18th November 2021 - Kingswood, Corby to Newton, return via Little and Great Oakley

 Thursday 18th November

Walked with Maureen to Newton and returned via Little and Great Oakley. Almost 8 miles. Grey, but sun broke through. 

Coffee break  in the porch of St. peter’s Church, Little Oakley.

The route

Monday 04 October, with Maureen and Harry.  8 miles.

A walk from Kingswood to Newton Dovecote Buttery and back, via Great Oakley.

Kingswood, Great Oakley, Little Oakley, Newton circular

Thursday 24th June.  Around 7 1/2 miles. With Maureen.

Another Northamptonshire walk - Corby ,Little Oakley, Newton Church, back via Great Oakley.

Monday 03 October

With Gordon and Maureen.

We started from Morrisons, and walked to little Oakley, under the viaduct and the new A43.
The route goes behind Little Oakley church, then follows a farm track up towards Newton. We didn't call in at the Dovecot cafe this time, but had our break on the bench outside Newton church Field Centre, where a woman who works there took a snap of the three of us.

We returned along the path behind the cafe, then along its drive to join the road briefly, before taking the farm track, then the footpath which leads to a row of electricity pylons, and downhill towards the small road bridge over the A43. 

We followed the road to the junction and turned right. A short distance further on we took a path to our left which took us into Great Oakley. Then into the parkland, past Great Oakley church to meet Lewin Road.

Great Oakley, Little Oakley, Newton, Geddington and back

Led by Gordon, followed by me. 9 miles on a fine sunny morning, with a noticeable wind chill. Not as muddy underfoot as I expected, considering all the rain last week.

From Levin Road , at the mini roundabout we turned right to go past the cricket club, following the path, eventually going under the railway line and the new A43. That bit is not the most scenic, but most of the walk is good!
We walked behind Little Oakley Church, then over field paths towards Newton.

L

Little Oakley church - my little camera was set on 'silly effects'.

We called in at the Dovecote farm shop and Buttery for a coffee/tea and teacakes, then did a loop around to Grange Road, and the field behind Geddington, down to Mill Farm, past the old dovecot and the Newton church field centre, where lambs are now in evidence.

Newton church/field centre, and some outdoor lambs.

Reign of James I and VI . . .

We closed the loop by retracing a few hundred yards from the Buttery, whose car park had filled up rapidly for lunch. We walked along a track until we joined another footpath heading down over several fields towards the A 43 again. The footpath is now diverted and adds a good half mile on to the original walk, but sometimes this has to be done.  We enter the Great Oakley Estate and take a footpath to the left. There are concrete paving stones through the field, leading gently downhill into Great Oakley. 

Inside the park of Great Oakley estate.

Finally a pleasant stroll through the parkland, and along Church Drive, takes us to Brooke road. We turned right and walked through the old village and back to Levin Road.

A lovely walk on a fine day. Thank you, Gordon.

Great Oakley, Newton, Little Oakley

Thursday 23 April

With Maureen. A fine sunny day after early cloud. In all about 8 miles.

We walked down to the Spread Eagle - around a mile before starting the walk proper as described in Mel Jarvis's "Around Corby" book. 

From the pub you walk through the tunnel under the road. When this reaches another road, turn right over Harper's Brook, and then left on the other side of the road. The path goes behind some houses and emerges onto a small road. Today the flowers were lovely in the first garden. We turned right along this lane and right at the end, taking a small path on the opposite side of the road we reached.  After around 100 yards we reached Woodlands Lane, and turned  left. We walked to the end of this, ignoring two footpath signs on the way.
After a turn to the right, there is a path through a metal gate, and over a bridge. There is a paved path going up to the top left corner of the field, leading to the road with the old station building, slightly to the left.

Old station building and the footpath we didn't take

At this point we walked along the road, turning left at the first road, then under the railway bridge and onto the bridge over the new Geddington bypass. After the road bridge we turned left and followed the footpath parallel to the new road until it turned right, along the old route. It crossed a stream and then went uphill with the hedge on our right. After the first field, the path headed diagonally to the left. At the highest point near an electricity pylon it crossed another path. We paused for a snack before taking the path continuing our line of travel. This was clear on the ground.  The path led us to the road between Newton and Geddington. Today we chose neither, but turned very sharply left along the nearby footpath leading back towards Little Oakley. The two paths form a V shape in the field.

We followed the instructions in Mel's book, across the first field, through the hedge, across the second field and through another hedge.  There is a hedge on the right. We walked alongside this through a short section of a field, then through another hedge. 
Up here we here the whistling call of the peewit (lapwing), and see a few flying around. We misread the instructions at this point and ended up in a corner near a pylon, with no way through. A short retracing of our steps to a track we should have taken to the left, slightly uphill brought us back to where we should be. We followed this until we could see Little Oakley ahead of us - see picture below.

The track joins a road into Little Oakley just before the stream. Just afterwards the path turns left into a field. Slightly awkward gate. Then it follows the stream before heading towards the new bypass once more. There's a slightly dodgy very small stream crossing.  This time we see the viaduct on the other side, and cross over using the underpass.

Looking back

We go under the viaduct and follow the path past a private road to Oakley Hall and into the parkland near the church area. We walk through and back out into Great Oakley, turning right and taking Levin Road back up to the  mini roundabout, and then left to the main Corby to Kettering road at the big roundabout.

Map and details

Wildlife noted - lapwings, and the first male orange tip butterflies I've noticed this year.

Geddington, Newton, and back via Geddington Grange

Probably 3 miles or so.  A short pre-lunch walk of about an hour and a half.  We chickened out of the drive over to Daventry.  The weather was warmer and drier than forecast, but there was a downpour after lunch - first real rain for ages.

Tiny Shetland ponies

Some local history - from tough times