Holcot, Pitsford, Moulton, Holcot

Same route as August 8th 2011, with extra half mile detour, and the reverse direction of the walk from 15th August 2014.

Thu, 2015 Aug 6 9:26 AM BST

With Gordon and Maureen. Early light drizzle gave way to bright warm sunshine, with a slight breeze. . An interesting walk, with a detour to the ruins of Boughton church. Coffee break in Pistford, and pit stop in Moulton at jgallery.  Dry underfoot, most paths good. 10.5 miles.

From Holcot, the footpath goes to the left soon after Glebe Close, and heads across a field to a stile in the hedge. 

The view over Pitsford Water is grand as you climb the stile, though the early morning grey doesn't do it justice.

The path continues with the reservoir below on the right, past the cricket pitch with mock Tudor pavilion, thatch-covered scoreboard, and the cupola and bench commemorating a local businessman.

We cross the road which leads to the cricket ground, and continue until we reach a wide grassy section. here the footpath turns left and uphill for a short stretch before turning right and carrying on roughly south west above Moulton Grange Farm.

  The path does not go down to the farm, but goes straight ahead through some trees. It's quite narrow and not way-marked - easy to miss from this direction.  It goes past Grange cottages and the entrance to Moulton Grange, Grange Road Car Park for Pitsford Water, and on into the village of Pitsford. On the second small green is a bench just asking us to sit and have a break.

We continue through the village and when the road bends right, our path lies straight ahead - a clear route between fences along the edge of fields - and there are already a few ripe blackberries on the bushes. We reach Pitsford Road and cross to walk along Spectacle Lane, past the ford and old mill, and past the folly (The Spectacle).

Too close this time!

At the end of the Lane, at Holly Lodge, we turn right along the surprisingly busy Boughton Road. It's about a quarter of a mile to the remains of St John's Church, Boughton Green. The church fell into disuse in the 16th century, but in the churchyard there are twenty-first century graves.

We return to Holly Lodge, built by the Jeyes family,

 with its iron gates containing twelve agricultural tools.

The gates include replicas of 2 hay forks, 2 sickles, a scythe, a rake, a shepherd's crook, a ditch cutter, a stable fork, a flail, a spade and a woodman's axe.

A few hundred yards after Holly Lodge we turn right on to a footpath - a welcome escape from the road. At the end of the first field the path goes left, but was very overgrown.

Luckily we were all wearing long trousers - there were a few nettles to trample.

Once through the path was simple, along a few field edges, then behind houses, turning left at Moulton School, and into the village. We succumbed to the temptation of jgallery's coffee and cake.

We have barely two miles walking left, and head north east from Moulton, past Overstone Grange, the Old Rectory, surrounded by cedars and pines, as far as Rectory Farm, where we turn 90 degrees left and head north west to Holcot and the car.

A quicker way to travel . . .

The corn was as high . . .

Wild life - swallows over the cornfields, a buzzard or two, a colony of coots.

Map and details