Wollaston - Strixton - (Grendon)Lower End - Gt Doddington - Wollaston

About 8.5 miles. With Barry and Gordon . Weather misty, but some sun, and a few drops of rain. Fields muddy, but not too muddy.
Garmin ran out of juice, so link shows general area and start of walk. By zooming out, you may be able to work it out!  (WHEN I've described it a bit, that is!)

In need of David Hockney's step-ladder to snap the blue plaque!  This is on the house next to the start of the footpath in Wollaston. The path leads between fences, past fields of llamas (alpacas?) and a pony or two, before arriving at open fields.  Before long the path reaches the A509, which we crossed, then walked along a short distance to the right, to take the footpath, rather than the one marked opposite the crossing.

This tree is dead apart from the ivy. It is a marker of the direction of the path after we crossed the A509, heading towards Strixton.

Too cute to be real?

Too real to be cute?

At Strixton we turned left and walked along the road, for a few hundred yards.  Then we turned off to the left, making our way south-east,  slightly uphill then down into Lower End. 

We turned right and walked along Blackmile Lane to Main Road. On the other side of this we turned north-east, then north-west, making towards a double row of electricity pylons. The path continued in the same direction, leaving the pylons behind until we reached a small road, crossing a field with a few horses, some of which thought we might be a good bet for a snack when we paused to shelter under a tree from the few drops of rain.

We followed a path near one of the old gravel pits, crossing the Nene just before the sewage works. 

The path to Great Doddington isn't clearly marked, and we came up to the left of a farm building instead of to the right. 

Turn right along the main village street, ignore the first Nene Way signpost, and carry on until you are almost out of the village.  The path leads down hill, through a gap in the hedge and down to Doddington Mill.  

We crossed the Nene again - lots of fish in the part near the mill. Then we followed the route we took last week, in reverse as far as the Road between Wollaston and Doddington.  Instead of turning left along this road, we turned right and then left on to the road to Grendon.  After a few hundred yards we took a footpath to the left, across a couple of fields, and the A509, and another short section of footpath before reaching the road leading up into the village. 

Pigs on the roof?

A short detour to see the llamas, which were now outside, then we returned to the car.

Irchester-Wollaston-Doddington crossing-Irchester

9 miles approx. Barry, Gordon, Maureen. Misty, fine weather. 


We started from Irchester (Woodlands Road) and took a footpath between two houses, which led us over fields, across the B569 and to Wollaston.  We emerged into Wollaston near the Scott Bader factory, and some houses, including one with several chickens in the garden.

We walked through Wollaston, past the church which was slightly to the right of our route, and spotted an attractive walled park, once part of the manor house. The seats were tempting, but it was far too early for a break, so we carried on and crossed the A509.  We followed the road towards Great Doddington, turning right after a third of a mile or so.  Our path turned slightly to the left (north-west), and we took a path between two lakes, and along a track towards Doddington Crossing and the Mill where several narrowboats were moored.

At this point we joined the Nene Way, and followed it along the river into Wellingborough. This was part of my route on August 5th, on a fine hot day!  

Wellingborough Embankment - just right for a stop. Thank you for the scones, Maureen!

After a break we carried on along the riverside.(I did a bit of this accidentally on August 16th)  Loads of swans, ducks and gulls hang out there.  There were a lot of horses grazing.  Most of them had manes and tails covered in burrs, like this poor fellow.  

When the mainline viaduct came into view we started to make  our way towards Chester house.

At this point we joined the Nene Way again (see my walk on Tuesday 16 August).

We walked around to the right of the house to investigate the site of a walled Roman town. We saw part of it, but there may have been more.  
Behind Chester House, which is being restored, repaired or rebuilt, is the remains of a walled kitchen garden with conservatory and fruit trees - just out of our reach!

We had to cross the A45.  It has a central reservation and path, so is possible with care. Then we took Chester Road, past Townend Farm into Irchester, passing Lower Farm, and a cottage called Cwmnene.  We made a small detour to look at the info board in St Katharine's Walk, and to seek out the (very small) Catherine Wheel which is part of the weathervane. Ha ha - wrong lens again ;-)

I like the banded stone effect.  The spire is the tallest in the county.

A short walk took us back to the start of the walk.

I was pleased to have walked along part of the Nene I hadn't covered before.

October 2012: Update about Chester Farm site - they may open a heritage centre for the Roman site.


Map and details