Peterborough Ramblers walk 9 Aprl 2026

When one has not walked with the ensemble for many a month  it is truly wonderful to return and be welcomed as a long lost pal – or at least someone who might stump up a few pennies for a round at the end of the amble.   And thus it was that upon my second walk after a very long pause I found myself greeted like a being retunred from the after life – or something along those lines.

Indeed meeting old friends and finding that the gathering place was in fact in a village which one might call “quaint,” had I not had an English teacher (who was directly involved in writing the Domesday Book), forbidding the use of the word “quaint” as being completely meaningless and unsuitable for contemporary discourse.

So not quaint then, but “attractively unusual and a trifle old fashioned” if you get my drift.  Indeed it would appear that some of these trees have been here for well over a month, and that I did find quite astonishing.

What I found most worrying, however, was the way in which the trees had indeed formed their own civilisation, for later in the walk, we started to find some of their buildings set out in the form of long arches stretching as far as the eye could see and even further when I put my glasses on.

These are indeed remarkable sitses built by civilisations now long since departed when, I am told, the arch was worshipped as a form of communication, with each village announcing to the next just how many arches it could build without any of them falling into any kind of disrepair or other display of the ravages of time (which of course passes more slowly in the countryside as was established by the court of St James in 1433 – or just after lunch as we would call it these days).

I was fascinated by these towners and delighted to discover in my “Big Boys Book of Buildings” that they were in fact built in the 12th century as rocket launchers for the days in which man (and woman) kind first journeyed to the moon.

In fact, I heard on the radio only today that a group of Americans had just gone to the very same place, and were disappointed to find we got there first.

And of course it is now known that the reason the English got to the moon first was that we took out our own catering department, for I was delighted to see that one of the members of the team was still celebrated in the village with a plaque on the wall.  It really is quite extraordinary what one can see in these places just off the “beaten track” (as I believe it is called).

Thus foresooth we marched forth, and in some cases fifth, along pathways and beside woodland, wondering what other wonders we might behold.

And indeed I am delighted to say there were more, but I would not wish to overexcite you, so I shall dwell on these later.

Tony Attwood