Nene Way 4 - from Billing to Wellingborough Embankment

With Marta. 11.1 miles, including our wander round Earls Barton. Hot, sunny, dry underfoot in spite of yesterday's rain.A lot of up and down, to visit the villages above the flood plains.


From the info board at Billing Lock:

The River Nene is a particularly important navigation as it

links the Grand Union Canal to the sea and, via the 'Middle 

Level' to the Great Ouse.  Rising at Badby, Naseby and 

Yelvertoft, the Nene becomes navigable at Northampton

where the three tributaries combine.  The navigation, which

was opened on 7th August 1761 when "7 coal laden barges

reached Northampton with the customary band of music, 

flags and streamers" begins at the junction with 

the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal near Cotton End

Lock, Northampton  and extends 91 miles (147 km) to the sea.

There are 37 locks between Northampton and Peterborough.

We set off from Billing, via the lock with its two different styles of gate - the 'pointing door' and the 'guillotine'. The Nene Way marker showed the way across a bridge, and a couple of fields towards the Brafield Road. We took the road and turned left into Cogenhoe, now an attractive village on a hill above the Nene valley.

In a central position is a village sign erected by Cogenhoe and Whiston Parish Council . . . in commemoration of the millennium July 2000.


On four sides are pictures representing the history of the village, and  in the base there is a time capsule compiled by local children.

The pictures show local scenes, transport and the past industries of brick-making and shoe and boot manufacture.










There is an active local heritage society - Cogenhoe and Whiston Heritage Society .  
I also happened upon a blog entry about Cogenhoe Football Club  .

Cogenhoe church clock stands just after half past five, though it was late morning.

From Station Road turn left into Church Street, and follow the Nene Way signs through a small lane and gate into an open field.


When we left Cogenhoe I was surprised how high we had climbed above the river. It's only about 300 feet above sea-level and 100 feet above the valley, but there are lovely views over sloping fields of cows, and trees, and the path descends quite steeply to the Nene.  Over to the South East Whiston Church is prominent on the hillside.


By the river we found a great stash of ripe blackberries, the best so far this year, and pretty early.


Follow the river as it winds its way to Whiston Lock. At this point a man was sitting next to a boat  - la Sabatera. 
'You've found a nice quiet spot', I commented
'Not by choice,' he replied.  'Have you seen a boat making its way along here?'
He was stuck at the lock for the moment - but was 'rescued' as we saw him two or three times later. 


We crossed the river here and made our way towards Earls Barton.  The route includes a slightly hair-raising crossing of the A45 using a flimsy-feeling footbridge. Then along a track parallel to the road (B573) past a farm shop/garden centre and uphill towards Earls Barton.  Turn right and walk the length of the village. 


As you walk in the church tower is very striking.  The centre of the village is attractive, though it was impossible to get a view of the church again without going into the churchyard itself - there are huge trees in full leaf, and I think we'd have missed it if we'd arrived from the other direction.

We had lunch in Jeyes Apothocoffee shop's Walled Garden . Some interesting history on their website.

Lunch over, time to move. Just about the half-way point, we reckoned.  Loins girded, and packs backed we walked to the end of the village to Mill Lane.  We turned right and follwed the Nene Way down to Mill Farm and over the river, following the path between the river on our left and the lakes on our right.  

We didn't cross the bridge over the weir but continued on the right of the river to Hardwater Mill, where, according to Mia Butler in her book Exploring the Nene Way  a miller fell in the water and was drowned in 1309, and Thomas à Beckett called in on his way to France, after he escaped from Northampton Castle.

Hardwater Mill

The bridge takes the Nene Way  over the mill pond, which was teeming with fish

We followed the path over the bridges and to the right. At this point we went slightly off course by following a concrete track tot he right of the sewage farm. We were able to cut back and find the path with gates leading up hill to Great Doddington. The village has a  shop - handy for a cold drink, and a public area with a seat just across the road too.


On through Great Doddington, with a short diversion when we saw a sign for the Nene Way, followed it for a while, then decided it was leading us in the wrong direction - back to Cogenhoe.  The path we wanted is to the right shortly before the Stag's Head. 


It leads downhill through fields, and another mill where several boats were moored. 

The path stays on the left hand side of the river,  all the way to the Embankment.  We were overtaken by La Sabatera only to catch it up at Wellingborough Upper Lock.  
We refused to resist the temptation of an ice-cream before making for the car, and seeing another section of the walk completed.






Billing - Cogenhoe - Earls Barton - Great Doddington - Wellingborough

Braybrooke - Dingley - Brampton Ash - Braybrooke

Just under 8 miles. With Barry, Gordon and Maureen.  Quite wet, long spells of persistence, with drier spells at start and finish.  Walking through thigh-high fields of beans is a guaranteed recipe to soak trousers. Plenty of stiles, some slippery in the wet.  


We left Braybrooke from the road opposite the church.  We parked on the grass at side, just by a footpath sign, which takes you over a stile on the left.  We crossed the meadow diagonally, disturbing some of the cows which were lying down, to a point where we crossed the railway line. We continued to climb gradually crossing several arable fields, some with corn, and some which had been harvested recently, then more steeply to reach the A6.  We had to walk along this road for about half a mile. First we were welcomed by a sign into Leicestershire, the heart of rural England.  Soon afterwards we walked along the verge to a lay-by, full of trucks and a snack bar, and the smell of bacon butties. 


Shortly after the old Kettering Road from Harborough joins the road from the left, we turned right on another footpath. We followed this down hill and to the right along the side of a hill, just touching the edge of Dingley Warren wood, before making uphill for Dingley Lodge Hotel, on the main Corby-Harborough Road. 

Mud sticks to boots

Trust you to take a photograph now!

You can see from the photographs that the view would be pretty good on a clearer day,  but those fields were hard work, as our boots grew heavier with every step.


We walked up to the road, and followed it to the right into Dingley. After a short distance we turned left on to a small residential road which leads to Dingley Park.  A short way along this we turned right, past some stables and a dressage area, then continued through fields and short paths through hedge boundaries until we crossed a wheat field with a clear wide path, which took us to the Corby- Harborough Road again.   


The weather was starting to look even less friendly by now, so we had our snack break, before walking a short distance towards Brampton Ash, and taking a footpath to the right.  


So . . . behind the church, and Grange Farm, which now has a picture window extension with views over the valley, and out to the quiet road downhill.
The road turns to the right and a little further on we took a footpath to the left, leading down to farm outbuildings called 'Red Hovel' on the map. A quick google shows that 'hovel' can mean an open outbuilding for storage or for the use of cattle.


Next we climbed up to the ridge, where we turned right aiming for the edge of Hermitage Wood.  If there was a hermit, he was keeping himself very much to himself today - well out of the rain, I imagine.



We rejoined the minor road at a settlement called Hermitage Cottages, close to a roundabout on the A6.  We followed the footpath (Jurassic Way, Mid-shires Way, and Macmillan Way),through two large fields of wet beans to Braybrooke Lodge - another farm with several horses and foals and a dressage area.  Across the minor road, over stiles and underneath the railway line before making our way across the fields and back into Braybrooke, past bumps in the fields which are the remains of a castle, which was built in 1304, was the home of the Latymers and Griffins, but was destroyed by fire in the 1500s.

Braybrooke's Millenium Monument

We learnt something of the history of Braybrooke from the Millenium Monument and the information board near by.

Map and details

Foxton Locks - Lubenham - Foxton

Led by Barrie E. With Terry, Barry, Maureen, Norma, Kate and Sue. 5 and a half miles. Very warm, but no sun until we'd almost finished the walk. Dry underfoot. 


Pleasant walk with no hard climbing. We parked at the lower car park, near the pub etc. We walked up to the Top Lock crossed the Canal bridge and made our way across the fields towards Lubenham.
Through the playground in Lubenham.  I was interested to see what the garmin did with the stint on the swings and a couple of shots at the net/basket-ball goal.  Anyway after a short snack break we pressed on.  Across a couple of wheat fields with clear wide paths, we passed Gartree Prison way over on the left. We finally rejoined the canal where a footbridge crosses.  We turned left and followed the tow path, past the swing bridge for the road, and finally back to Foxton Locks.  Lunch at the pub.

Picture from 2008

More details later.


Map and details - click here

Nene Way 3 Sixfields to Billing

8.8 miles. One unintentional detour turned a mile or so of the walk into the A45 Way. Just about ok if you were cycling, but noisy and unpleasant for walking. Dry, fine, no sun today.

Lots of birdlife today - from terns hovering and diving, to several families of swans, moorhens with big-footed chicks, coots, a heron, and a flock of goldfinches taking off from a patch of teasels. Canada geese flying in a mob - how does an individual goose decide whether it'll join those on the wing or stay with the gang on the ground?

We started from Sixfields, crossed the road to Duston Mill Lane and walked down to the disused Mill and the path by the lakes of Storton’s Pits Nature Reserve. We saw terns hovering above the water and diving in – but my photographic skills weren’t up to capturing them, alas. `

Express Lift tower - the 'lighthouse'

The Express Lift Tower, otherwise known as the ‘lighthouse' is visible on the left for a large part of this section of the walk.  The area is left to grow pretty wild, and is an important wetland habitat

Chicory?

As we walked we noticed that the ‘lighthouse’ appeared to be on our right – we had walked round the end of one of the flooded gravel pits and missed a left turn where the Grand Union Canal Walk joins the Nene Way.  As much by luck as judgment we found the Canal Bridge where the Nene Way doubles back at a right angle then over a bridge with iron rails across the river and then turned right to walk under the railway viaduct.

The path continues at the back of a shopping centre, then under the A5123. At the Carlsberg brewery, with its silos, the path turns to the left and then back on the other side of a short channel.  There is a bridge, and the banks have several large willows. 

Looking over the Nene from behind the Carlsberg brewery

Shortly after this there is a long high wall which forms part of the flood defences. 

These decorative bricks are part of the flood defence wall in Northampton.

According to the plaque 'Local children from Delapre Middle School engraved the bricks using both the local environment and the celebration of the Queen's jubilee year as their themes.'

The plaque shows some of the industrial history of the Nene, and its importance as a commercial waterway, along with the nearby Grand Union Canal.

The Nene Way then goes into Beckett's Park

We followed the path over a footbridge and through the Barnes Meadow Nature Reserve and site of the Battle of Northampton in 1460

The path brought us to the Bedford Road, and what I imagine is part of the Nene Whitewater Centre. 

Bedford Road water control system - is this linked to the White Water centre? No one there when we walked by.

Just after this point we were diverted/distracted and followed signs for Billing via the cycle path.  A mile of the Nene Way we hope to come back to - away from the heavy traffic noise and smell of the A45! 

A welcome sight after our detour along the cycle path and through the shopping park.

A fine avenue of beech (?) trees in the area behind Riverside retail park.

moorings and huts along the river

Approaching Billing Aquadrome - spectacular gardens for mobile homes

Back to base . . .

A photo taken last week. Behind the pub at Billing.

Map and details

Saddington - Smeeton - Debdale round

With Maureen, Barry and Gordon. 8.5 miles approx.  Three and a half hours including pauses. Weather sunny and warm. 


We started from Saddington, and walked along the Smeeton Road to Bridge 72. I intended to take a footpath for part of the way, but we didn't notice it as we passed it.  Then along the canal and over Saddington Tunnel, 

North western end of Saddington Tunnel

descending to the tow path on the left of the canal.  We left the tow path at Fleckney Bridge, where we used the two hand gates and crossed the bridge, taking the path through Mill Field Wood at right angles to the canal here. 

By the Mill Field Wood millenium stone

Past the MM stone and across the fields to the Kibworth-Saddington Road, and over into the mud and gravel track which becomes Mill Lane just before entering Smeeton Westerby. 
We turned right into the village centre, then left at Debdale Lane.  We followed this past Bridge Farm and Bridge 67 cookery school. 

This ad was on an old container-cum-shed near the cookery school. I googled and it seems it has now gone out of production to the chagrin of many cooks.

 Through a farm gate and we followed the track uphill until we reached the canal. Just before the gate and stile we found an inviting patch of shade for a snack and water break.


At the canal we turned left toward Foxton, passing the large narrowboat yard at Debdale Wharf, under a couple of bridges. 

Fine display in a boat garden.

 We crossed the first footbridge over the canal.  We took the path along the right-hand edge of the field, and across another, past some farm buildings and uphill thorugh a field where they may or may not have been a bull - there was certainly a herd of creamy and white cows, along with a lone horse.


The path led uphill with Gumley Wood on our left, across rolling countryside - the hilliest and most scenic part of the walk was saved until the later stages.  We crossed the small road from Gumley to Debdale, a little way short of the junction. A brief walk through thistle and butterfly country cut off a corner, and we crossed the road from Gumley to Smeeton.

Thistle and butterfly country

The path is a track between two hedges, then turns right to follow the edges of fields, clearly marked and climbing gradually, until, just before Smeeton Gorse, the Leicestershire Round path from Gumley joins our path. A short steep climb over grass leads to the highest point, with good views and a strategically placed bench.  (To the right of this is HIll Farm, Smeeton Hill, according to the map.) We followed the Leicestershire Round path along the 'ridge' then downhill , crossing two footbridges and going through a number of stiles before climbing to Saddington where we emerged along an enclosed path into the village, directly opposite the well-hidden footpath sign I missed at the start of the walk.


Map and details

Smeeton Westerby and Fleckney (Saddington) Tunnel

Almost 4 miles.
Started from Bridge 72 on GU Canal.  

Along tow-path on right of canal, on top of tunnel, across Saddington - Kibworth Road,  down to the tow-path on the left as far as the next bridge,

 leave the canal through a hand gate, turn left and left again  across the bridge, walk up through Mill Field Wood, 

across two fields, across Saddington - Kibworth Road, along Mill Lane into Smeeton W.  Footpath between hedges, then through horses' field to the church.  Over the road and along the path through the allotments. 

 Across road and through the ginnel (large alsatian barking in garden). Followed the path past the houses and up to the canal. Along towpath to the bridge.


Weather fine, warm but dull. The sun made a feeble effort to shine, but not for long. Dry underfoot.

Map and details

Now to find an extra four miles or so for a group of us to do together!
I did this walk from Smeeton with Harry on July 17 2010.

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