Chelveston - Yelden - Shelton - Chelveston

Led by Barry. With Gordon and me. About 8.25 miles. Garmin playing silly games at our snack stop! Warm, sunny, but some mud underfoot.

We set off from Chelveston at about 10 am.  There is a memorial to the USAF 305th Bombardment Group (heavy) who operated out of the airfield during World War II, with the loss of many personnel.

The memorial was erected in 2006

The upright is the pole from which the wind-sock flew on one of the hangars

Our route took us past the Star and Garter pub, then on to a footpath which divided into a footpath and bridleway soon after a gate. We took the left hand path - the bridleway, which was a bit clearer though still covered in tall grass at this time of year.
We followed this path uphill,  through another gate, eventually arriving at the old runway - on our left was a mobile phone mast, on our right an agricultural building of some sort, with various trucks. The public footpaths through the airfield were reopened only in 2006, after local action.

A useful, if not beautiful, landmark

We turned right along the old runway/road, and when we were almost on a level with the mast we turned off to the left, and then right through a strip of woodland. We emerged at the other end of this and turned left along a quiet minor road, which took us into Yelden, via Church Lane.

Yelden church

Well, you would . . .

I realised that we'd been here before, on Feb 27 2012,  only when the motte and bailey came into view

"the finest archaeological monument in Bedfordshire"

We turned left past this site, then left again to join the Three Shires Way bridleway, which we followed as it wended its sometimes muddy way, as far as  Shelton. 

We stopped here to have a look around the small church, which dates from the twelfth century.  Snack break too.

St Mary's Church in the well-kept village of Shelton

We took the footpath opposite the church, which took us more or less north west right back to the old airfield runway again.  We turned left and walked for a good half-mile, past the agroindustrial unit to pick up the path we used at the start of the walk. We retraced our steps to Chelveston village.

Map and details