After a couple of gigs this weekend at busy pubs celebrating Jubilee weekend with the band, I managed to get out for an cool evening e-bike ride while the weather was still good.
The dry conditions at this time of year mean that the footpaths and tracks around the field margins are often rock hard, and perfect for cycling (preferably with a bit of suspension).
This overgrown area is a large rectangle carved out of what would otherwise be a large wheat field. You can still see some marks in the ground on Google Maps that may be an indicator of the way the main house was oriented. The track running roughly north-south is a green lane known locally as Gypsy Lane. It extends towards Little Wymondley and was also known as the Grimstone Highway, a possible reference to Odin. The path I'm on follows the line of trees roughly east-west, towards Great Wymondley, where a Roman settlement was also found.
Our North Herts archaeologist Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews has written much more extensively about the two Wymondleys. Like anywhere else in the UK, the soil and land have been reshaped by people over millennia, and not all of them were homo sapiens.
I was wearing a Buff snood thing over my mouth, because all the way along the field margins grows a plant responsible for a lot of pollen at this time of year. It doesn't sting like a nettle, but it does take away your skin's ability to make melanin against the sun, so beware.
Genesis have sung about this plant, and their lyrics are pretty informative, actually. Hat tip to 
Waste no time!
They are approaching
Hurry now, we must protect ourselves and find some shelter
Strike by night!
They are defenceless
They all need the sun to photosensitize their venom
Still they're invincible
Still they're immune to all our herbicidal battering
--The Return of the Giant Hogweed by Genesis
Here it is, in all its glory, standing Triffid-like in the late evening sun!
Further up the track, there's a section that is slightly elevated that runs past the site of the Roman settlement at Great Wymondley. I like to think of this as a lesser Roman road. It's definitely heading out towards the Roman route of the Great North Road at Gravely, but that's all I know for sure...
A crossroads on the same path -- a trivium perhaps where the goddess Hecate was once honoured?
The footpath as it traces the line of the A1 just south of Letchworth. Telegraph Hill and the Icknield Way are visible as a faint bump on the horizon:
I had all of my songs on shuffle for this ride. I don't delete much, so the results can be surprising. Much of this section was to the tune of Lollipop by Mika, a leftover from school run. (TLDR: don't suck too hard -- too much candy gonna rot your soul)
But I went down the steep slope after the last photo -- called the Gallops -- to this lovely number:
CAPCOM, we are go for powered descent!