Pitsford Water again

With Marta. About 6.5 miles. Rain before we started, but we stayed dry.

Autumn colours

Euonymus - the spindle tree - poisonous berries

Lapwings

Pitsford Water clockwise from Causeway.

Mon, 2015 Oct 19 9:55 AM BST.

With Maureen. Drizzle stopped as we started walking. Pleasant, dry. Cloudy .6.8 miles.

Lots of waterfowl on the reservoir. Lapwings lining up below the causeway.

The colours look subdued under the grey sky.

Brightness and blue sky as I reached home!

Autumnal walk at Fineshade

A short walk on Sunday Oct 18th. 

At the feeders there were plenty of tits - mainly bluetits and coal tits with great tits and one willow or marsh tit. We saw a jay flying into the trees. 

Braceborough, Shillingthorpe Park and Wilsthorpe

Mon, 2015 Oct 12 9:35 AM BST

With Gordon, on a fine autumn morning. Excellent underfoot, good views. Around 9 miles. Some sections of quiet road.

We set off from the church and walked along the road out of the village (signposted Greatford) to the main Greatford to Carlby Road. 

Braceborough Church spire with a blue sky background

Another thatch animal

At that point we took the footpath next to the road sign which heads gently up the mini-hill, round the field the farmer was working in, across one dry ploughed field

The farmer is busy

 and into the woods of Shillingthorpe Park.

Heading into Shillingthorpe wood.

Shillingthorpe Hall was used as an asylum for the insane, and a convalescence home during WW2.  It was demolished soon after the second world war. For an old photograph and some information see here.

More subtle autumn colours

We turned left and followed the track through the woods, past some lying-down cattle and down over the River.

River West Glen in Shillingford Park

The path comes out opposite a private road. We turned right and walked past the level crossing. There is a notice saying that the authorities are considering closing the crossing altogether - probably to reduce accidents. (More of this later).
We continued along the road until we reached a by-way leading to a ford, which now has a footbridge, and then a bridge over the railway.

Near the "ford" by the footbridge over the main line

After negotiating these, we followed a bridleway northward, mostly along field boundaries and very clear. There are fine wide views all around, but not very eye-catching for the camera.  This was the highest ground on the walk, and certainly caught the wind today.  We found a sheltered spot in the sun for a break, before continuing to the road between Greatford and Carlby. 

A few hundred yards along the road we were able to turn left on another footpath, just after Grange Farm. It looks as though the path should go diagonally over the field, but two sides of the triangle round the edge were much simpler. It passes south of Braceborough Wood, which is accessible to the public, then heads east over the fields to Braceborough, close to Spa Road.

Here we were tempted by free apples, and fell into conversation with the owner of the house. He recommended a couple of nearby walks, including one to the Bowthorpe Oak, which has to go on the "to see" list. 
He also said that when the level crossing mentioned above is closed, there will be an alternative route for walkers. The Macmillan Way uses the route. 

We followed one of his recommendations and extended our planned walk by another mile or two, by walking out of the village on Spa Road, as far as the old Station House, taking the drive to Spa Farm, and finding our way from there on to the disused railway - this is not an official public footpath, but makes a pleasant walk, once you've found your way down to the track.

Dismantled railway track from Braceborough Spa

Not quite as bad as it looks! Bridge over East Glen River

 We left the railway track at the road into Wilsthorpe, turning right past Gate house, Waterworks Farm and Coombe Farm Kennels, passing the road to Braceborough, walking as far as the church. There was an exhibition in the church, but we didn't visit it today.

Wilsthorpe Church

Instead we went along the footpath opposite, to our right, which took us over fields, and across the East Glen River, then turned right along a farm track which took us back to Braceborough Church.

Braceborough church, still sunny

Map and details

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.

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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