Vale of Belvoir Ramblers: January 2019

Map of Walks Programme, Summer 2019

The map below shows the locations of the start points of our walks in Summer 2019. On desk tops and laptops you can hover over or click on the dots for the date and name of the walk and zoom in or pan for more detail. Blue dots are Evening Strolls.
Zoom in and scroll for more detail and hover over points to see date and location

Barton in Fabis, Thrumpton, Gotham and Clifton, 27th January 2019

John's walk took 19 of us from the church Barton in Fabis, through Thrumpton, across the A453 and over Gotham Hill Wood to Gotham along the so-called Wise Men's Ways walk. The return was across Barton Moor and Clifton Pasture to Clifton Village and then back along the Trent Valley to Barton.

The start in Barton in Fabis

Snowdrops at St George's Church

A familiar sight peeping over the hill

All Saints' Church, Thrumpton

Unusual war memorial displaying a young soldier, dressed in the uniform he would have worn in 1914

Thrumpton Hall Entrance Gate

Early lunch at The Pump (formerly known as the Well House). Until 1933, the only source of fresh water to Gotham village was through the pump.

Wind vane near the centre of the village displaying the legends of Gotham and featuring Batman climbing up the side

Gotham is most famed for the stories of the "Wise Men of Gotham". These depict the people of the village as being stupid. However, the reason for the behaviour is believed to be that the villagers wished to feign madness to avoid a Royal Highway being built through the village

Heading down alongside Gotham Hill towards Barton Moor in the mud

Late lunch at Clifton Dovecote. This eighteenth century brick building used to provide for 2,300 nesting boxes

Distant view of Beeston Weir from the path back to Barton, south of the Trent

Launde Abbey and Braunston in Rutland, 20th January 2019

Richard led 28 walkers on this rolling, (360m of ascent) 9-mile walk from Launde Abbey, past Launde Park Wood to cross the Leicestershire / Rutland boundary, past Priors Coppice and on to Braunston-in-Rutland.

The route makes use of the many long distance paths criss-crossing this part of the world including the Leicestershire Round, the Rutland Round, the Macmillan Way and the Leighfield Round.

Briefing outside Launde Abbey

Launde Abbey is used as a conference and retreat centre by the Church of England dioceses of Leicester and Peterborough. And it has a tea shop!

Just about to lose the sun

Chapter Farm, Braunston dates back to the 15th century

Lunch at All Saints' Church, Braunston

The Braunston Goddess - the one in the middle.
This stone which stands in the churchyard was found in about 1920 when the church doorstep needed to be replaced. It may have had an apotropaic purpose.

Stathern and Belvoir Castle, 16th January 2019

Twenty one on Glen's 8½ mile walk below the Belvoir Ridge to the Castle and back along the Terrace Hills and Jubilee Way.

Glen gives the briefing in Stathern

On the Jubilee Way

Looking back at Stathern

Sugar beet and wind turbines near Newark

In 1588 , a chain of beacons was laid throughout the land ready to give the alert at the first sight of the Spanish Armada. Belvoir, being the highest point in Leicestershire was one of these sights. This hill is still called Beacon Hill. The occasion was immortalised in the poem by Lord Macauley (1832):
And Belvoir's lordly terraces
The sign to Lincoln sent
And Lincoln sped the message
On o'er the wide Vale of Trent

Looking across the Vale towards Bottesford

Coffee stop

Then the rain - Belvoir Castle in the distance

Creswell Crags and Welbeck, 13th January 2019

Sue's 8-mile walk started in the limestone gorge of Creswell Crags and went via the hamlet of Belph along field paths and quiet roads to the Welbeck Abbey estate.

The start at the Creswell Crags Museum & Heritage Centre

The caves in the gorge were occupied during the last ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago and contained the northernmost cave art in Europe

Pin Hole Cave on the north side of the gorge

Whitwell Quarry produces approximately 1 million tonnes of high purity dolomitic limestone per year

Lunch on the logs at Manor Hills

Entrance to the tunnel at South Lodge, Welbeck, built for the 5th Duke of Portland

The line of one of the Duke's 10km of tunnels

Wysall and Willoughby on the Wolds, 6th January 2019

Paul led nineteen ramblers on a 5½ mile morning walk from Wysall towards Willoughby and close to the site of the medieval village Thorpe in the Glebe. The conditions were sunny and dry underfoot.