Mentmore and the Grand Union Canal

It hardly seems possible today, but in the summer of 1963, 15 masked men waited in the darkness of the Buckinghamshire countryside, held up the night train from Glasgow to London and robbed it of £2.5 million. It was described as 'the Great Train Robbery' and the crime of the century, making newspaper headlines around the world and eventually turning the thieves into folk heroes, immortalised in books, television series and money-spinning movies. The criminals were pursued and captured by Scotland Yard and many of them were given long prison sentences. But the story did not end there as one of them, Ronald Biggs, broke out of jail, fled to Brazil and eluded capture for the next 35 years.

The Great Train Robbery

These days, surplus and used bank notes are transported around the country in security vans, but in the very different world of the early 1960s, express trains conveyed such consignments – often with huge amounts of money on board. And 50 years ago it was possible to stop a mail train and rob it – as was proved.

The men planned the snatch in meticulous detail, surveying the railway line between London and Rugby to find an isolated stretch of track with a signal and easy access to the road. Eventually they found what they were looking for – Sears Crossing and nearby Bridego Bridge on the Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire border, to the south of Leighton Buzzard. They made many trips here in the dead of night, to identify the mail trains and plan the job. Satisfied that it could be done, their next step was to familiarise themselves with the technicalities of train engines and braking systems. To do this, they dressed up in navy blue boiler suits, passing themselves off as railway workers in the marshalling yards of London's mainline stations.

In the early hours of Thursday 8 August, 1963, the men were as ready as they ever would be. It was time to go. Travelling in a convoy of vehicles, they made their way across country to the four-track railway. Their first task was to cut the telephone wires to the nearby farms. Then, as the mail train approached, they covered the green light with a glove and used a battery and a bulb behind the red signal to give the impression to the driver that the light was against him. The train stopped, but the driver refused to co-operate and received violent blows to the head. With the engine and the vital Post Office coaches detached from the rest of the train, the robbers moved the express down the line to Bridego Bridge where they unloaded 120 sacks onto the vehicles lined up on the road below. They drove off as dawn gradually lit the scene of their extraordinary crime.

Walk back to the junction by The Stag pub, turn right and shortly pass one of the grand entrances to Mentmore Towers. Follow the road round to the left, then to the right by the Church of St Mary the Virgin. Continue along the road and turn right at a stile, just beyond Old Vicarage Cottage. Go down the field, keeping the fence over to the right, and look for a stile in the bottom boundary to the left of a solitary oak and farm sheds.

Over the stile veer right for 50 paces to a plank bridge, then turn left to skirt the field, keeping a ditch on the left. On reaching the next plank bridge and waymark, look for a pond enclosed by fencing. Follow the path alongside it and then through a young copse into the next field. Pass under telegraph wires to the next plank bridge in the boundary. Go ahead into a large field and pass under electricity cables. The houses of Ledburn can be seen ahead. Make for a footbridge and in the next field, where the ditch veers sharply right, go ahead and aim slightly left, towards a house with a white-painted gable. Keep to the left of it and turn right at the road.

Go through Ledburn and make for a left bend. On the left is Cornfield Cottage, once a chapel. Cross the road to a kissing gate and follow a track running across farmland. After a while look for a waymarker post on a left bend, and keep ahead, following the path across the middle of a field. At a track, turn right and follow it to Sears Crossing, bearing to the left of a clump of trees to regain the overgrown path. Cross the railway bridge, follow the track down to the road and turn left.

Bear right at the sign for Grove Church and Farm and walk down to the Grand Union Canal at Church Lock. Pass Church Lock Cottage before turning right to join the tow path. Follow it for about 1 mile (1.6km) and, 140yds (128m) before a bridge, where you can see a weir topped by planks on the left, leave the tow path at a plank bridge and bear right for 40 paces to the field corner.

Swing left and keep the boundary on your right. Make for the road and exit via two metal gates. Turn right, then left at the turning for Wing and Ledburn. Follow the road to Bridego Bridge, pass beneath the railway and keep ahead to eventually pass Rowden Farm.

Bear left at the T-junction for Mentmore. Pass Mentmore Courts, Howell Hill Close and The Stud House before turning left at the end of a stretch of pavement. Opposite the junction are two wooden gates leading into a field. Follow the road round to the right and return to the playground and parking area.