A WALKING trail to tell the story of Wheathampstead and incorporate its many historical landmarks is taking shape and should be in place by the spring.

While its star attraction will be the village's lovingly restored train station platform, opened as an educational, recreational and wildlife-friendly public space earlier this month, the circular route will have many other features of interest.

Parish council vice-chairwoman Annie Brewster said: "Wheathampstead has so much to see - there are so many beautiful, interesting and historical buildings.

"It is coming together very nicely."

The first phase, with a leaflet, a website, plaques and information boards, will be opened in the spring, thanks to a £10,000 grant from St Albans Local Strategic Partnership.

Walkers will discover the Saxon origins of the village church, see ancient graves in the graveyard and admire the strangely curved "crinkle-crankle wall", the only one in Hertfordshire, which once enclosed the rectory orchard.

The trail will incorporate the historic mill, mentioned in the Doomsday Book, and explain how the River Lea, passing through the village, marked the boundary between the Danish and Saxon dominions in the ninth century.

If the parish council's bid for more cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund is successful, the trail will be extended further afield, incorporating Devil's Dyke, arguably the site of a crucial battle between the Romans and the Celts, Nomansland, Turner's Hall Farm and even Ayot St Lawrence.

Councillor Brewster said: "Nomansland has a lot of history - it was used for illegal boxing bouts, and there was the Wicked Lady highwaywoman.

"Turners Hall Farm is more difficult because it is private, but there were some fantastic archaeological finds there a few years ago.

"Then there is Waterend, once home of the Duchess of Marlborough. And a lot of the filming for both Band of Brothers and Harry Potter was done near there, which should appeal to children."

Her probes into the past and the efforts of dedicated volunteers to clear and restore the station platform, lost under vegetation from 1965 until discovered by chance, have been rewarded with a remarkable find.

Councillor Brewster said: "Very sadly, Mo Kantor, the last signalman at Ayot St Peter Signal Box, died recently in Welwyn village.

"He was the uncle of a friend of mine, who had a look round his house for me and found the very same uniform he was wearing for his last shift in 1965."