Day 321 - November 16th

Today we repeated a walk which we last did in July. We drove to Marsworth in Buckinghamshire to walk round the reservoirs and waterways near Tring.

We parked at the car park in Marsworth and walked alongside the Marsworth Reservoir and then the Grand Union Canal.

On the Wendover Arm of the canal we spotted a grey heron. Initially he didn't see us and we were able to get very close to him before he flew off to the other side of the canal.

There is always so much to see alongside the canal.

This old building is Heygates' mill. There has been a flour mill on the site since 1875. Originally it was a windmill but this was demolished in 1910 to make way for a wheat silo. The Heygate family took over the business in 1945 and today mills in excess of 100,000 tonnes of wheat a year,

The restoration of the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal has been ongoing for quite some time.  You can walk the entire 6.75 mile Arm along the towpath (apart from a short section along Little Tring Road). However boats are currently restricted to the first 1.5 miles. Volunteers are rebuilding and relining the canal to bring it back to life.

Soon we found ourselves back at the reservoirs before we turned again to walk along another section of the Grand Union Canal on our way back to the car.

We were fortunate to see a kingfisher dart past, before resting briefly in a nearby bush.

On our way home, we detoured to Pitstone Windmill. We have driven close to it several times, but never before stopped to look at it.

Pitstone Windmill is owned by The National Trust and is one of the oldest Post Windmills in Britain. Pitstone windmill ground flour for the local village for almost three hundred years until a freak storm in the early 1900s left it damaged beyond economic repair. Donated to the National Trust in 1937 Pitstone Windmill has been restored by a team of volunteers.