Daytime session requires warm sunshine – so if the weather is a bit iffy, phone me to check (if it is raining the daytime session will be cancelled). The night session will progress regardless. Meet at Blows Down TL 045221 for both day and night sessions, but we will move on promptly at 2pm. From the M.1 motorway, exit at junction 11 (A.505) and go west towards Dunstable. After 1Km (5/8 miles) you will find a roundabout. Turn left here onto the A.5065 Skimpot Road. After 300 yards there is another roundabout. Pass the first exit (a narrow lane), pass the second exit (main road to Luton) and take the third – which runs up a slope then stops at the gate to the Down. Park in this lane (for night session, please turn whilst it is still light).

CHURCH HILL, THERFIELD HEATH              TL 336404                                                              3 May

Therfield Heath is a chalk downland site. Travelling east out of Baldock on the A.505, fork right at the Little Chef restaurant towards Royston and then turn right almost immediately towards Therfield. As you travel up the hill the car park is on the right at grid reference TL 336402, about one third of the distance from the junction to the tree line. My van, equipment and any passengers (!) will then drive along the chalk road (track) west from the car park via the locked gate, turning left at the end to the Penn Hills. Bring torches/lanterns as we will also be wandering about looking for adult Northern Drabs sitting on the grasses; the moth used to be common here but is feared to have become extinct in the county.

CROXLEY COMMON MOOR SSSI — TQ 082944                                                                       12 July

Access is at the south side of the Common, from the M.25 in the west or via Watford in the east, but if Watford F. C. are playing at home I strongly recommend coming in from the west as the east road passes the football ground! Exit the M.25 at junction 17 and you are on the A.405. At the roundabout turn left and follow the A. 412 towards Rickmansworth. At the next roundabout take the exit to the right (A.404 – Riverside Drive), right at the next one (still the A. 404) then left at the next onto the A.4145 – Moor Lane). Pass under the railway bridge where the road is now called Tolpits Lane. Bend to the left, and then as you start to bend right again turn left into Moor Lane Crossing at approximate grid TQ 082944. Bear right to the end and you will see the gate to the Common. Park here.

HANSTEAD WOOD, SMUG OAK                    TL 140020                                                             14 June

The wood is not named on any map. From the east, take Smug Oak Lane westwards from Colney Street, where it arises from the A.5183 Radlett Road immediately south of the M.25 and turn left into the HSBC Training Centre just before entering the residential area that is marked by white fencing. From the west, enter Bricket Wood (town) via Oakwood Road just south of M.25 Junction 21a or via Mount Pleasant Lane (left turn off the M.1 southbound slip road – don’t miss it – at junction 6) and head east to turn right into Smug Oak Lane by The Gate public house. Enter the residential area at the white fencing and immediately after you leave it at another lot of white fencing turn right into the HSBC Training Centre.  Travel down this driveway (marked as private) and bear right immediately after the lake and before the first building, then turn right into the car park.

OUGHTONHEAD COMMON           TL 172306                                                                              27 September

From the A600 road turn west into Burford Lane, in the Westmill area of Hitchin on the south side of the River Oughton. Take the third cul-de-sac on the right; this is a part of Westmill Lane (which runs off to your left as you approach and continues north across the river – the middle section is a dirt track across a field). Meet in the cul-de-sac. At 7 pm we will drive down the track to the weir and park. The van and equipment will then turn left (west) and latecomers can find us along the track on the south side of the river. Do not access Westmill Lane from the north (Westmill Farm) as this is a private road and parked cars may be towed away.

ROUGHDOWN COMMON               TL 044057                                                                              13 September

This is the land above the chalk cutting on the Hemel Hempstead junction of the A414/A41 roads. From the “magic roundabout” in the centre of Hemel Hempstead (if you have never been there you will understand when you see it), either take the A414 towards that junction and then turn right at the first traffic lights, or take the A416 towards Boxmoor. Either way you will reach a roundabout on what used to be the A41 before the new dual carriageway was built through the SSSI. Take the narrow track between the houses. As it bears left to follow the houses on the left go straight on up the steep dirt track (if you think this is probably the wrong way – then you are right). This crosses the railway line then eventually crosses the A.41. The entrance is a gate on the left immediately before the road bridge. Parking is very sparse and the van clearly takes priority (unless you want to carry equipment for miles), so you may have to cross the road bridge and park there. Nobody is likely to drive down the lane at night, but it is a public highway so don’t block it.