Gorgeous Historic Gravel Biking from Cambridge to Saffron Walden

Welcome to another Pedalling Past ‘Time Travel Gravel’ adventure where we take you back into history on a bike on carefully curated, low and no traffic roads and gravel tracks.
This 76km mixed surface ride starts in Cambridge heads south on a Roman Road to Linton before swinging round to the beautiful historic town of Saffron Walden. Then we swing north on ancient tracks before daisy chaining beautiful villages back up to the fantastic bike path network of Cambridge.
It’s lovely rolling route that’s largely off road on quiet tracks but with wet weather road options if conditions are muddy. There are loads of places to stop for tea and cake or a pint and a pie too, and I can personally recommend Linton Kitchen and Bicicletta in Saffron Walden.
The route is ready to follow on the Komoot App on our ‘Pedalling Past’ page but if you want any other information just let us know in the comments and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks for being part of the start of our ‘back in time by bike’ YouTube adventure. It’s never going to be slick or ‘pro’ because we haven’t got the skills or the time but please let us know what you think so far and how we can improve the format in the comments. What extra featuresmwould you like to see to help enrich and enable the ride? Do you like the thumbnail? Would you like more drone footage? Does ‘heritage sign brown’ work or does it literally look like sh1t?

Please tell your friends and show partners/kids/parents too as the idea is to create a growing collection of history based routes that appeal to all sorts of people and get them onto bikes and into history by ‘Pedalling through the past’.

Cheers

Guy and Sarah

Good morning and welcome to pedaling past the YouTube channel where we take you back in time on a bike through some of England and Britain’s most beautiful places and today I’m afraid it’s just me Sarah’s at home looking after the dogs for uh bonfire night and I was down here

For John and Caroline’s wedding yesterday so I thought as we’re here let’s explore the beautiful city of Cambridge and this route is a 75 route It’s relatively flat as always for pedaling past it uses a very carefully curated uh selection of lanes back roads cycle paths as you can see Cambridge is

Amazingly cycle friendly I think 25% of all commuting Journeys by bike 47% of the population ride a bike at least once a week and of course you’ve got this huge student population here as well so uh are we’re going to make use of some of those routes heading out of

Town I’ll talk to you through a bit about the history as we ride through it and uh yeah well really hope that you’ll come along with me today and just put up with me wiing on rather than Sarah uh providing some uh slightly more Scenic shots and uh more commentary and uh yeah

We’re off on the way down to Saffron Walden named after the famous spice and then we’ll uh take a Roman Road mostly out in that direction there’s a great bakery John said is on the way and then we’ll wind our way back through tiny little historic villages up the River

Cam or the river granter cuz I didn’t know until I was researching this route that they’re the same thing but for now it’s time to hop on the bike and start another time travel gravel Adventure so Cambridge first archaeological history starts about 3 and a half Thousand Years BC so late

Near lithic there’s a Bronze Age settlement there’s a Roman settlement there’s an Iron Age settlement but things really start kicking off in terms of where most people know Cambridge in 1209 when Scholars from Oxford are hounded out of Oxford Town and end up setting up in Cambridge which

I didn’t know didn’t know Oxford kind of founded Cambridge and now there are 31 different colleges here all with their own traditions and histories that’ss like the porter there in his bold hat and it’s a be I mean it is a beautiful Town incredibly popular with tourists

Now uh can see all manner of different stories and histories around here built into these hallowed walls I mean the list of famous people who studied and lived in Cambridge is pretty much endless but you can find all that about all of that in uh the numerous

Museums in the city and one thing I didn’t realize it only became a city in the 1950s it was a town up till then and there’s one of the famous colleges here but absolutely worth coming a day or two early and exploring this area in the fence it’s actually just south of the

Fence so uh yeah it’s our big Technology Center now so it’s actually picked up the nickname silicon Fen is the cambur equivalent of Silicon Valley I thought was quite funny but yeah just seat of learning seat of science seat of all things wonderful and uh academic and

Just a really nice place to come and explore and dead easy to get to because you can come via uh Railway by the M11 I came in down the A1 A14 from the north and you can even fly into standad if you’re one of our International viewers which getting a surprising

Amount of which is great news so thanks for joining us wherever you are in the world I’ve done an us I’m so used to being on the town I keep using rather than me but yeah anyway we’re going to follow the Psychopaths absolute Maze of them as we

Head out of Cambridge onto the Roman Road in the first of our little historic sites the gogmagog hills have to say these cycleways are fantastic about 7K out of Cambridge now been on dedicated cycleways either on the side of a road or you know proper little snickets all the way superb Cambridge well

Done and now we’ve climbed up the gentle Hill out Cambridge and we’re on to a Roman Road the old route to Colchester and like most Roman roads it probably predates the Roman period by a couple of thousand years at least these ancient Pathways have deep deep histories but to

Be fair I was expecting deep deep mud because it’s been very very wet past few weeks but John assured me the trails around here pretty well and so far very very good cheers John and this is why we make pedaling pass routs suitable for gravel bikes or touring or hybrid bikes

Or mountain bikes if you want because it just means you can access is amazing ancient trackways and trails that are just so many times they just turn out to be absolutely beautiful ways to cruise through the countryside and of course you’re away from any motor traffic as well so you’re immersing yourself in

Nature the deer just gallops across in front of me back there you can really immerse yourself in the history as well I say it every time I’m a broken record on this one but I just love kind of imagining all the different stories and tales and lives that have been

Lived up and down Roots like this over Millennia of people using them and in the woods behind me here is wle be ring Bronze Age and Iron Age Hill fors because these are the Gog MOG Hills named after Gog the Celtic sunog and Magog Celtic horse God and there’s

Actually uh old historical records of Hill figures being carved in these Hills uh just little Rolling Hills I mean they’re nly massive but quite significant for this area cuz it’s flat otherwise and uh they tried to find them in magnetometry surveys and some people say they have others people say they

Haven’t but and you’re also parallel if you look out over the fields with the fleam Dy which is an ancient uh prehistoric or potentially Viking Anglo-Saxon probably all three uh boundary earthwork so yet again another area rich in history but for now it’s further off down the Roman

Road and on a Chris November morning like this I could to no fin way to experience ancient Britain than on a bike and while a lot of people’s expectations of Roman roads is you know massively overbuilt cobbled Stone highways most of them would have been just like

This just a loose compacted Stone well just compacted stone that drains a bit easier doesn’t get dug up in the mud it’s only really in the towns that you see cobbled roads in the Roman period but then you don’t see tat roads again really until the 20th century so

The fact they put this incredible Network together they still staggering and they make for fantastic riding today Arrow straight normally a really forgiving gradian they’re essentially the sort of reclaimed railway tracks of 2,000 years ago so always if you’re planning your own historical route always look out for Roman

Roads not just because well the Roman but because they’re generally exceptionally good riding as well and there’s the considerably less enjoyable to ride modern equivalent exactly why pedaling past exists and they’re quiet now as we move into winter but how about these hedro are absolutely teaming with

Life and and by the look of them blackberries in spring and summer so just done few hundred M on the road past chilford Hall Vineyard but now we’re heading off road up to the water tower and then into Linton but joh asures me there’s an absolutely fantastic

Bakery I do like a good water tower even a brick one just interesting things and plus from up here you can see where we’re going next down into the village and then over towards Saffron Walden itself what a day but apparently this briway can get a

Bit spicy it’s clean but it can be a bit of a river uh if it’s been raining a lot which it has oh actually this is very lovely very nicely surface broad descent but as always you know you’ll be sharing the trail with lots of other people

So take your time be nice say Hi Guess most of the things we’re heading towards on pedaling past been there for at least a few hundred years so they can wait a bit longer for you to get there morning sorry thank you very much thank you and this is Linton on the River

Cam it’s absolutely lovely That Dog and Duck Pub little L Cottages there it’s quiet cuz it’s relatively early on a Sunday but hopefully Linton kitchen is open hopefully it’s just up here too they have beautiful little why Georgian Village and I have to say Linton kitchen absolutely fantastic uh

Beautiful sausage and bacon bat lovely cup of tea and an insane selection of Scotch eggs they do mac and cheese Scotch egg and a plows and a standard one we treat in so I didn’t know which to pick so uh there was three pockets in

A black Jersey isn’t there so we got one of each for the rest of the trip seems about right to me more back to Cottage loveliness but as soon as you get over the main road at Linton we’re heading off onto the back road back onto more quiet track and Bridal

Way this little bit of bridal way go down the side of a house on the right hand side and it does get a little bit tight not overgrown it’s perfectly easy to ride through but if you find yourself squeezed Downs side of a house with some foliage trying to get your bars don’t

Worry you’ve not gone the wrong way it’s just the more esoteric group choices but look look at what that gets you then beautiful rolling landscape colors of the autn trees fabulous and this is ess6 now as well across the border from Cambridge here into Essex didn’t realize it came this North

To be honest still 40 miles away from London or so here we are what what do I sh people saying that I don’t know is it that anyway enough stereotype is more pedal that’s about here you’re all welcome wherever you’re from in the country or all over the

World oh H little bit of a pond way but like I say it’s been so stormy past few weeks I’m amazed you know if the trails are holding up this well now and this is definitely a year round route although I think you know you will want a a gravel

Tire around just a road TI if it’s been wet weather and while we’re while we’re talking tires and technique and things like that I don’t normally that that’s my other channel that’s Guy kez TV I do all my bike testing stuff but if you’re not used to riding along little

Ribbons of Trail like this always look as far ahead as you can so when you start looking down at your front wheel that’s when you kind of start over steering bumping into the edges and that’s when it getss into a mess just look a long way off far as you can down

The trail and your bike will just kind of make its way there bikes always go where you’re looking so always look at where you want to end up not at the tree or the pole you don’t want to hit and then soon enough we’ll be back out on something a bit more easily

Navigable perfect more wide open drove roads through the estate lovely gradient just really nice rolling climes and descents just enough to justify that bacon and sausage Buy oh it’s a bit wet here though don’t put your best shoes on and maybe waterprof stck it has been really wet but it still rides really

Well this there good tracks underneath and this is the little village of Ashton which of course has beautiful thatch Cottages even have was a little museum with a cash calf it’s open on bank holidays and Sundays through the summer it’s also one of the potential sites for the Battle of ascendant where King

Canute defeated Edmund II Saxon King Danish King was caned and then uh set about uh trying to defy all kinds of things including the sea famously if you know the king Canute stories but what a beautiful little place here you go there’s the Rosen Crown Pub and there’s thatch Cottage

Loveliness oh don’t worry I don’t think there a don’t think that is actually a crime scene I think it’s just Halloween oh beautiful places we take you on this channel eh we do spoil you but don’t get carried away like I just did keep your eyes peeled for this little brdway

Entrance down here after those those white railings are a good signpost and just turn off to the left and we’ll see where this takes us hopefully a nice bucolic Countryside route into the back of Saffron Walden well it is a bit of a sliping slide when it’s wet like this but so I

Think it’s one for the more adventurous gravel bikers and mountain bikers in winter but it runs past this beautiful little stream these little Cottages so it is very very picturesque and it’ll be very easy to find a work around on the road or just push some of the sticky

Sections like that one but in summer this is going to be absolutely fine I’m sure and it’s doable even on a travel bite with slicks so yeah up to you up to you there’s always a there’s quite often a bit of make your own mind up

Sections on our routes but we always try to flag them up and let you decide whether a few bits of walk you know sliding about a bit a worse gorgeous little wooded sunlet sections like this but you’ll never find well quite confident you’d never find any other way you’re not going to

Find see when you’re driving about oh rid little shutter board Cottage there and on we go following the stream probably one of the tributaries of the cam to be honest CU it originates near here and it flows up to the great tws and eventually to King Lin we’ve

Obviously going a pedaling past Route and it’s part of the Rebellion route way route around norol I put together for cycling UK so make sure you check out those as well if you’re enjoying this kind of thing and as you pop out by Saffron House here you’re actually on the

Alignment of another old Roman Road but that looks like the better pedaling in these conditions so uh we’re going to track on to the road then into the back of saffron itself yeah I should point out that that section between Ashton and Saffron House was a bit heavy

In the wet quite a lot of horse trod and quite muddy and a slight climb so if you you know if you don’t want to do a bit of more heavy duty off-roading then just just stick to the road through that section in winter when it’s wet but be

Absolutely glorious in summer when it’s dry I’m sure but if we don’t try these things out we don’t find the fabulous routs so that was a bit of a suck it and Seed I mean these are generally the first time I’ve ridden these routes unless they’re up in yire where I know

It really well or norfor now but uh routs like this one there’s a there’s an exploration element that you com in along with and this section of brid theway is actually a [Laughter] river and now we’re rolling into saffon wden it’s got some super cycle paths thanks great watching D very nice

Way to arrive in town very civilized indeed and now we’re in saff b as you can see thank you beautiful Old Town he mentioned in the Doomsday Book it’s got some earlier sections as well but got its name from the fact they used to grow the saffron cokers here in 16th and 17th

Century found its flame and 14 that’s going to di down in the 18th century so it’s became a Wen town but lovely spot and just over halfway around the route so ideal for a tea or coffee stop and plenty of places by the look at it and the first settlement St from all

Here was in the ne lithic period so almost continuous occupation throughout and stunning church here St Mary’s is the highest spire in all of Essex and it’s the largest Parish Church in Essex and you know great space for a lunchtime stop and there’s two bike shops as well uh there’s Newlands and I

Literally just bumped into Liam he was riding in he’d been out for his ride recognized me and the GoPro said hello it’s bit of shock when that happens at uh at traffic lights or just in the middle of nowhere but yeah great to see him so he can sort you out at Newland

Cycles and then there’s another shop which is a coffee shop as well called uh Cafe conveo I believe so just going to roll down and check those out now but yeah lovely lovely spot really is pretty here is that from won right heading out towards orderly end now on the

Road but we’ve had enough of pedaling by the time he get to South from Wen you just hop on the train at odly end as well get yourself back into Cambridge that way and this is the Beautiful jackan Manor of orley end beautiful set of Parkland and the house was

Originally three times this size but uh Lord Howard who uh who actually built this at a cost of 200,000 this uh larger version uh actually unfortunately kind of suggested he was he was Lord Chancellor as well and he suggested to Charles the first that Charles the first

May have unwittingly have paid for some of the building uh which Charles the first took as a sign he’d actually embezzled some of the money and had him thrown in the Tower of London uh so he had to pay a huge fine to get out so it didn’t actually end

That well for him but the whole house was built to uh as somewhere for Charles the first to stay in as he was coming up to New Market but it’s an English Heritage Property and I so again well worth a visit uh like I say beautiful parklander there’s a minute Railway as

Well so if you’ve got your English Heritage card then pop in unfortunately I haven’t got mine today and and I need to be cracking on so uh uh won’t be stopping for stately home te today but a beautiful piece of Parkland and lovely even to just ride past oh this is the

Much better angle plus you get a bonus World War II pill box in the field there oh and up on the climb up there there’s a uh iron H Hill for and the village over there stret Hall is one of the few what they call thankful villages in

England in there of all the lads who went away to fight in World War I they all came back so little detour around there on Farm tracks down on a little single track road heading north again to South from Walden or actually just about start going off road again according to

My map which The Lads at the calf Liam and his mates from Newland said is likely to get a bit sticky to start with on account of the conditions but again we’ll give it a go there’s plenty of Road Alternatives if not but these beautifully Rich easy draining chalk Hills exactly what’s

Made this area so popular with inhabitant since the Bri historic times and the track we’re on now is actually part of the nne the nne way Trail which runs all the way from the end of the Ridgeway down in buckshire to the start of ped’s way

Which runs all the way up to the wash so there’s a path which is the foot path which is 110 miles and then the trail which is the sort of ridway ridable one for bikes as well as Horses is 170 Mi so it jins and jiggles around a bit

Does the trail but it generally follows this Ridge of chalkland this ancient really fertile sort of Highland Corridor right across the south of England although interestingly apart from forts there’s not much in the way of tumuli burial Mount marked in this area maybe they just haven’t found them

Haven’t been looking for them or they’ve been plowed out but certainly not as many as you get on the Ridgeway or even ped’s way as it happens well I have to say so far it’s not been bad at all there’s a big descent across the field that was

Fine and now we’re on to this lovely little covered droveway and it’s always a sign that you’re on an old cattle drove but everywhere is covered in Nettles so there’s one thing Nettles love it’s soil with a high urine content so if there’s been cattle driven down it

You’re likely to get a lot of metals but luckily they’re fairly low at the moment I don’t to be in stinging mood so Rolling Along lovely bit have single trap oh let’s watch out for the dangly rles again where are you going to findy this on a car drive and when are you

Going to cover this much ground on foot the bike the bike’s the answer always always but you knew I was going to say that and now we’re in great chesterford and that is the crown housee which was a coaching in and staging post for race goers coming up and down to New

Market and it got such a bad reputation for the kafuffle that kicked off there on an Easter Sunday that they actually banned racing at New Market to stop uh Easter Sunday being disturbed by the revelers the groundhouse behind us and it looks like there someone you can stay

Now so uh if you do stay there make sure you know you keep your make sure you behave with your Easter eggs if you’re down around that time and if you know your basic place name so atmology sorts of elements you’ll know that Chester or kaer often means Roman Fort obviously you’ve got

Ford for the Ford over the cam so perhaps not a surprise this area was a Roman settlement as well we’re actually going past the site of the old Roman town now set up in ad70 so early on The claudian Invasion and then was finally walled in the 4th

Century probably due to Raiders coming in from the coast actually probably for go down here this is where your ran remains are in there it’s now now a hardcore tip oh how the mighty have fallen well the whole area has been inhabited ever since I think if I’ve got

Me notes right I’m thinking of the right place it had 38 inhabitants in the Doomsday Book sorry 38 households in the Doomsday Book to give you an idea of sort of size of settlements back then 1086 when they did the first kind of National Audit that puts it in the top 20% of

Large settlements in England really was very very sparely populated back but unfortunately very short section A busy road coming up so just mind yourselves as we cross back over the M11 don’t worry we’re not going on the M11 we just have to Nipper over it via series of

Roundabouts but it’s literally only a couple of hundred M so it’s walk if you nervous and this is the village of hingston which of course has a listed Church from the early medieval period and thatched Cottages because well oh it’s a nice half timbering as well because that’s just standard around

Here it’s standard that everywhere is beautiful and here we go back across the cam or the grter whatever you want to call it but to be honest that Ford looks like she’s running a bit deep today so uh yeah I think I think I’ll take the bridge I’m coming back through uh

Hingston and duckford now just all beautiful little villages with country pubs like this I mean oh shame I need to get back to Cambridge really I could uh so many places just to stop and chill out but I had a big old chat with with the cyclists at uh Cafe cono in Saffron

Walden so I’m a bit behind schedule if I’m getting back up north tonight so have to wait for next time all the baryon and the other thing Duckwood is famous for is it War Museum uh the Imperial War Museum it’s basically the biggest toy box you could ever wish for if you like

Your tanks and planes from well from like the earliest right through to modern day they’ve got Concord there they’ve got huge now they got Vulcans they got Spitfires your tiger tanks your Panthers your Shermans all sorts of things huge hangers and outdoor displays and they often have air displays there

As well and I was actually digging just outside Duckwood back when I was an archaeologist during the runup for the 50th anniversary celebration so uh digging about in Sandy trenches looking for Raman samian we there’s all these Mustangs and Thunderbolts and Spitfires and everything were roaring overhead very very memorable an evocative

Experience and uh shows the fact it was so cold even though it was in May that the cooking oil froze in our Caravan and it snowed on Mayday I do remember that as well but uh yeah incredible Place uh if you’re into your military history

Well worth a day out so and you can get down it uh on the cyclopath from here but what I probably do I’m heading straight on into Cambridge although I I just if I go to the gate I want go in and then I’ll be sad so what I would do

Is uh put a whole day aside for uh you to go and visit that and then uh do this ride on a separate day unless you’ve got you know a long summers’s day in which case you know top and tail the two cuz there’s a great naffy calf there as well

So another spot for a cup of tea which is you know always welcome but for now uh on to Cambridge and from here on in we’re kind of following uh national cyle network uh sust route 11 so keep an eye out for those little blue signs with an

11 on and this is whittlesford which has this beautiful old medieval church and half timbered Guild Hall and a rumored White Horse figure uh that you can see in Crop Marks on particularly dry Summers so again another little heavily historic village heading back into Cambridge and headling out of

Whittleford got this very civilized stretch to psychopath through to saon lovely bit of ncn 11 oh watch out for presents and yeah again this area is excelling itself with it cycle facilities is super wide super smooth cycle path coming out of SST which you go a little bit off Route

Has got a grade one chuda stately home 60 Acres of formal Gardens and beautiful walking with some ssis with rare flowers in and it used to have a medieval cross the sort of Amphitheater around it which they used for local sort of law meetings and official

Meeting so chances are it’s from a lot earlier than the medieval per that site but thought it was destroyed in the uh early 19th century by property developers cuz you kind of forget the whole smashing up old stuff to make way for new stuff has been going

On forever you know a number of castles you see even the one in Saffron Walden I think I completely forgot to mention uh now mostly pulled apart for stone for the surrounding buildings because you know they were the uh I guess the kings of sustainability back then I guess

Sustainability was even more key back then when you know getting things like Building Stone and everything else like that was even more labor intensive so yeah it’s good they reused it in a way even if it’s not great for the history but they could have left a cross alone

They could that would have been nice although let’s be honest completely missed saon just skirt around the outskirts anyway I’m waffling on waffling on just had a Danish Cape just on a Danish bun from Fitz Billy fantastic Little Deli in Cambridge picked it up yesterday I’ve been saving

It until now uh add me a Plowman Scotch egg haven’t found I haven’t sure got me mac and cheese cuz I thought I’d go for a r Scotch egg roulette so I haven’t labeled the bags so that might be one for the journey home anyway gosh I

Really am rambling on nearly home nearly back to Cambridge but yeah props for yet another glorious cycopath thank you Cambridge just done about 6 or 7K cycopath into town now going past the skate park just loads of kids loads of commuters loads of serious Riders all

Right just ah it’s kind of great that it’s here in k bridge but so frustrating you don’t see it in other places this is what it could be like you know going back to those stats the start 25% of commuting Journeys by a bike 47% of people in Cambridge ride a bike

Once a week all those car Journeys saved all that pollution saved is there anything you can do about it in your area you know come and ride in Cambridge and then go home try and start campaigning it’s really fired me up to try and get more done at home it really

Has cuz this is this is pretty much idilic for riding I mean yeah it’s flat which helps but there loads of flat places in the UK not everywhere’s hilly and even if it is ebikes are making that much less of an issue just yeah know stop making excuses and start making cycle

Facilities cuz it’s great and of course the other way to explore Cambridge he on a punt traditional flat bottomed pole propelled shallow draft riverbat and yeah something of a signature tourist attraction so here we are back in Cambridge outside King’s College just clearly having some work done and great St Mary’s

Church right in the heart of this beautiful city it’s been a cracking ride uh really good train great Roman Road out bit sticky in Winter I think we’re going to have to admit uh from kind of Ashton round to uh s from Walden but fantastic back from there aming amazing

Psychopaths and I have to say cake cake and coffee and well have to say the cake has been absolutely outstanding you know it might be a seat of aidite learning and technology and academic you know superlatives but also the bakeries the bakery probably what that that’s that’s

What gets a first class honors from me is the feeding so obviously anything you want to know about the route uh please get Buy in the comments below and we always love to hear from you it’s very much we’re starting out with this project learning as we go along uh so if

You’ve got any advice any feedback anything you’d like to know please uh get into contact on there uh they will have a GPX and the route will also be on my on our commute page at pedaling past and you’ll be able to download the file

From there or just follow it on the Kut cycle mapping app and uh yeah oh and we’ve used uh what three words and what I always forget to say at the start if you’ve been following if you’ve been watching the map there’s a little red dot in the corner uh when

You’re riding along that red dot signifies where you are on the overall map so uh yeah any feedback always very welcome and uh yeah well hopefully seeing me ride this route has uh infused you to come and explore the Cambridge area itself it really is a fantastic

Place to come and visit and very easy to get to and with great facilities as well I hope you okay with just being me this time and no Finley in a backpack either but for now I’ve been guyan from pedaling past taking you on a time travel gravel Adventure from Cambridge

To saff Walden I’m back