This article is to help people follow the FURNEUX PELHAM VILLAGE WALK which is on permanent display outside the Brewery Tap.

The route is 8 miles long, but there is a short-cut back to the pub after 3 miles.

Start by the map panel, stand with the pub on your left, cross the road, and head north along Violets Lane. Be warned that the lane is partly a river bed and after rainfall you will need waterproof boots (or a little initiative) to avoid getting wet.  In very wet weather you might prefer to miss out Violets Lane and walk up Whitebarns Lane instead (see sketch)

Things to look out for en route:
(1) Facing north, notice the first building on your left: the brewery bell used to be on the roof and rang to summon the men to work at 6.30am.
(2) Old Church and Meeting Field are on your right: perhaps reminders of an ancient church, and the place where the Edwinstree Hundred met from Saxon times to resolve disputes. Look out for the fairies (Pharisees) who are said to bake cakes here!
(3) Notice how remote ‘Johnsy’ Pelham is: was there a monastery here? A manor house? A leper colony? The moat is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
(4) How old are the trees here? Ancient Woodland is scarce in the village. Most of the woods were planted by Lord Cunliffe in the 1930s and named after members of his family, but look out for old boundary oaks.
(5) Notice the Hertfordshire spike on the Church up ahead. Parts of the building date from the 13th Century.
(6) Taking the shortcut: see if you can you find the sign for the Chapel of the Annunciation? When George Service’s ship was sunk in the freezing waters of the White Sea in WWII, he promised God he would build a church if he survived. After his rescue, he persuaded his excommanding officer, Capt. Lake, to turn a barn into a Roman Catholic chapel.
(7) Turn around here and through the trees you can see the distinctive stepped gables of Furneaux Pelham Hall (note the alternative spelling of the village name). Lord Monteagle, who foiled the gunpowder plot, once owned it.
(8) Stop and take in the views here. 16thC Pheasant Cottage on the corner might have been aligned so that the plague couldn’t enter the front door on warm winds.
(9) You are walking through an ancient field called The Warren. Look out for irregular-shaped fields – some have remained unchanged for over 3000 years.
(10) Muntjac deer escaped from Woburn Park in WWII. Soon afterwards, one was spotted near Hixham Hall. Listen for their fiendish laugh!
(11) How many different shrubs can you see in the hedgerows? Can you spot plants such as hawthorn, hazel, field maple or blackthorn? Each species adds about 100 years to the age of the hedge – some have ten or more.
(12) This is East End Hamlet. Look out for the many beautiful old buildings on your way back to the Brewery Tap – there are over 50 listed buildings in this small village. As you pass the Old Mill House see if you can spot the millstone from the smock mill that once stood next to it. Across the road, a much older post mill gave Old Mill Field its name.