Around Corby:Weldon to Gretton

With Marta, About 6 miles.  Dull but dry, some sun later.

I haven't been looking forward to this section, since I know a good couple of miles go through the area where new houses are being built at Priors Haw.  not the most scenic walk just now, though landscaping is promised, and there is a conservation area well marked out. 

Our first task was to find the spot where the walk could be picked up from the book, so we made our way to the churchyard to take the metal gate leading to a path over the brook.

An unusual gravestone, to The lady Louisa, wife of the honourable and Rev Daniel Heneage Finch Hatton, one time vicar of Weldon.

The path takes us over the brook and up towards the houses of Church View.

When we reach the main road we cross over, and take the path just to the right of a white thatched cottage, sporting a  threadbare thatched pheasant on its roof.

 The path looks as though it goes to the front door of another house, but in fact it turns right then left and takes us through the houses, coming out near the Shoulder of Mutton pub.

We turn right and go past the pub, then walk to the corner. We ignore the footpath sign at the corner and turn right. In around fifty yards there is another footpath sign on the left, which leads to a road then through a gate and along a path towards the A43. 

We cross and find our way on the path through the embryonic new housing development. I'm sure this will be more agreeable in five years or so.

Still, the mile and a bit or so is easy enough to follow, past the conservation area, then over a couple of sections of fresh-ploughed field and into the woods.

Map and garmin confirm we are pretty well on track.

Now it's back on the paths as they have been for years -  a footbridge, two deerproof gates, a road, then down to Kirby Hall. http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/stately%20homes/kirby%20hall.htm 

Its Elizabethan splendour catches brief sunlight in the hollow.

It's the birthplace of the above mentioned Lady Louisa's  Finch Hatton husband.

Windfall apples cluster round a tree but they're too bruised to harvest, and the road curves into the avenue of horse chestnuts leading to the hall gates.

The entrance gift shop shack proudly wears a peacock on its roof.

We climb the hill, look back and then walk down across the grass, startling a hare almost underfoot.

After the clustered stiles in the dip, we go up the last hill of the day - it's dry now, not ankle deep in mud as it can be. At the gate we take in the view once more, before heading down the dusty track and into the village. 

Geddington to Weldon - Around Corby

Fri, 2014 Aug 22 9:34 AM BST

With Marta. Part of Around Corby route. Mostly fine with odd shower. About 12 miles. Some problems with route-finding. Ploughed fields etc.

Geddington ford

We pass the ford and narrow road bridge, and the Eleanor Cross on our way to Wood Street, which leads up to Geddington Chase. We take the footpath to the left of the old brickworks, ignoring the clearer bridleway to our right.

Old brickworks, soon to be a community garden

The path takes us uphill into the woodland, to Chase Lodge. We keep straight ahead to the right of the dog kennels. At the end of the trees we should have taken the path next to the hedge slightly angled to our right. The path runs along with the hedge on the right. You can see on my map where we had to retrace our steps - concentrate on the task in hand!  

Eventually the path turns left, down a slope and on to a track leading under two rows of electricity pylons. Keep straight ahead and meet a minor road. Turn left into Stanion. We paused for a coffee break in the pocket park, where we met a local volunteer doing some much-needed weed clearing.

Then we followed the road to a junction, where we turned right. After the road bent slightly left we almost missed the footpath sign to the right - it's slightly set back from the pavement!

sunflowers going to seed

The section between Stanion and Brigstock was a bit tricky, as parts of the path were poorly marked and overgrown, and one very large field had recently been ploughed. 

Hard to find waymarks

We eventually arrived at the path alongside Brigstock cricket pitch, and made our way to the Green Dragon for a sandwich.

From here we walked back past the tall old clothing factory, past Back Lane, Old Dry Lane and New Town, before taking a path to our right at an opening past some houses. At this point we were consulting Mel Jarvis's book , Around Corby, closely (p 17)!  The path tooks us north over a couple of fields, then across the A 6116. The path still heads north and enters the wood ahead about a quarter of the way along the edge from the right. We soon met a wider track where we turned left and followed this for about a mile. Then there is a rough track which leads on to the A427 between Weldon and Oundle.

We turned right, and walked downhill into Weldon, turning left into Church lane, with Willow brook running alongside until we almost reached Weldon Church with its lantern for forest travellers.

Weldon church

More info on this church here .

Here we turned right along a footpath and made our way back to the car.

Map and details

Gretton to Brigstock

With Barry and Gordon. Weather dry, cloudy. Chilly wind until we warmed up.


Part of Mel Jarvis's Around Corby walk, but clockwise. 
From Gretton we walked along Southfield Road (opposite the village hall) and down the track labelled on the map in my link as 'Fullen Lane'. All the way to the gate at the end, and through the steep field downhill - full of cows which were not too disturbed by us.  The four-stile section at the bottom was not muddy - we've had a dry summer.  Up the hill to the stile at the top and down to the gate next to the way in to Kirby Hall. 
















One of the peacocks was standing by the gift shop door, but didn't deign to perform for us.


We walked up the road past the car park to Kirby Lane, crossed over through the newish gate with its stiff spring and followed the marked footpath downhill, through another gate - easier to open. The path leads down to a brook - the crossing is a muddy mini-scramble since whatever bridge was once there has disappeared. 


The footpath is a bit tricky to follow here, as the area is being redeveloped - we made our way toward the road/path that will become the official route eventually!  We decided to emerge near the roundabout where the A43 meets the road from Weldon (there are three exits).  The path is actually about 200 yards further towards Corby on the A43 - it's easy enough to walk along the verge and turn left along a narrow footpath leading into the village. At this point we had to play shepherd and discourage a sheep from braving the traffic.


Note below from Barry:

I visited the area behind Priors Hall today and found a waymarker pointing right just after we emerged through the wood onto the disused quarry. I never even noticed it. Following that marker we would have joined the gravel path much earlier that we actually did. The final bit which we were on, eventually lead to the A 43 and across the A 43 into Weldon. We turned left there where the sheep was loose and joined the correct way. 

The path turns into Bridge Street, leading to the Oundle Rd.  We diverted slightly along School Lane to see the old lock-up.

Just after the road-narrowing markings on the right hand side is a short footpath leading to the Oundle Road. It leads between the houses and over the brook and crosses Church St to the main road. Here we had to walk uphill alongside the road. The verges are wide enough to walk on though the grass was quite long.


Up and up until we reached Bears Lane, an unsurfaced road to the right which took us past a large house with its own airstrip and wind sock, and towards the woods.  Soon after the house the footpath turns left through the hedge then right. We turned left again to follow the edge of the wood, first more or less east, then, as it turns, south.  We passed a huge rectangular water tank and not long afterwards came to the Bocase stone (see the notes below). 

Next was Bocase Farm with its twin knights, its twin stone lions and eagles.

There are, of course, two of these guarding the entrance

From here the route took us directly down towards Brigstock, though we had to cross the A6116, following Old Dry Lane down to the side of the old factory. 


Note to self: I'm not overly happy with these pics - I think it's partly because the light was rather dull. Maybe I was too impatient as well - the backgrounds to the knights - both too fussy and distracting.

Map and details


Extras
Brigstock Woods Trail and info

Bocase Tree and Stone
BOCASE STONE AT NGR TL 9504 8775 (THAT PART IN BENEFIELD CIVIL PARISH)
BOCASE STONE AT NGR TL 9504 8775 (THAT PART IN BRIGSTOCK CIVIL PARISH)
Monument. Date indeterminate, probably C18. Limestone ashlar. Rectangular slab. Inscription at bottom of slab, "Here Stood Bocase Tree", and inscription at top of slab, "In This Place Grew Bocase Tree". Probably a forest boundary marker. (Markham, C.A., Stone Crosses of Northamptonshire, p.30).

Robin Hood in Corby?

In Corby can be found the magnificent Rockingham Castle - where records show a man called Robyn Hode was imprisoned in 1354. Robin Hood is not normally associated with this part of England, but there is a reference in Dryden’s Memorials Of Old Northamptonshire (1903) to a boundary stone near Brigstock called the Bocase Stone – so called, intriguingly, because Robin himself is said to have hidden his bow and arrows in a tree that once stood at the spot after slaying Sir Hugh de Hanville.