A new website has been launched – Barleywolds.com – as a guide to the countryside and villages between Royston, Stevenage and Bishop’s Stortford.
The Barleywolds is the name given to this area of chalk “hills” on the borders of Hertfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Barleywolds.com is a free, non-commercial guide to the History, Myths, Nature, People, Villages, Towns, Attractions, Restaurants, Cafes, Pubs, Walks and Accommodations in and around the Barleywolds area.
One motivation for creating this website was to point out the special character of the area, so that it may potentially be protected from further development. There is increasing pressure to build more houses, businesses and golf courses, and for farms to become more industrial, removing hedgerows, meadows and woodland, and polluting chalk streams. Stevenage, Bishop’s Stortford and other towns are expanding into the Barleywolds. All of this is a threat to the character and wildlife of the area. Potential means to protect the area would be: increase the Nature Reserves, extend the Green Belt, or extend the Chilterns AONB/National Landscape.
But the website is mainly a guide to the area, including: Local Restaurants, Cafes and Pubs; Local Children’s activities, Adult activities, Golf courses, Museums, Cultural activities, and Nature Reserves; Local Flora and Fauna; Local People from the Anglo-Saxon King Beorhtwulf to the Naked Chef Jamie Oliver; Local History from the Romans to sequencing the Human Genome; Local Myths, from the Blind Fiddler of Anstey to the Miracle of the Ring at Clavering; Local walks, and the story of the local villages and towns.
Visit the Barleywolds today, and find a walk, a pub or a story: barleywolds.com
