We’d walked or run around Crouch Green on many occasions without knowing it was a former green, let alone that it had a name. It nestles in the arms of two lanes, one of them being Three Houses Lane that comes up from Langley Bottom before dipping down to the Mimram valley and Whitwell. The other runs along the western top of Langley Bottom, through Rusling End to the various Easthall farms. Woodland still reaches towards three edges. There’s an unbroken chain of woods from Holl Lays Wood on the northern fringe of Crouch Green through those around the Knebworth estate to Watery Grove near Norton Green, some two and a half miles. They hide deer and a couple of tumuli but, for the most part, are now commercial not ancient woodland.
There’s one house quite close by that may be the only place with a Crouch Green postal address. You are quite high up here, so wander about and there are some views to be had. Otherwise, we found the ruin of the magnificent oak in the photograph.
Walsworthblog 