Northants Round 7 Bugbrooke to Nobottle , return via Nether Heyford.

Fri, 2014 May 16 10:34 AM   BST  

With Marta. 5 miles or so of NR , about a mile wandering round Harpole, and then return trip via Midshires way and other paths, and a short section of Nene Way. Very warm, rather humid after lunch.  Around 12 miles. 400 feet of climbing.

All locked up and ready to walk

We start from the green in Bugbrooke and walk along the road to Kislingbury for a short distance before taking the bridleway marked to the left.  We promise ourselves an early coffee . . .

walk this way

The path is enclosed by hedges and trees and we hear the call of a green woodpecker, but don't see it.

Tree trunk and ivy

After a mile or so we emerge into fields and make our way through two fields and down to join the Nene Way - a section we walked in 2011. We turn right and follow the path east to Bugbrooke Mill, with its flour lorries and silos.

a mouse fishing?

The path is easy to follow, leading across the road to the mill, and then alongside a hedge. As the tall bushes end, the path turns left into the mill grounds and crosses a couple of fields before going under the M1. We decide coffee can wait until the noise is behind us.

to the M1 and beyond

After the motorway we stop near the weirs and Harpole mill - there are large blocks on concrete on a footbridge here - tables and chairs ideal for a break.

near the weirs and old mill

the mill pond?

Our next obstacle/landmark is the A 45 - quite busy here, but with a central reservation, and not difficult to cross. On the opposite side our footpath is marked with a sign, but on the ground the rape plants are vigorous and we see no way through. We make a detour of getting on for half a mile roune the edges of the huge field, then make our way back to the route.

we found the path again after a long detour round rampant rape

Harpole is a village of friendly people, but of the two pubs The Bull is closed - ok, it's not 12.30 yet - and the Live and Let Live doesn't serve food. We buy sandwiches and liquid at the village shop, and find a churchyard bench to sit on for lunch.  We must have added almost an extra mile as we wandered up and down the High Street.

Harpole church

is this thrift?

From the church we take School Lane and pick up our footpath, which is enclosed by fences for a while, then heads north west uphill to Harpole Hill. There's a bench in front of the wood on top, but we don't need another rest just yet, we tell ourselves, sternly.

view from Harpole Hill

The path dips down slightly, then up across a planted field, and some steep steps take us to the edge of Harpole Covert and on to a track, continuing our northwesterly line along a low ridge then down into the hamlet of Nobottle.

steep steps to the ridge

and little else either

A short road walk takes us to the Nobottle sign. Just before this our path turns left - a bridleway, and part of the Midshires Way.  It is very clearly marked, though there are one or two meetings of ways which need care.

New Covert from the Midshires Way

There are a couple of fields of cows with calves, and in one in particular the cows show some interest in us - luckily from a fair distance!

Hebridean sheep?

what fine horns you have

The track becomes a minor road and crosses the motorway via a bridge.  We head on towards the A 45 again. It is single carriageway here, but not too busy.  We walk along the  minor road through Upper Heyford, then take a path to our left which joins the Nene Way at a footbridge, just after crossing some lovely restored meadows.

Ragged robin in the restored Heyford Meadow

The Nene near Nether Heyford, from the footbridge

Now it's just another mile or so - we think we deserve a coffee and cereal bar break in Nether Heyford before continuing along the Nene Way towards Bugbrooke, and rejoiinng the path we took at the start of the walk. A minor hiccup occurs with map-reading or memory, but we are soon back with 12 miles under the boots.

Map and details

Nene Way 2 Nether Heyford - Sixfields and return.

With Marta.  22 July 2011. 11.2 miles. Walking time  3 hrs 30, a total of almost 5 hrs including breaks. Weather, fine, warm, some sun. 

'Organisational difficulties' meant that we had to do this walk as a there-and-back. Fortunately we worked this out after 5 and a half miles, and the walk was roughly the same distance as we had planned.

At Nether Heyford

The pub at the start of the walk served us coffee although they were not officially open until 12 noon. Much appreciated.  We turned left from the pub car park, along Middle Street, turned right at T-junction, then right into Watery Lane, where we met the first waymarker.

The first waymarker - were the bags too heavy before we'd even started the walk?

From Watery Lane we took a signposted track between two houses. The path turns slightly left and crosses a stream (not the Nene) and several fields. There are stiles. On the left a mile or so away is Glassthorpe Hill, and according to Mia Butler, there was once a Roman villa in the valley. 

We meet the mighty Nene itself as we approach the bulk of Heygate's Flour Mill (marked on the OS map as Bugbrooke Mill. Weirs remain from the original watermill.   The water is very clear - we saw small fish and a froglet, as well as damselflies.  There's also a walled fruit and veg garden full of rows of beans, and with a fig tree growing against the wall.

Just here was the only place we made a small unintentional detour.  After crossing the service road, we followed the clearly signposted path, but didn't notice the gap in the hedge a couple of hundred yards further on - no signs here. We realised what we'd done when we came to an impassable ditch and barbed wire at the end of the field.  We even walked all the way back and missed the turning.  Careful consulting of the map - and, yes, there had to be some way through the hedge - it's just after the end of the taller bushes, to skirt the industrial building.

The path leads diagonally through a field storing what look like abandoned food storage containers - grain silos? - round and very big. 

 Through the gate and across a wheat field towards the M1 and through a tunnel underneath.  

Under the M1

This was the quietest place within a hundred yards or so, and was clearly the place where old farm machinery comes to die.


Across a meadow where cows were doing their best to eat the maize in the next field, then through the maize jungle, closely planted, neat rows, computerised sowing, taller than we are, past an area where children were playing by the river and a cat was observing from its vantage point.

Totem cat

. 

The fourteenth century church at Kislingbury

 Kislingbury has three pubs, a general store and a butcher's shop, as well as the church.

I like the colours here, though I should have got the writing and flowers in focus too. Need to study 'depth of field'.

The path to the footbridge is part of the flood defences, and a large metal gate can be closed off to protect the village against another two for three foot rise in the water level.


After Kislingbury we turned right from the road, and walked through several fields, quite a distance from the Nene, which was on our right.  We could see a raised dyke area, and the path was clearly marked.  We walked past a long wall, which has fallen down in places, although there is a door in one of the remaining sections.  We arrived at Upton Hall Farm with horses and vociferous geese, then came to the new development of Upton Sustainable Urban Extension.  It still looks rather new, but when the trees have grown and the water/ drainage areas have settled in it promises to be an attractive area.

Part of Upton Sustainable Housing Development

The signs for the Nene Way were a little sparse through the new houses, but we found our way through to where the path crosses the dual carriageway of the old A45 at traffic lights
and were ready to take the Duston Mill Lane when we decided we had to turn back.

Geese getting ornery

Wildlife - kestrels and a couple of herons. 

For details click here

Badby to Nether Heyford along Nene Way

The journey begins

Friday 17 June 2011.  With Marta.  Approx 8 - 9 miles.  Slightly humid and showery, but pleasant underfoot.

We took the (metaphorical) bull by the horns of our dilemma, and decided to attack the Nene Way from the South-West, starting at Badby.  Not quite the source, it seems, so that is for another day - we intend to track that down when we've completed the whole route.  That could take some time, since the next available date is at least a fortnight away.


We didn't set off until about 12.30, and for future expeditions we must do better. 
The start is clearly marked from the Green in Badby, past some cottages, then through fields by a small stream.

The infant Nene?

The path leads to the road into Newnham, climbing the hill

Alfred Angas Scott was a famous motorcycle manufacturer and he stayed at the New Inn in 1908.  The Newnham hill climb was a regular motorcycle event before World War 2. It was held on Good Fridays. On Thursday 20 July 2000, a similar race was held.

The path goes through the churchyard and downhill past a large monument, overgrown with vegetation - the path leads through to a cottage with a well outside, then down hill, along the streets.  Some of the signs are not exactly obvious, but all went well until we came to a gate into a field where an obvious concrete track led down to another gate on our right, towards trees by a river... eventually we realised there was no way out, and returned. A local farmer set us right, saying that we really should have noted the way the arrow before the gate was pointing - up to the left past a telegraph pole and through various gates with a white disc waymarker. 


This section was hillier than we expected, and the more scenic as a result.  We came out at Little Everdon Hall, set in parkland, with a Countryside Stewardship sign on the gate.  Very attractive hamlet.  After the last house there is a sign to the left - as we walked we passed one or two places where there are turns to the left from the path, and a few confusing signs.  

Every WHICH way?

Marta has a well-earned coffee. There was no bull today.

Through fields of barley, and rapeseed with poppies, we passed a gate where swallows were perching. They let us get pretty close to them before flying off.

Swallows

We arrived at the road to Weedon Bec.   We called in to the first pub for a drink, and were amused by a small child with a remarkably placid puppy in a room which looked more like a living room than a bar.  In the local mini-supermarket we bought a sandwich 'meal deal' and took this along to eat where the Nene Way follows the Grand Union Canal towpath briefly, past Weedon Wharf to Bridge 25.  We lost track of the actual path in Weedon, but found it near the cemetery under the Canal Aqueduct. We managed to orientate ourselves by the position of the Canal and the very busy West Coast Mainline railway beyond.

At Bridge 25 we left the canal towpath, and made our way towards the A5. Not the most scenic part of the walk, but not quite as tricky to cross as we thought.  We went slightly to the right of the footpath to get a better view of the traffic!

At this point be careful to go straight ahead, avoiding the clear path diagonally to the right.  The Nene Way and the Macmillan Way follow the same route here for a short distance. You go over a footbridge and across a wide field towards Flore church.

All Saints Church, Flore

You walk through the churchyard, and go to the right past the school, along Nether Lane and Kings Lane.  At this point we just missed seeing a fox and cubs playing in a field, according to a couple who had been watching them.


The Nene Way leaves Flore between two thatched walls

The path continues across fields east, then south-east, then south into Nether Heyford, crossing the slightly wider river.

The Nene near Nether Heyford