Hatfield House

Hatfield House

Following our established policy, we decided to visit Hatfield House on our way back from a visit to Cambridge. Last year we did a walk around Audley End, a similarly magnificent Jacobean house. This time it was not possible to walk around the perimeter, but we found a lovely 3 mile walk within the park on the Hatfield House website, which we did after a quick tour of the house and gardens.

You walk along the drive and then down a slope into woodland - first broad leaved trees and then pine. There was a surprising amount of traffic noise as you approached the edge of the park. After a mile or so you come to the Broadwater, an area of the River Lea which was dammed to provide power for a water mill. What appears to be the left bank in the photo is in fact an island, which boasts twenty species of oak. It really is a very pretty spot.



You walk along the bank for a way and then turn away through woodland to reach the castle folly at the end of an estate road. It dates from the 1780s, although the brick wall is older (1633) and surrounds the secret garden.



The route from here goes parallel to the Broadwater and then returns to it. A short way along the bank, the imaginatively named Red Bridge marks the end of the lake, with the mill pool behind it.



Up close it is revealed to be closed and in a poor state of repair.

After leaving the woodland, the next section is across farmland and you could easily forget you were in the park of a great house. This leads into more conventional parkland: cut grass, scattered trees, saplings in wooden enclosures to protect them from the deer.

Finally the rear facade of the house comes into view and the walk is complete.



Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: 3 miles.

Rating: three and half stars.


Hatfield House

Hatfield House was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to James I. It is still the home of the Cecil family.

I had not realised that there was also an Old Palace a couple of hundred yards from the house. It was built between 1485 and 1497 for John Morton, bishop of Ely. It was confiscated by Henry VIII after the dissolution of the monasteries and it was here that Elizabeth I spent much of her childhood. The building which is visible today is the former Great Hall, just one wing of the palace.



It is a fascinating building. The dark red brick and church-like appearance put you in mind of Victorian rather than Tudor architecture.