judith were married here, too.
For centuries, this has been the parish church for all the nearby communities, including Letchmore Heath and Round Bush. Parts of the church are more than 750 years old, and the foundations of the older church it was built on seem to go back to Saxon times. The church had reached the form you see now by the mid-1400s.
Inside, the church is cool and quiet with ancient stone pillars and the old choir screen still in place. The burial monuments suggest a more bustling history of the area. Look for the effigies of two local ladies of the 1300s to get an idea of how people dressed in those days.
You can see a few other old buildings in Aldenham before you get to the more suburban-looking parts, the most interesting being an old building called the Aldenham Social Club. It started life in the 1500s as a private house. A quick look around won’t take long. Then it’s time to start back.
Retrace your steps to where you emerged onto Summerhouse Road on your walk from Letchmore Heath. Now you’ll notice that actually two footpaths converge here – the one you arrived on, and another that goes off lightly to your left as you face them. In fact, they’re labeled. Let’s take the one on the left that directs us to Batler’s Green.
This is another easy stroll of (surprise!) about a half mile. About halfway along, you’ll cross a stile into a meadow where the path is hard to see, but just make for the stile at the opposite end of the pasture, and watch your step just a bit – cows often graze here. Just before you get to the second stile, nestled back near a grove of trees, you might be able to barely make out some unevenness in the land, remnants of a 2000-year-old Roman encampment adjacent to the old Roman road.
The footpath will take you straight to Batler’s Green Farm and Shops, the farm we left just as we left Radlett. (Something to note: Some maps and signs spell it Batler’s and others spell it Battler’s. They seem pretty casual about it, so take your pick.) While this is a working farm, it’s much more. Now, at the end of your excursion, you might want to do a little shopping. For more than 40 years, the family that owns the farm has had several craft stores here, with the work of local artisans (and, yes, of some Korean factory workers, too). You can get a snack here or have a tasty meal, buy some flowers, hand-cut meats, or fresh fish, but if you buy fish and it’s summer, I hope you’re not sitting next to me on the train ride back to London. Shops sell wine and cheese, animals and pet food, and picture frames. You can even get your fortune told.
See why we skipped this place the first time? You’re bound to buy some things, and if you’d done it this morning, you’d have had to carry them all day! Now you only have to carry them back to the train.
When you leave the farm by the main gate, you’re back on Common Lane, and Radlett is just to your left. This time pass by The Ridgeway and take the first street on your right, Loom Lane. You can follow this back to Aldenham Avenue and go back the way you came this morning. If you want a little variety, just follow the sign that says The Pathway about a quarter mile down Loom Lane, just before it bends to the right. The Pathway is almost like a footpath in the city, tree-lined and free of cars. You’ll walk past a sports ground on your left and the Path will take you to quiet Letchmore Road. Follow this to the right (the only way you can go – getting lost is impossible) and it meets up again with Aldenham Avenue, just a hundred yards or so before it reaches Watling Street. Turn left here and you're back on familiar ground, and just minutes from the railway station.
A day like this is a tonic for the soul: lots of fresh air, moderate exercise, charming old villages and village pubs, good food, interesting shops, and a chance to visit some familiar places from your favorite TV show. And you will be the only person you know who has had an experience like this right in Greater London, one of the city’s greatest surprises.
Copyright 2005 by Larry Lain. This piece has been written exclusively for the As Time Goes By website of Bonnie Rottstin, and reproduction or republication by any means without the consent of the author and the website owner is prohibited. Please obtain the permission of the website owner before linking to this page.
Larry Lain is professor of communication at the University of Dayton. He is the author of numerous travel books, including three about London, which is his favorite place on the planet. He visited these villages (and other ATGB-related sites) when he was in London in 2002 for the taping of the next-to-last regular episode of the show and is profoundly jealous of those who were able to make the trip to watch the reunion episodes in 2005. But he has this pesky day job . . . .