Stamford and Barnack, 26th March 2017

Phil's walk today started at Barnack Hills and Holes Nature Reserve before heading north to Stamford and back through Burghley Park.  Here are some photographs.  

The hummocky landscape of the Hills and Holes was created by quarrying for limestone. The stone, known as Barnack Rag, was a valuable building stone first exploited by the Romans over 1500 years ago.  Quarrying continued in mediaeval times when the Abbeys at Peterborough, Crowland, Ramsey, Sawtry and Bury St. Edmunds all used Barnack stone.

River Welland

Route of the 9½ mile (15.3 km) Stamford Canal to Market Deeping - one of the earliest post-Roman canals in England. It opened in 1670, around 100 years before the start of the Industrial Revolution.

St Leonard's Priory - jointly refounded by William the Conqueror and the Bishop of Durham in about 1082

River Welland in Stamford

View of Stamford from Burghley Park

Burghley Park - on Ermine Street

Frisby on the Wreake, 19th March 2017

Today's walk, led by Sue, explored the Wreake Valley between Frisby, Asfordby and Kirby Bellars.

Start in Frisby

Crossing the Wreake

The ironstone spire of Saint Peter's Church, Kirby Bellars

Crossing Priory Water Nature Reserve

Alongside the Wreake

Cotgrave, 15th March 2017

Try out this new facility - church bells!

Here are a few photos, thanks to Bill, from Brenda's walk from Cotgrave with Brian as back-marker. The weather was excellent with evidence of Spring bursting into life.  Lunch at Grannies' Tearoom completed a perfect day's walking.

All Saints Church, Cotgrave

Church Lane, Cotgrave

Tollerton

Hoe Hill

Normanton on the Wolds

Alpacas

Wolds Lane

Notts Wolds Way

Farm Shop, Clipston

Boot Pit Wood

Distant view of airport and south Nottingham

Back to All Saints Church, Cotgrave

Huthwaite and Hardwick, 12th March 2017

Steve led this10½ mile walk starting at the Brierley Forest Park in Huthwaite.  The park takes its name from the former colliery on the site, officially known as Sutton Colliery but known locally as Brierley Pit after the Staffordshire miners who came from the area of Brierley Hill to sink the pit in the early 1870s.

The start

The walk climbed on good tracks up Silverhill, the highest point (almost) in the county at 204.3 metres.  Originally it was a mine spoil heap on the site of the former colliery of the same name which closed in the 1990s.  The summit is crowned with a bronze statue Testing for Gas, a kneeling coal miner with a Davy lamp.  Listed on the base are the names of the principal collieries in the county 1819–2005.

Spring flowers in Teversal

Approaching Hardwick Hall

Lunch was taken in the Stable Yard of Hardwick Hall ...

... before leaving the grounds past the stone masons' cottage.

Looking back at the Hardwick Estate