We turned off Cole Green Way and made our way over ripe fields of grain to Birch Green, which has a number of houses built in the last century and a few older cottages. From there we cut through to the smaller settlement at Staines Green. Although the two are distinct and there is no ribbon development between them, they are umbilically linked by the grounds of a plant nursery. The footpath has garden plants along one side while the growing sheds on the other are more like an industrial warehouse complex.
On a hot summer afternoon, the clutch of modern whitewashed villas at the south end of the hamlet at Staines Green transported us for a moment to the Algarve.
We returned to the old railway route by way of rolling meadows with the farm at East End Green in view.
