Graham Greene Trail Berkhamsted Birthplace Trust section 3

The Graham Greene Trail

This page last updated Thursday, 15 July 2004

The Graham Greene Trail—Part III
original leaflet text by Sylvia Hall, photographs and some additional text for this web version by Peter Such

Part !—Trail leaflet numbers 1–4
Part II—Trail leaflet numbers 5–14

15. Berkhamsted Castle. "Greene mentioned this local landmark frequently when using Berkhamsted as a setting and no doubt he must have been in the crowd who rushed to see 'Gamma, an army dirigible' piloted by an Old Boy of Berkhamsted School, which landed in the castle grounds in 1913. As he says in A Sort of Life: 'It was long before I saw another airship.' In Doctor Crombie, in which Bankstead represents Berkhamsted, the narrator and the old school doctor 'sometimes on a summer's day… took a picnic-lunch and sat on the green mound of Bankstead Castle' from which vantage point they enjoyed trainspotting.'"

An historical drawing of the castle, showing its unique three moats, is on the Berkhamsted Town Council site 'About Berkhamsted'. Views of the castle, including the mound of the castle keep are on the Heritage Walk web and show how the remaining moat can still fill quite deeply with water. There is archaeological evidence of an early Saxon homestead there.

16. Berkhamsted Common. 'On the wide stretches of Berkhamsted Common… and in the Ashridge beechwoods beyond, I could dramatize my loneliness…'

Berkhamsted Common is a large tract of land and it is still possible for a complete stranger to lose themselves for a short while, especially in the height of summer, when the bracken can grow to six feet tall in some places.

Imagine Graham Greene as a young teenager leaving St John's. He would walk down Chesham Road, which in those days was open to two-way traffic and lacked a pavement. He would cross the High Street at the bottom of Chesham Road and probably cut across between St Peter's Church and the Court House. He would then walk down Castle Street, past School House, the lych-gate, Deans' Hall and what would then still be the sunken cottages, to the canal bridge.

Let us assume he turns right, so he passes the front of 'The Crystal Palace,' before turning left, passing through the tunnel-like railway bridge, where he will be confronted with what was once the main entrance to the castle. Wending his way up New Road, the castle and all the pictures in sequence in that section, will be to his left.

Clearing the castle he breasts Kitchener's Field, where the Inns of Court Regiment bivouacked and is now used for playing cricket, this picture taken in early autumn, after a long, hot summer. On his right would be Cooper's fields (below),

part of the Berkhamsted Hill Research Farm. Further up New Road he would be able to look back at the town as the following pictures show, until he reached a

footpath which would take him along the ridge which follows the line of trees in
the picture, left.

Sylvia Hall suggests that "If you explore the area above the town you will recognise the woods to which Jules took Kay in Its a Battlefield, where 'The leaves crackled on the ground and a rabbit's tail flashed like a match under a bank of ferns and disappeared… it seemed to them both …that they had never heard so deep a silence.'

Graham often found solace in walking across the Common and through these beautiful woods. It was also an area in which he spent some of his darker moments—when he ran away and when, on the first of several attempts to fight 'the life-long war against boredom', he played Russian roulette at Coldharbour and miraculously survived."

Turning left along that footpath

you will be able to look back down the New Road hill you have just climbed and follow the trail he would have followed. As Sylvia Hall says, "[you will find] the

beauty, the peace, the sounds of nature, which he absorbed in his happier moments [that] remained with him and have been given back to us through the descriptions he gave us in words. Those who know his work and the area which gave it birth can only be enriched by his perception."

On the Ashridge estate before taking the track to Coldharbour Farm, Coldharbour Spring and Little Coldharbour Spring.

So Sylvia Hall concludes the printed Graham Greene Trail leaflet. A bibliography of references and books referred to is listed in the leaflet which is obtainable from the Trust gratis upon request, accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.

The walk to Coldharbour is a good after-noon's walk, particularly if starting out from Berkhamsted. To enjoy the grounds of Ashridge House and the Monument (where there is a light refreshment café) is a summer's day outing. Good walking shoes are required but hiker's boots are not necessary unless the ground is wet but the weather can change suddenly and it is advisable to take appropriate precautions.

The Berkhamsted Citizen's Footpath Map is an essential guide for those unfamiliar with the area and can be obtained free from usual sources of information when available. There is a range of references for walkers, riders and cyclists in the Chilterns in the 'Peter Such A-Z for Berkhamsted'.