I joined a group of 20 walkers this morning, led by my friend Jenny, setting off for a five mile circular route through Roxton village and alongside the river. In 1808 local landowners, the Metcalfe Family, established a Congregational Church in a thatched barn on their property.  It looks like a private home but is in fact still a place of weekly worship.

We walked along footpaths by the side of the water to Roxton Weir where we stopped for a five minute breather.

Then it was inland along the path that led to a track that was used, at the turn of the century, by horses and carts that brought agricultural to Tempsford Station.  Roxton may have been one of the first places in England to grow Brussels sprouts and the area generally supplied fresh vegetables for London and The North.  One of the group was the descendant of local landowners and seedsmen and remembers the sidings at Sandy and the many warehouses where the produce was stored for onward delivery to London by train.  Another of the group said that his grandfather was a horse and cart driver who had taken the goods to and from the station in St Neots in the early 1900’s.  The agricultural workers were paid a pittance and laboured in the fields hoeing and planting and picking to supply the people of London with their vegetables. Fascinating walk with a great group of people.