So my tourist journey has taken me this week to Jersey Farm in the Parish of Sandridge, Hertfordshire.

For the record this is the new home of Heartwood Forest parkrun that run its last event no 47 on 6th October 2018 with the core team making the very difficult decision to relocate from Heartwood for the guaranteed longevity of an event to be held in the Sandridge area!

Jersey Farm Woodland Park

So this park covers 55 acres of beautiful woodland (about 10,000 trees planted by volunteers for the millennium) and meadowland with the name Jersey Farm coming from a Jersey dairy herd owned by Doctor Corner who’s cows provided milk for the local community back in the mid 20th century!

parkrun challenges

One thing I love about parkrun tourism is the challenges that other tourists create and at Jersey Farm I ticked the letter J off the Alphbeteer that is someone who has done one parkrun for each letter of the alphabet!

Great for me because in the past the letter J would have meant a long trip to Jersey in the Channel Islands, but thankfully today it is a short journey of 8 miles trip from my home in Luton 🙂

Also for the next few years I will be mainly touring via a lucky dip raffle method of the 50 closest events I have not yet run. This is now fixed to the current listed 50 events of 9th March with the first one picked out of the hat this week was number 2 Jersey Farm 🙂

Finally always great for me to be around kindred tourist friends Martin, Dave Thomas (right of picture) and Dave it was lovely meet your better half Sue mate!!!

Course

This winter course is just over 2 clockwise laps of the parameter of Jersey Farm that is steadily undulating in nature with the surface predominantly made up of trail paths!

The start is uphill just before the brow of the hill and then you run down the other side to the back of the course! Next you run a short section around the parameter to start the first lap and at the end of the second one you turn right with the finish funnel just a short distance ahead of you!

Points to note

• Trail shoes are recommended in wet conditions with mud forming on sections of this course!
• No issues with exposed tree roots on this course.
• Be wary of flint stones in a couple of parts of the course as they are always a potential trip hazard
• Couple of single track parts hard to overtake for the faster runners

Love running this trial course around the farms woodland paths, a shear joy to run, my time 38.14

Facilities

There is no parking or toilet facilities at Jersey Farm, but there is though small free car park at Sandridge village Sat Nav AL4 9DD that is about half a mile from the start and the public toilets are situated next to the car park and are open before 8am that is always a blessing for us tourists!

For the post run coffee we retired to the lovely Heartwood Tea Rooms for a delicious full English breakfast 🙂 Love the touch of the sand timer placed on your table to let you know when your pot of tea has brewed enough!!

Final Verdict

I would like to thank this weeks run director Howard Bull and all the volunteers for a great job on a bitterly cold Saturday morning! Special mention to the finish funnel cheer squad to give that level of positive support to all the park runners at the end of the 5k is always very welcome, thanks guys!!!

So Jersey Farm has a very enjoyable trail course to run, top community, lovely cafe to frequent, what’s not to like you have been told!

best

Mark aka Silent Runner

Extra News

Very well done to my home parkrun of Luton, Wardown who celebrated their 200th event this weekend, you are all very close to my heart and a brilliant community to behold!!!!