A Taste of Anglia
  • Welcome
  • About A Taste of Anglia
  • EA Bylines Articles
    • The real cost of your bacon butty
    • Delivered fresh from the laboratory
    • Government’s Food Strategy Policy
    • Fertiliser – Where there’s muck…
    • Brentwood’s own craft beer company
    • Drinks ‘container deposit scheme’ may come to East Anglia
    • Factory farming 84,000 pigs on an industrial estate: the future for animal husbandry?
    • Brexit Borders and the British Banger
    • What about our food security?
    • Sugar sell-out
    • Covid lockdowns expand the market
    • Covid and the ‘Brexit Benefits’
  • Other Articles
    • Fuelling the Workforce at Sizewell C
  • Walking with Barney
    • Why bag it if you don’t bin it?
    • Along the River Fowey
    • A Salty Sea Dog
    • Scent Work
    • In the Footsteps of Giants
    • Barney visits The Grove, Ipswich
  • Past Activities
    • Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2018
    • Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2017
    • Essex Fine Food Show 2018
    • Essex Festival of Food & Drink 2018
    • Essex Fine Food Show 2017
    • Essex Festival of Food & Drink 2017
    • Essex Festival of Food and Drink 2016
    • Farmshop & Deli Show 2016
Walking with Barney – In the footsteps of Giants
​When I first encountered the name Gog Magog, as in the splendid farm shop (pictured) that goes by that name, I thought it must be somewhere in Wales. The Gog Magog Hills are actually a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge
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​​The earliest mention of the name Gog Magog appears in a decree of 1574.  Excavations around the hills have revealed the remains of Iron Age defences at Copley Hill and Cherry Hinton, but these sites are also known to have been occupied in the Bronze Age. 

In English folklore Gog Magog was a giant. According to the 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, Gog Magog was the last giant killed by Brutus of Troy and his men, who threw him from a cliff.  
In 1989 the Magog Trust, a charity created for the purpose, bought 163.5 acres of former farmland surrounding Little Trees Hill, so that it could be returned to chalk grassland and opened to the public. 

​Gog Magog Downs offers a large carpark with picnic areas. Dog walkers are directed to a rough pathway around a large rectangular circuit with two options for those wanting a shorter walk. At various points the hedgerows open to provide views across the Cambridgeshire countryside.
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We tackled the full circuit – approx. 3.5 miles, on a hot, dry August afternoon accompanied by Barney’s friend Harry, a French Bulldog / Staffie cross and his family. As you can see, Harry is also a very accomplished driver and on completion of the walk, we were invited to enjoy some welcome refreshment, served from his camper van.

RHG7.8.22
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  • Welcome
  • About A Taste of Anglia
  • EA Bylines Articles
    • The real cost of your bacon butty
    • Delivered fresh from the laboratory
    • Government’s Food Strategy Policy
    • Fertiliser – Where there’s muck…
    • Brentwood’s own craft beer company
    • Drinks ‘container deposit scheme’ may come to East Anglia
    • Factory farming 84,000 pigs on an industrial estate: the future for animal husbandry?
    • Brexit Borders and the British Banger
    • What about our food security?
    • Sugar sell-out
    • Covid lockdowns expand the market
    • Covid and the ‘Brexit Benefits’
  • Other Articles
    • Fuelling the Workforce at Sizewell C
  • Walking with Barney
    • Why bag it if you don’t bin it?
    • Along the River Fowey
    • A Salty Sea Dog
    • Scent Work
    • In the Footsteps of Giants
    • Barney visits The Grove, Ipswich
  • Past Activities
    • Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2018
    • Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2017
    • Essex Fine Food Show 2018
    • Essex Festival of Food & Drink 2018
    • Essex Fine Food Show 2017
    • Essex Festival of Food & Drink 2017
    • Essex Festival of Food and Drink 2016
    • Farmshop & Deli Show 2016