Glapthorn circular via Southwick

Thu, 2013 Dec 12 9:32 AM GMT

Led by Barry, with me and Gordon. Fine weather with mist and cloud. Some mud. Good views. Just under 9.5 miles.

We start from a footpath near Glapthorn primary school. This takes us northwest towards Short Wood, but we turn left just before this. We follow the path through fields of bamboo and then through a gate and across pasture.

When we meet the farm track with Glapthorn Cow Pasture ( a woodland area) just beyond, we turn to our right and head northwest again past Provost Lodge.  The path goes between two buildings, and through a gate.  Then it's downhill to cross a muddy section - sometimes a stream.

Up the hill and across a couple of fields, then we turn left, and keep the hedge on our right until we reach the derelict Tottenhoe Lodge.  Another right turn and we head north, down the hill to the road between Bulwick and Southwick.  We cross this, pass Crossway Hand Farm, and continue for about a mile with the wood on our right.  Eventually we enter the trees and take a turn to our left.

We soon meet a T-junction of brdileways - we take the right hand turn here, through Holey Brookes wood, and towards Morehay Lawn. At this point we're headin north east. We keep Morehay Lawn wood on our left, and at the corner of Tomlin Wood we turn right (south east).  This takes us near to Lodge Farm, where the route of the bridelweay has been diverted from the OS map route.  It now goes round the north side of the lake, rejoining the original route near Cheeseman's Lodge.  This is all well-marked on the ground.

Lake near Lodge Farm

We follow the track more or less south until we reach the woodland.  Here we turn left along the edge of the trees for a short distance before turning right ( and pretty well south again) into the wood.

Recent wind damage?

After about half a mile we come out at a corner and follow the wood edge south, then west, then south again.

Another des. res?

There's a fine new bench here, and on a fine day the water tower between Southwick and Glapthorn is a good landmark.

See the water tower?

 Keep this directly ahead and the path through a field takes us directly to Southwick, over the brook, and past Henrietta, coming out near the church.

Southwick church

We cross the road, and walk up the hill past the water tower, then take the footpath to our right near the layby.  This path skirts the southern edge of Short Wood, and when we reach the point where the wood edge turns to the north, we take the path a little further on.  It turns right, and we rejoin the path leading to Glapthorn School, where we started.

Map and details

Marston Trussell, Sibbertoft, East Farndon - circular

Mon, 2013 Dec 9 9:27 AM GMT

Led by me, with Barry and Gordon. Muddy in places, and a couple of short steep sections. Fine weather, not too cold. 9 miles.

A fine morning.  We set off from Marston Trussell church, and follow the road through the village, keeping straight ahead on the minor road, when the main road bends to the left.

This leads us past the splendid Marston Trussell Hall, with its magnificent trees - including a couple of tall redwoods.   The Lake lies to our left some distance away.

We follow the road for about a mile to a T-junction.  On the far side of the road lies Hothorpe Hall.   We turn left and in a short half mile take a bridleway which goes off to our right, at the point where the road has a right-angled bend to the left.  This is easy to flow along the field boundaries, eventually going uphill between two spinneys - Barn-Hill Spinney on our right and Coombe-Hill Spinney on our left.

 A few pauses to admire the scenery are in order!  The gate is close to the left hand woodland.  From here we follow the bridle way along - it heads south, then turns right and left again, bringing us into Sibbertoft by the Roserie. 

A few yards along the road our path turns off to the left. It's marked "Jurassic Way".  It takes us through a field just north of the houses and emerges in the churchyard.  We chat with a man who has lived here all his life, and was at one time an engineer in Harborough. He's a one-time rambler, too and has a few words to say about rights of way.

We turn left from the church, and walk along the road until we find our footpath. Here we have a few muddy stiles to deal with, and a large field with no clear route on the ground. Luckily we know exactly where to go, and find our route with no trouble.

Downhill through the woods - Mount Pleasant and The Lawn, according to the map. This section is drier than last time I walked it. 

We continue following the Jurassic Way, cross Dick's Hill (so the map says), and begin the cross fields section to East Farndon. Sunshine and reasonable conditions on the ground encourage us to have our break. Sibbertoft was too soon, East Farndon a little too far.
There's another steep hill before we cross the disused pits just as we arrive at Farndon. We take advantage of the seat near the church for another short rest.  

Then, it's downhill through the village, and a left turn towards Marston Trussell.  Another left turn, and we're on the home stretch.  Our path goes off to the right, opposite another Jurassic Way sign - there are rather a lot around this village.  We leave them here and take the path - which leads over the muddiest terrain we've seen today. We walk along the lower slopes of a hill - the woodland on top of it is to our left. After a couple of fields we meet a bridleway and turn left, away from Harborough, towards Marston.  Another left turn - no chance of mistaking the way here.  There are plenty of "Private" and "Strictly Private" signs.  The bridleway leads us back to the minor road, and we follow it for a few hundred yards.

The path, off to the right takes us over a large field to a footbridge. Aiming slightly to the right of Marston Trussell church gives us our direction. 

Finally over the footbridge, we can see a gate slightly to our left, leading us back to the churchyard. The ground here is very bumpy - according to the map there was once a moat.

Map and details

Uffington Casewick Barholm Greatford

Thu, 2013 Dec 5 9:36 AM GMT

Led by Barry, with me Gordon and Maureen. Reverse of a previous walk. Weather very windy, and for the last mile or so a downpour. Good underfoot. Just over 9 miles. New problem with footpath crossing of mainline railway.

Previous walk in reverse.

We left Uffington on Casewick Lane, and followed the footpath along the main driveway with a winter view of the hall.

Casewick Hall

Dovecot

monument

Happy Christmas

 The railway crossing appears to have been closed. Memo to self - contact Lincs CC.

Can they just do this?

 After the railway we walked over fields to Barholm, where we paused at the church.

Lantern in the porch of Barholm church

 The path beside the church takes us directly to Greatford, crossing a dyke/canal/cut on the way.

Greatford

The ducks make a quick getaway

There are a lot of odd stone structures

 Greatford Church was open - well worth a look.

Memorial to Francis Willis, MD, who treated George III.  Greatford Church

 We walk through Waterside Gardens and turn right along a narrow path between fences, then alongside woodland.

We were pleased to reach the end of this section in the high winds.

Just possible to see the herd of deer

The path takes us through Shillingthorpe Park, and over the River West Glen.  Then we have a mile or so of road walking, and another crossing of the railway, before a left turn at the road junction.

 Then it's turn right along a bridleway, with trees each side - quite muddy, but very clear. At the end of it I turn round and see a dramatic rainbow.

Up to now we had stayed dry - but a rainbow tends to mean - rain.

 From here we take the path to our left, behind a farm and alongside fields and back into Uffington.

poplars in the wind

Ah - 'twas just a clearing up shower!

A wet last mile!





Map and details

Whissendine, Wymondham, Edmondthorpe, Teigh, Whissendine

Mon, 2013 Dec 2 9:41 AM GMT

Led by me, with Barry, Gordon and Maureen. Misty start, then cloudy. Some mud underfoot, but dry and not cold. 9.7 miles.

  We leave Whissendine by the path just uphill from the White Lion car park. It is not long before we meet our first stile of the day.  

 We keep the stream on our left, and head over the fields, one or two a little muddier than ideal, but we have known worse. 

We are hoping that the sun will burn its way through the mist, but the promise remains unfulfilled. 
We follow the clearly marked path over fields as far as Station Road, where we turn left and walk for around a mile, before turning right at a T-junction, and passing this des res, just before a railway crossing.

 The path goes off to the left directly after the level crossing and heads northwest slightly uphill over more arable land.

still misty

Unfortunately we don't see much of the view over towards Wymondham - maybe we'll revisit on a bright day.  We have to go downhill fairly steeply before joining a wider track which takes us to Wymondham with its fine church.

 We turn along a small back road just before the church, and follow it west, over a road and along until we almost meet another one. Here we turn right along a footpath and head south towards Edmonthorpe.  Part of the path is alongside a wall. Once we reach the road we turn left for a hundred yards or so, then follow the footpath which leads off to the right.  It crosses fields, passes the corner of a small wood, and then goes uphill to a field corner. We go through the gap in the hedge and turn very sharp right to join the Rutland Round path.  At the field boundary we turn left, and after some distance turn right again, alongside a disused canal.

 At this point the path bears right, diagonally across a field, and on to a track which leads to the Teigh Road.  Here we turn left.  We walk past the road to Whissendine, and take the next turn right into the village of Teigh, and to the church.  Opposite the church we find the path and follow it easily with its markers until we reach a long narrow bridge.

After the bridge we should go diagonally right, but use the field edges to avoid mud. The path takes us to a bridleway, and we very soon cross the railway line once more.  The bridleway continues for about a mile and a half, meeting the road into Whissendine at the top of a steepish slope. Here we turn left and in a couple of hundred yards take the footpath to our right. this goes diagonally across a field, and over a stile just after the church.  

We turn right when we reach the road and follow it downhill to our starting point.

Map and details

Dunton Bassett - Cosby, Broughton Astley, Leire

Thu, 2013 Nov 28 10:19 AM GMT

Led by Barry, with Maureen and me. A misty start and rather dull, with very little sun. Fairly flat. Some muddy gateways. 9 miles.

Outside the DBA

Always a good idea to start in the right place. . . and look at those clean boots!

From Dunston Bassett we take the road towards Broughton Astley (B581) and after a hundred yards or so there is a sign "Bridle Road to Cosby". This is our route. The path curves slightly to the left and then it's a case of following the marker posts and the field boundary hedges.  The path goes through a wooded area, and comes out at a small road, called Cottage Lane. At this point the bridleway signs point back to Dunton Bassett and forward to Cosby, just as we hoped.
We follow the route under a disused railway, with a bridge.

From here the path continues through some fields with a few cows, coming out on Shuttleworth Lane on the edge of Cosby.  We walk along the road behind the golf course, and turn right.  More or less opposite the golf Club House, we take a footpath off to the left, through grass fields and slightly uphill towards Broughton Astley.  We have to slog our way across some arable land, and around the edge of one recently ploughed field with very little space left for the footpath, before coming out on a farm road leading to the Leicester Road. This passes one of the largest collection of allotment gardens I've seen - and very well organised they look, too. 

Barry meets Bull

We cross the road and head into Broughton, finally finding a bench for our break, near the war memorial.

Ready for the fray

We walk along the Frolesworth Road for about two hundred yards, and take the second footpath on our left.

 This goes east for a couple of hundred yards, crosses a stream and turns south.  After several fields we reach Broughton Lane, and turn left towards Leire. 

We continue along the Main Street, and turn left opposite Back Lane, where there is a Leicestershire Round sign.  Our footpath sign is a little harder to find, but it is there, a few yards away from Main Street.  

We take this route in the hope of seeing something of a moat which is marked on the OS map.  In the end all we see is a line of trees which may show the line of the moat. 

We make our way with the help of signs and the map, going pretty well north towards Stemborough Lane.   We walk along the road, and between Stemborough Mill and Valley View Farm.  Here we turn right, along the bridleway to Dunton Bassett.

The old mill pond

It is about a mile along the bridleway and back into Dunton Bassett at Bennets Hill.

Map and details