Bainton, Ufford, Helpston, Ashton

Another outing in John Clare territory. 

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 9:28 BST

With Gordon. A dry morning with cloud, then sun, then cloud. Coffee at John Clare Cottage. Very flat, very pleasant.  Between 6 and 7 miles.

I followed a walk from this leaflet, and extended it to include Helpston. The possibility of a coffee at the John Clare Cottage may have been a factor. 

We set off from the Buttercross near the church in Bainton, turning left along the main road and then right on the road to Ufford.  When the road forked we followed the right hand branch - the left hand one goes to Ashton.

We pass the Wash Dyke sheepwash, where sheep were cleaned before being shorn. A lot of wool was exported to Flanders for weaving.

Shortly after this we followed the footpath past the conservation area, where there is a sort of moat and wetland habitat, then some woodland. This took us southwest for a short half mile, and we turned left, heading more or less south towards Ufford.  The path west leads to Barnack. We could see Ufford church on its mighty hill.  After a few fields we reached the road at Moors Corner, and continued into Ufford. We passed a few houses, then turned left on to a public footpath track.  At first the track is to the right of the hedge, then crosses to the left. It heads east past The Jubilee, a wood planted to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1893 (97?). 
At the road we turned left then soon right at the next footpath. This is a farm track and takes us past Hilly Wood and on to King Street. 
We turned right and almost immediately left, joining the Torpel Way for a while. We passed one footpath to the left, but took the second one. This cuts through Rice Wood, before following a field edge. When we met Heath Road we turned left. The road becomes Woodgate Road, and before long we found that the John Clare Cottage was indeed open and serving coffee and tea. 

The flowers have gone now - photo from 11 July

We made a short diversion to tip our hats to John Clare's grave, and that of his parents. A friendly woman was tidying up, removing the wilted Midsummer cushions placed there in a ceremony each year by children from the local primary school.

 We passed the almshouses, and took a footpath to the left, behind the school and then across fields.

 We joined King Street and the Torpel Way again. We turned right alongside the road and walked to the junction.  Here our path was on the left, and crossed Torpel Manor Field, once the site of a fortified Norman manor house, held by the Torpel family in return for the feudal service of six knights. It eventually passed to the de Camoys, and then royalty, before falling into ruins by the seventeenth century. It was surrounded by a small deer park.

The site of Torpel Manor

 The area is now managed by the Langdyke Trust.  The path crosses the site, then continues between a wire fence and a hedge all the way to Ashton.  It looks as though this could get pretty overgrown, and is definitely a single file and pay attention route.

 In Ashton we made use of the seat below the village sign, and had the snack we'd not had earlier.

Yes, I flipped the pic so that we can read the sign!

 We left the Torpel Way at Ashton, and went a little way along the road north, before taking a different footpath to the left. This section contained several stiles, passing fields of horses, and a stables. 

 In the field after the stables there is a footbridge over a stream down to the right, then the path leads along the edge of fields and past a poultry farm back to the B1443 and into Bainton.  We crossed over and took Church Lane back to the car.

More thatched animals in Bainton.

Map and details

Helpston circular

Helpston, in Northamptonshire at the time, was the birthplace of the poet John Clare.  We started our walk from the John Clare Cottage and museum. Apart from the information about the poet, this is another useful stop on the coffee-shop circuit.


We walked towards the village cross for a few yards, then turned left into the yard of The Blue Bell pub. At the back of the car park there's a stone stile leading on to a footpath which goes behind the village primary school, then across a couple of fields to reach a minor road. We turned left, and walked along the road for a few hundred yards, past another small road, until we came to a footpath leading off to the left.  We followed this path east with a hedge on our right, then slightly south until we met yet another small road.  Here we turned right, then after a couple of hundred yards we turned right, taking the footpath, not the bridleway. They are very close - the footpath is about three yards beyond the bridleway.


The path goes south west across a field, then south along the edge of a wood, then south-west again, before reaching the Stamford Road. Just opposite this point is The Granary - a farm shop and another one on the coffee-shop circuit. We decided we had plenty of time to indulge ourselves today!

What d'you mean -  we've only walked three miles!

we left the Granary, and turned right along the Stamford Road.  After about half a mile of road walking, and one crossroads we took a footpath off to the right, along a field boundary, and down towards the edge of a small wood. Shortly after the wood the path turns from southwest to north west then curves round following a field boundary then along the northern edge of some more woodland - Foster's Coppice.   After a short distance we turned left (north) along a track which took us back to the Stamford Road.  

We turned left along the road for a very short distance, then right along a path, which skirted Hayes Wood, then turned south east to the Stamford Road again, turning north-west just as the path meets the road.  We followed the path along the edge of Simon's Wood, and decided we could afford another short break - Maureen's scones, a nearly forgotten treat over the last three weeks, were welcome. 


We followed the edge of the wood, which became Oxey Wood.  The path ruined slightly north east at the end of the woodland, and led to a wider track running east. We followed this for about half a mile, then turned left past College cottages.  This track took us directly to the road into Helpston, very close to the railway crossing.  From there it was a straightforward road walk back into the village, past the church, the John Clare monument and the market cross.

St Botolph's church

John Clare monument

Helpston Butter Cross, where markets were held

Ho ho! Just back  - I took the washing in,  soaked myself,  then looked outside - wet stuff from heaven again! Perfect timing.


Map and details

For a similar walk on 10 October 2011 click here.  In reverse, with slight variations.

Helpston Circular

Led by Barry.  With Eddie, Gordon and Maureen. A flat walk,not quite fenland, in fine, warm but windy weather. Around 7 and a half miles.  

Helpston is the birthplace of John Clare, known as the Northamptonshire peasant poet.  In his lifetime the village was in the Soke of Peterborough, part of the County of Northamptonshire. Now it is in Cambridgeshire.  There is masses of info and photographs of the village on this site.

Ready to go - outside the John Clare Cottage in Helpston, now a museum with a café. 
Almost opposite the John Clare Museum, the path leads east out of the village, and alongside a field before turning right (south) along the hedge.  We followed the field boundary, through a gap in the hedge and to the left before crossing a ploughed field ( dry, luckily) diagonally to the left, emerging at College Cottage.  We walked almost due south again before turning quite sharply to the right (west). We followed the field boundary again, almost parallel to a line of pylons.  When we met the Torpel Way we turned left and made for the edge of some woodland.  We walked along by the wood until we reached a road (Stamford Road).  Instead of walking along the road, we turned left towards more woodland, then slightly to the right towards the road again.  

Unfortunately the sweetest juiciest blackberries come with the scratchiest sharpest thorns.

At the road we turned left and very soon took the path to the right.  You don't go through the trees which are ahead, but turn right and follow the wide grassy track through the fields. It skirts another wooded area, then goes gently uphill to the Stamford Road again.  
We had a snack break here, then walked along the road as far as the farm shop (not open on Mondays), before turning right.
The path goes past an area which has been landfill - lots of meters for measuring methane. There is also a Nature reserve at Swaddywell Pit. (Swordy Well in a John Clare poem).

The former quarry and landfill site has had the topsoil replaced, and is now rich in limestone wildflowers such as bee orchid and wild carrot. There are many butterflies, and moths, as well as skylarks and buzzards.

A blowy day

We walked along the left hand side of another wooded area and then came to part of Heath Road.  There is a Roman villa underground 

though we saw no evidence of it.

We reached a track turning right from the road, just before Rice Wood, and followed it, then turned left to walk with Rice Wood on our right.

The path comes out in Helpston, and we made our way past the Almshouses 

to West Street with its memorial to John Clare and the Butter Cross. [Butter Cross at Helpston was where a weekly market took place. Customers had the added protection of knowing that traders were selling their wares by the Cross. This meant that everything was above board and the integrity of those traders was guaranteed. Who would dare sell dodgy goods under the protection of the Almighty?  Info from Peter Hill, via Barry - many thanks! ]

then had a look round St Botolph's church with its octagonal tower

before going into the café next to John Clare's cottage.

Map and details