Countryside Management Service

Chilterns pub walks

Chilterns Country: The Straw Plaiters Walk, Pirton

Distance:	6 km (3½ m)
Time:	Average 1½ to 2 hours
Rating:	Moderate: open, rolling farmland. No stiles
Starting point:	The Motte and Bailey Pub, Pirton show me on a map

How to get to Pirton

The nearest train station is Hitchin, from where the 89 bus runs every day except Sundays, stopping outside the Motte and Bailey pub. For details call the Hertfordshire Traveline on 0870 608 2 608. Pirton can be reached by bike along the Hambridge Way cycle path. If you need to come by car, please park in the Motte and Bailey car park.

Route description

The Motte and Bailey pub. Turn left and cross the green, passing the village sign which depicts hands plaiting straw. Behind it once stood a small thatched cottage, which housed one of the plaiting schools.

Fast traffic - take care crossing.

The Icknield Way Path covers 120 miles of chalk ridge, closely following the historical route of the Icknield Way.

Highdown House, which you pass on your right, was built in the early 17th century and was a cavalier stronghold during the civil war.

Before veering left here, go ahead for about 100 metres for a good view of Knocking Knoll, the Iron Age Long Barrow, and the Bedfordshire plains.

Pause here to admire the views of Letchworth and Hitchin, and beyond to the hills around Weston.

Points of interest

If you started your walk in Pirton in the 19th century, you would have noticed that many of the women sitting at their cottage doors or walking around the village were plaiting straw for the Luton hat trade.

Less visible were the children, some as young as three, who attended the village plait schools. Here they would spend long, uncomfortable hours plaiting and no doubt rather less time learning to read and write.

This cottage industry was an important part of village life from the 17th century until the 20th century and provided extra income for poor families. Straw dealers purchased wheat stacks from the farmers and sold the stripped and bleached straw to the plaiters, who took the finished plaits to Hitchin Market.

The chalk-sprinkled fields you see as you climb up Wood Lane, may help explain why straw plaiting developed here. The thin Chilterns soil provided ideal conditions for growing the soft pliable wheat needed for straw hats.

While women plaited, many of the men and older boys worked as agricultural labourers, growing wheat, barley, hay crops and turnips. By the early 19th century large open fields, made up of blocks of strips, had been ‘enclosed’, creating smaller, regular fields, bounded by hawthorn hedges. Farming methods have certainly changed, and some hedges have been grubbed out, but the pattern of fields remains much the same today.

These days there are very few men in the village who make a living from farming, and there are no straw plaiters left. Pirton has seen many changes, but it is still a working village, as well as somewhere to enjoy for its quiet beauty. And in its cottages and lanes, hedges and fields, it is rich with reminders of the past.

Rights of Way symbols you might see

	Yellow arrows indicate footpaths for pedestrian use only
	Blue arrows indicate bridleways for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrian use only
	Red arrows indicate Byways Open to All Traffic (BOAT) for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrians and may be legally used by other wheeled vehicles
	Black arrows indicate Roads Used as Public Paths (RUPP) for horse riders, cyclists and pedestrians and may be legally used by other wheeled vehicles

More about Rights of Way

Maps

This map is based on Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Hertfordshire County Council 100019606 2004.

The Ordnance Survey mapping included within this web-site is provided by Hertfordshire County Council under licence from the Ordnance Survey in order to fulfill its public function to provide information relating to its activities, services and plans. Persons viewing this mapping should contact Ordnance Survey copyright for advice where they wish to license Ordnance survey mapping for their own use.

See the Ordnance Survey site for more information.

This is is one of a series of walks through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) supported by the Chilterns Conference.

Please be considerate in the countryside - keep to footpaths, especially through crops, and leave farm gates as you find them.