Rutland Water on the bike

A ride round the water on an autumn afternoon. Just the one photo of this tree in Normanton car park.

An antidote to the grey photographs from yesterday!

Braceborough, Greatford, Shillingthorpe Park

 Sat, 2015 Oct 10 1:19 PM BST.
Recce for part of a possible longer walk. Grey, but dry and good conditions underfoot. Just over 4 miles.

Braceborough Church

Braceborough has an interesting past. According to Wikipedia

Braceborough Spa, rising in the grounds of Spa House,^[4] was popular in the Victorian era for its natural spring waters. A bath house was built in 1841, and Doctor Willis treated George III here for his 'madness'. His royal patient stayed in a wing of Shillingthorpe Hall nearby, now demolished; there is a tablet in Greatford Church commemorating his stay. 

Shillingthorpe Hall was built in 1796, possibly as an extension of the asylum at Greatford Hall run by Dr Willis.

The walk was taken from an article by Will Hetherington in Rutland Active magazine.

I parked near the church and I extended the walk a little at the start, by taking the footpath  east which joins the farm track, instead of the path directly across the field heading southeast. They both join the Macmillan Way, though it's not brilliantly signposted. This takes you to the road into Greatford. If you wish to visit the church you will need to make a short detour from this route. See pictures from this previous walk. (That route is not possible, since the footpath over the railway has been closed.)

In Greatford, turn right into Greatford Gardens and walk along to the end, where the gates and boundary of Greatford Hall are protected with some vicious looking razor wire.  Follow the footpath to your right, and then left through the trees. Turn right at the end of the woods. This is where I saw a few fallow deer on the field nearby.  I've seen them around here before.

They stood and watched me briefly before moving off.

You follow the edge of the field for a short distance before turning left and across fields to the path through Shillingthorpe Park.  I met a group of walkers using the same footpath - this doesn't often happen round here.

The house, where George III is said to have stayed, and which was used as a convalescence home during the Second World War was demolished after the war, and the parkland is mainly used for cattle.  The track runs uphill through the woods and on to open fields with views to the east.

Tractors have been busy ploughing recently, but only one of these paths was across a field, and that one dry.

The path leads down to the Greatford to Carlby Road.

Cross this and take the quiet road back into Braceborough.

When I was there there were lots of free apples and pears on offer - one with the sign:

"Help yourself, but if you use the ladders it is your responsibility." Another requested donations for the Leicester and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

I also had a brief chat with a beekeeper, who unfortunately had no honey with him to sell, but was moving bees.

Map and details

Cranford and Grafton Underwood

Mon, 5 Oct 2015 9:36 BST

Carol, Tommy, Terry, Maureen and Gordon and me. A drizzly grey day, but we didn't get soaked. The recently ploughed fields were rather hard going. Lunch at Old Forge. A bit under 7 miles.

A grey day, and not much temptation to take photos.  We covered parts of the previous routes around here.

From the Old Forge Tearoom we walked along Top Dysons, and through the fields following the bridleway until just before the Grange. Here we turned right, roughly northeast, and continued for about a mile in this direction. At a point where there is a concrete post we turned left, heading slightly north of west, crossing a section of lime tree avenue again, until we met the road on a bend.

We turned right and walked for a few hundred yards beside the road, turning left at the next bend along a farm track. A few yards along, just after a hedge we went through a gate to a footpath on the right. this goes diagonally to a gap in the hedge, then we had to cross two ploughed fields. (Note for future reference - aim more or less for the opposite corner of the second field to find the waymarked path.) These fields were still reasonably dry.

Here we went through a gap in the hedge and then by the left hand side of a small wooded area and another couple of ploughed fields. These were getting sticky in the drizzle, so we were pleased to walk along the side of the next field, again by some trees. No alternative in the next field though, but this was a short stretch.

We managed to avoid ploughed fields by following the edges, and on one occasion taking a half-blocked path through a hedge.  The photos make it look worse than it was. Really!

The alternative was to retrace our steps, and I am loth to do that! 

We made our way past some slightly skittish horses and took a break in Grafton Underwood, once more attended by ducks and the little cat from six weeks ago

Rather than face yet more mud we walked back to Cranford along the roads - which are fairly quiet. 

The Old Forge does a good soup and substantial sandwiches which were very welcome. A short walk, but enough considering weather and conditions in some of the fields.

Map and details

A brief walk near the Welland from Stamford

Sunday 4th October - on a sunny afternoon.

This began as a simple stroll from the Meadows, but in beautiful weather we kept on going.

From the footbridge - Broadeng Bridge

Autumn colours and reflections

Burrs and berries

Himalayan balsam

Teasels

The Stamford Spa, restored in 1994 . . . and almost forgotten since then?

The stone head - I had no idea this spa existed

Tree in the town

Albert Bridge

Evening approaching

Lowick, Drayton Park, Slipton, Twywell circular

Thu, 2015 Oct 1 9:22 AM BST

With Maureen and Gordon. Beautiful day - early mist then sunshine - dry underfoot. About 6.5 miles.

This walk is much the same as Monday's,  but in reverse and with some of the moonstruck meanderings straightened out . . .

We set off from Drayton Road in Lowick once more, this time walking along the road as it passed several houses, then going through the gate where the private road and public footpath begin.
A gentle climb brought us to Drayton House, which looked splendid as the last morning mist began to lift.

The avenue is a continuation of the present day road

We followed the private road as it made its way down towards Slipton. Autumn fruits hung in the bushes. 

 Some fine chickens were ranging freely

 Fields were freshly ploughed. Luckily we were not walking over these!

The tractor was still ploughing.

When we reached Slipton, we turned left and walked as far as the pub (The Samuel Pepys). 

More apples

A eucalyptus tree

 Just over the road from the pub is a footpath which we took through a field with horses. This led to the bend in a road, where there is also a footpath to the left along the hedge. The footpath comes out near Manor Farm, where the llama/alpacas are, then out on the road in Twywell. 

 We turned right along the road for a short distance before taking the footpath to Hills and Dales. The path skirts the back of the gardens in the village, and by keeping to our left we emerged near Monday's field of strange sheep and out at the other end of the village, near cottages called Cyprus Row.  Here is a fine bench on a patch of grass - an ideal point for contemplation and coffee and a scone.

From Twywell we had to walk along the road for about a mile - it's a road with little traffic, but rather spoiled by the noise from the nearby A14, hidden behind trees. At the junction with the road towards Slipton we turned left and quickly right on to the footpath we used on Monday. We followed this as it widened into a bridleway as far as the large locked agricultural building. 

One of the commas we saw

Red admiral

Starlings on the wires

A wide track between autumn hedges

A shaggy inkcap 

The path should go straight on and then left from here, but we went left then right to end up in the same place - there's a waymarker just before you cross a farm road. Then the path cuts across a field to the right hand edge of a wooded area, and follows the field edge round to the right to a footbridge over the brook.

A different view of Lowick church

Colourful trees

The footbridge

After the bridge we turned slightly left and walked gently uphill towards the road. We turned left and walked along Main Street back to Drayton Road. 
A better walk than Monday's - we missed out a couple of muddy sections and some ploughed fields!

Map and details

A week away - not country walks, but lots of walking

A week in Rome proved to be even more enjoyable than I'd expected, from the apartment near the Mercato Trionfale to the miles we walked during the week - most days eight or nine.
If you're interested there are lots of snippets and pics on my other blog 

Lowick, Twywell, Drayton Park

Mon, 2015 Sep 28 10:09 AM BST

With Maureen and Gordon. Late start after eclipse! Moonstruck leader wandered a little before finding the way. Around 7 miles in beautiful weather.

We parked on Drayton Road, near Mill Lane, then took Main Street out of the village.

Lowick "cathedral"

A door to the "Old George"

 We walked south out of Lowick, past Robb's Lane to where a footpath goes to the right, shortly before Aldwincle Rd on the left. The path crossed a field and a footbridge. At this point we must have missed a path straight ahead, since we did a detour around the field, and ended up slightly too far south, before making our way back. Eventually we were heading south west, parallel to Drayton Road, along a "byway" past a large locked farm building.
After crossing a farm road, the byway became trickier to follow, but we made our way, turning south, to the junction of the roads to Twywell and Slipton.  A large block of concrete , close to some splendid blackberries made a good place to stop for a break.

The juiciest fruit is always just out of reach - luckily for the birds.

 We took the Twywell road for almost a mile - it's noisy because it's very close to the A14, but there is not much traffic on the road itself.  We couldn't find the path behind the village to the south west - we had a couple of tries to find it from the Hills and Dales path, but gave up and hit the road instead.

Toll Cottage with its rounded wall

I thought this gal and her mate were pigs from a distance!

 When we came out of the village we took a footpath to the right,leading past Manor Farm, intending to turn left and join the path to Slipton. 

 More llama/alpacas . . .

 Our path took us north east and down into a deep cutting.

 We decided to follow this path and miss out Slipton on our way to Drayton Park. There were a couple of recently ploughed fields - at least the mud was dry, but they were quite tough going.

One field down, one to go!

After this we followed the edges of more fields and came on to a wide track just beyond Home Farm. We had to continue in the same north easterly direction, and the track took us to Drayton House, turning south east briefly, then north east again and downhill all the way back into Lowick.

 According to the Historic Houses Association, visits can be arranged at a price, and minimum group size 12. They describe it as still very much a family home, as it has been for 1000 years!  More info here.

Another enjoyable walk in spectacularly good weather.

Map and details