10/10/2024
And Watlington is in the centre close to M40
We would like to congratulate the Icknield Way Association and The Friends of The Ridgeway on their successful and enjoyable launch today Dunstable Downs - National Trust
The new Great Chalk Way is a re-creation of what is thought to be England's oldest coast-to-coast route that links Lyme Regis on Dorset's Jurassic Coast to the Wash in Norfolk. The route takes you approximately 400 miles through eleven beautiful English counties including; Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk following established long distance paths and two popular National Trails The Ridgeway NT and Peddars Way.
Archaeologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota said: “This new, unified Great Chalk Way is a magical route, an epic that leads you from one side of the country to the other. It’s a deeply historic route – you’re travelling in the footsteps, and hoofsteps, of many generations of ancient people, and en route you’re confronted by some of their most intriguing monuments – from secret, carved caves, to hillside white horses, to the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world. The Great Chalk Way is also a connection of beautiful, nature-rich and ever-changing geological, natural and farmed landscapes – from the wind-stripped Norfolk fens to the lofty beech woodlands of the Chilterns, to the wide downs of Wessex and through Dorset to the Jurassic coast. And it’s also hugely accessible – close to southern England’s towns and cities, with transport links, and terrain that isn’t too daunting for beginners. I hope the Great Chalk Way becomes one of the best-loved and celebrated long distance routes in the country.
