Monks Wood, Stevenage
November 5th, Stevenage
Monkswood is the second largest wooded area in Stevenage. It lies on the east side of Fairlands Park. It was over a year since I had visited and I particularly wanted to revisit the Anglo-Saxon earthwork that lies right in the middle of the deepest part of the woods. The weather was dry, with no wind and overcast. I arrived at about 3 PM in the afternoon and the light was already fading.
I made my way through the woods using some of the foot paths and cutting across country once or twice. I came across a small Lake area, which, for some reason had a plastic garden chair upturned in it. It somehow made a quiet woodland scene more Stevenage. After a further 10 minutes walking, I came across the Anglo-Saxon encampment area. It is quite impressive and that some of the ditch and earthworks Have a height of about 10 feet from the bottom of the ditch to the top. On at least half of the circumference, these ditches are flooded. Whether they were intended to be a Moat or just an open ditch, I do not know. I stopped to take a few photos, and there were some quite interesting aspects to look at although with the light failing I was taking all of my shots at approximately 1/10 of a second handheld. As it turned out, they look OK. I made my way out of the edge of the Wood into Fairlands Park and it was about 1/3 of a mile walk back to the car. I left about 4:20 PM with it getting quite dark.
