Thorpe Langton to Glooston and back

Thursday 21 September 2017, setting off at 10 am. With Maureen.  6 miles. 

This was a combination of a walk for fun, and a check of "my" section of the Leicestershire Round. Most of the route is clear and well signed, but I tried to re-erect one post which was slipping into the bushes, and to clarify directions from the trig point towards Thorpe Langton. The footpath is very close to a bridleway up here and it's very easy to be misled, especially as there is no official sign to the path, but the bridleway to Welham is marked clearly.

Here is my effort - how long will it last?

Bridleway goes slightly to the left, Footpath straight down the hill, close to the hedge - on your right

"this side - by the hedge"

Ok, the walk! We set off from the Welham Road in Thorpe Langton, and followed the Leicestershire Round sign downhill along the field road, past Caudles Cottage and the pub car park.   At the point where there is a ford and two footbridges over the stream, the official LR path goes to the right and over a stile.

Conditions today were muddy, but less so than on a previous occasion, in February 2016!
We made our way up following the yellow posts. You need to be a bit careful not to get tempted by other posts on the right, but with a map and by following the waymarker directional arrows, you should be ok. At a stile the path keeps close to hedge and climbs up to the trig point. 

Just after the trig point our path turns left and joins the bridleway between Stonton Wyville and Welham.  Lots of way marks as you follow the path to a gate. The path downhill over an arable field is clear, and easy enough to walk. Follow it down and you reach the farm track between Thorpe Langton and Stonton Wyville, where you turn right towards a road.

Cross the road and go into the small village of Stonton Wyville.  Just before the church turn right. There's a bench here - I've made good use of it in the past, but today we carried on. Follow the road round and pick up the LR sign on a finger post "Glooston 1 mile".  This is a flat path,  and easy to follow across a few fields and to the small church at Glooston, which is half hidden on the right hand side just by the village hall and before the Old Barn pub.

 There is a choice of seating here - a bench if it's sunny, or the church porch out of the wind. We chose the porch today.

 For the return leg we retraced our steps as far as the point where the path to Welham and the Caudle leaves the no through road. We stayed on this lower level track which took us back to Thorpe Langton without tackling any more mud. 

We had lunch at Langton Garden Centre - it was very busy, and we had quite a wait. Not the ideal time to visit it, though the sandwiches and coffee were good.