NR 10 (kinda) plus Pitsford Nature Resverve

Wednesday 16 July 2014. With Marta, on a hot and humid day. About seven and a half miles.  We get permits for the Nature Reserve - just as well, since for the first time we have to produce them. 

Then we walk along the road to Holcot, and take a footpath and road through the village, walk along the Walgrave Road to where the Northamptonshire Round all began for us on 11 August 2013. It's taken us almost a year for one reason or another!

Then we continue along the Walgrave Road until we reach an entrance to the Nature Reserve, and follow the path round by the water anti-clockwise. 

We stop at a hide with a great view of a grebe on a nest.

After walking a little more we go into a hide where there are two workers who have been ringing birds - they show us a garden warbler, and explain just how far this less than robin-sized bird migrates each year. 

Lots of other birds - heron, egret, terns, geese, ducks - but one of the highlights of the day was the coot family,  very close to one of the hides.  

Then there were the great crested grebes.  For the first time I've seen a young bird riding on a parent's back. We saw a grebe pair with three youngsters.

Then first one, then another of the juveniles "disappeared". The photographs are not by any means perfect, but they confirm what we thought was happening.

We finish our walk with a sandwich and salad in the White Swan in Holcot - very satisfactory! 

Click on any pic to enlarge

NR 9 - Brixworth Cp to Ch Brampton and back

Fri, 2014 May 30 10:11 AM  BST

With Marta. Grey but dry and quite warm for walking. 8 miles plus.

After a wet and dreary week I couldn't turn down the chance for a dry walk. We parked at Pitsford Water/Brixworth Country Park, and did four miles of the Northamptonshire Round, returning via a slightly different route, including a mile of the Brampton Valley Way.

We have to walk along the access road to the A508 roundabout and cross over to the Brixworth Road. Here we turn right and walk for a couple of hundred yards until we meet the bridleway - a wide track which goes up and down in its two miles to the Merry Tom Crossing of the Brampton Valley Way.

White campion and knapweed?

on track, and nearing the BVW

At the crossing

over the river - not inviting today

  After Merry Tom crossing and the bridge over the river, we follow the road for a short distance, then take a footpath off to the left - all pleasant walking up towards the road.

Wide clear paths lead to the A5199

We turn left at the road and then very soon take a small road to Brampton Hill . This becomes private and we take a path to our right until we reach the signpost in the photo below, where we pause for coffee, and to admire the views. 

A good viewpoint, and a good job we know which path to take

All this for coffee and cake?

 Then we turn left towards the farm. Another good wide track. At the farm road we go straight across and follow the footpath down.

Poppy season

The hedge is on our right at first, then on our left. We follow this path to the Holdenby Road from Church Brampton.  

more colour

 Here we turn left, and then take a footpath on our right, which brings us out on the main road, opposite the single track road to the golf course. (See our walk from May 20th)

Marta documenting the point where our route links to the last one

Now our route differs from the NR . We walk uphill alongside the Harlestone road out of Church Brampton, cross over Sandy Lane, and take a footpath on our left. This is fenced off from the nearby arable (muddy) field, and is more easy walking. Before long it brings us into Back Lane, Chapel Brampton - part of the village one way system. We turn right and follow the road back to the Harlestone Road, then left to the Northampton Road. We cross into Pitsford Road and follow this as far as the Brampton Valley Way - the station and pub.

Near the Pitsford and Brampton station - colour of a different kind

 We turn left and walk through various railway items, and for almost a mile alongside an unused, or rarely used railway track. 

signal box

mosaic

This part of the walk is well supplied with benches to sit on, and is used by cyclists and dog walkers, though we see very few today.

At Merry Tom crossing we rejoin our outward route, and turn right along the bridleway, back to Brixworth and the country park café for lunch. This is now a place with good friendly service - and big cups of coffee.

Map and details

NR 8 - Nobottle to Church Brampton via Harlestone

Tue, 20 May 2014 10:09  BST

With Marta. Parked at Harlestone.

Walked NR to Nobottle and returned via different path. Then Harlestone to Ch Brampton, there and back on NR. Fine, warm, not much sun. My other device tells me 10.3 miles!

With Marta. We parked at Harlestone - a spread out village consisting of Harlestone, Lower Harlestone and Upper Harlestone. The section near the church has a dead end access road with no parking unless you're visiting the school or church.

We should have  turned left, south into the village - there's a pub called The Fox and Hounds, implausibly sporting a sign showing a fox as Master of the Hunt, surrounded by hounds.  

We found a spot to park near a footpath and a bridleway, clearly much used by local dog-walkers, and indeed dogless walkers.

This walk followed a  slightly different pattern from usual, as we decided to leave coffee and the like at the car, to pick up for a break part way through the walk. Gives us flexibility if we're not up to finishing too!  And a lighter pack to carry.

We take the bridleway through a gate with a wooden latch. Soon we're in woodland and the scent of wild garlic takes me back to childhood!  Damp woodland earth and wild garlic - close rivals to freshly cut grass and honeysuckle!  This part is rather like a magical fairy realm as we walk a large house with a lovely garden, and another house hidden away. It feels as though we've slipped back a century or two, apart from seeing the parked cars.

When the trees stop we turn left following a narrow track towards the area with the church.

A well?

Lots of wild garlic

Then we take a footpath left again into the wood emerging on a track through Northampton Golf Course with its lake and balustrade.

We follow a path to the church, and on past the village hall, and further to Yew Tree Farm.

The NR signs are clear, and we have no real problem staying on track. It's also part of the Midshires Way.

The grass is greener

On the ground paths are clear, either alongside hedges, or through fields of crops.

We walk southwest towards Nobottle. We take a  quick break for water and an orange before four hundred or so yards of road walking. It's not too busy, and there is a bit of a grass verge, but we're pleased to see the bridleway sign on our left, shortly after we pass Nobottle House on our right.

We go alongside a field and reach a small spinney, where we turn to the right, then left along side hedges and back towards Upper Harlestone. We follow the road to the right, then turn left and walk back to the car - and coffee. 5 miles done so far.

The next section is two and half miles or so out to Church Brampton. We come back the same (shortest) way.

We walk the bridleway through the garlic woods for the second time, of three today.  Instead of turning left we carry on after the woods, by some mounds and hollows, and across the road near the pub. It's quite busy for a minor road.

We turn right and walk uphill until we se the bridleway sign, with tiny NR stickers on.

We turn left, slightly north of east, along a track, then right through a fields of green barley.

The path goes downhill to the railway, and we follow it under a bridge, and the  uphill into woodland - classic England in spring with sunlight through the trees, bluebells and pink campion, and a damp earth path. It's the edge of Fox Covert.

We come out of the woods to be met by warning signs about flying golf balls and the need to keep to the path. Northamptonshire County Golf Club.  

We follow the path over a couple of fairways, then it turns left. This track goes past the clubhouse and then along Golf Lane, land of huge houses and customized car plates. We find a handy seat by a bus stop - have a short foray in search of a shop, find none, and resort to emergency cereal bars before retracing the route back to the car - all in all between 10 and 11 miles.

Map and details

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