Leics Round 3 - turns into Frolesworth circular

Fri, 2013 Mar 1 9:30 AM Western European Time 

With Marta. Section 3 Leics Round + a bit. Pleasant weather not warm, not sunny, not cold, not muddy. 9.3 miles, including detour for pub lunch at Claybrooke Magna.

Another grey day, slightly damp to start with.  I drive over to Sharnford, and manage to squeeze my car into a parking space, then hop into Marta’s car and make for Frolesworth.

We find the sign for the Leicestershire Round and walk along the track, then miss the next sign completely.  OK, we haven’t seen each other for three months and there’s a lot to catch up on, but we really ought to keep our eyes open.

The long and short of it is that we miss the clearly marked route, and head off west rather than south.  It doesn’t even register when we reach Fosse Meadows Park, which I know is near Sharnford.   We think we’re doing fine when we see Leicestershire Round signs, and follow them happily – emerging in Sharnford.  We’ve walked two miles or so. 

Good job we decided to do a short walk today. No problem – we’ll retrace our steps and pick up the route in the opposite direction from the one we first thought of.

Fosse Meadows has a car park and picnic tables, and is a popular dog-walkers’ venue.  By the time we get back there we declare coffee time.  It doesn’t take long to chill today, so we walk out to the road which is unsuitable for motors – this is the old Fosse Way and takes us right up to High Cross – the point where the Fosse Way and Watling Street (the A5) meet.  It’s also supposed to be the Centre of England. Interesting article on the link - 

There's a fair amount of info on here.  

This monument was erected in 1712 by the Denbigh Family "in grateful as well as perpetual rememberance of peace, at length restored by Her Majesty Queen Anne 1712" It is Grade II listed and was struck by lightning in 1791.

The Latin inscription translates as 'If Traveller, you seek for the footsteps of the ancient Romans, here you may behold them, for here their most celebrated ways, crossing each other, extend to the utmost bourne'

We’re still following the LR markers without any problems until we reach a footbridge over a stream. The marker is there, and there’s a well trodden path across the field leading slightly to the right. We follow – who wouldn’t?  The next marker has no LR symbol, but instead says “Parish Walks”. Suspicious. Hmm Sherlock, what d’you reckon?  It’s as well we know other people have got lost around here.  Serious discussion, consulting of maps, working out that the A5 looks altogether too close.  We hesitate – go forwards, back, turn left? After a couple of false starts we turn left along the field edge, and eventually find another LR sign, near a house called Midsummer Barn.  From here the markers are clear – all the way to Claybrooke Parva school.   We rescue a football, which the kids have ejected from the playground.   An eight or nine-year-old asks us “Are you explorers?”  “Sure thing” I reply. 

Then a right turn along the road, past a twisted tree in a field and we pick up the path again. 

 At Claybrooke Magna we detour for a few hundred yards to the  Pig in Muck pub. We leave our mucky boots outside.   The pub does a decent baguette with salad and chips, plus tea or coffee for around £7. There are plenty of customers today.

We make our way back to the route. It is beautifully marked, and takes us past Hill Farm. There is a row of freshly painted yellow posts here.  The man who's just painted them shouts to warn us of wet paint!  There's no way we can go  wrong here.  Magic!  It continues like this all the way to Frolesworth, and we can’t understand how we missed seeing the markers this morning!  We look back and the route is really clear.

Map and details of the walk