Northants Round 3 - Castle Ashby to Salcey Forest

Wed, 2013 Oct 30 10.45 AM GMT

With Marta. Beautiful day, cool but very bright and sunny. Some muddy patches. Altogether about 10.5 miles.

We set off from Castle Ashby, and rejoin the Northants Round route at Chadstone, where we take the footpath across a field, and stray slightly as it isn't clearly marked. We manage to find our way and follow the path across the longest widest avenue of trees I've seen. It leads to Castle Ashby House.

The gateway to the avenue

From the far side of the avenue our path is easy to follow into the village of Yardley Hastings.

We cross the main road opposite the shop and the village sign, and walk along Chase Park Road, past some splendid houses.  The road bends to the right towards Chase Park Farm, and turns left just before the farm buildings. We walk past two large friendly pigs in an enclosure.

The bridleway takes us more or less southwest, over a disused railway,  and we are soon walking with woodland on our right. We follow the woodland edge round to the south. At the end we turn right, over a disused railway line. We turn right at the track leading to Manor Farm, then follow the road Past the Manor House, the Arches and into Horton.

The Arches

Fine tree near Ravenstone Road, Horton.

We walk through Horton,  then take a track leading towards Piddington - we emerge near Church Farm, and join the path labelled on the map as Midshires Way. This takes us to Salcey Forest and we make our way to the Cafe, where we have soup for lunch.

Sunset sky from Castle Ashby, just before the drive home.

Map and details

Easton Maudit - Yardley Hastings - Easton Maudit

9 miles. Led by Barry. With Maureen and Eddie. Fine, but a chill wind. Some muddy fields.


First call was Easton Maudit church, and a wander round the graveyard, where Derek Nimmo is buried. 

Then back to don boots and off along the path past this house

where the thatch is supported by some fine rustic poles - or trees.  I like the orange tiles, as well! 
We walked across the fields and gently uphill towards Horn Wood. In the wood we turned slightly right, and followed the path through a line of electricity pylons. Soon after these we turned left with the path, through some more woodland, until we reached the A428, which we crossed. 
We followed the well-marked path (Milton Keynes Boundary Walk) south, then west until we reached the B5388 (Olney - Yardley Hastings. Here we turned right and walked along the road for about half a mile, past Pastures Farm. 

The hollow in this tree looked like an ideal place for someone half our size.

Right,  everyone,  snack-break over!

When we reached a track to the left we climbed one of the few stiles and walked across a field - a notice warned us of low-flying model aircraft, but there were none around today.  
We passed another Pastures Farm over to the right, and the path led us towards Yardley Hastings.  
The first structure we saw was this one. I've discovered that it's a flood storage reservoir - quite empty at the moment.

There is a stream of sorts in the village, with bridges over it to lots of the houses.  The village is very attractive, with its millenium village sign, list of residents in 2000, and human sundial.

There's a village shop, getting into seasonal mode

We walked through the village, past the church (St Andrews) .

The path we took goes to the right, just before a bridge at the end of the village, and continues to the right of the stream - in a deep ditch -  for some distance.
When this path meets another one, you turn right (east) and go uphill gradually, crossing a minor road, and arrive back in Easton Maudit.

Map and details