Vale of Belvoir Ramblers: September 2021

Nether Broughton and Long Clawson, 26th September 2021

Fiona led nineteen ramblers on a 7.3 mile walk starting from Nether Broughton church up Slyborough Hill to Long Clawson for a coffee stop next to the village water pump. Later we passed Mill Farm with its resident windmill.

Walkers interacted with alpacas, shire horses and young bullocks, with Phil demonstrating his ‘cow whispering’!

We passed through Howell Mouth and took lunch in open fields before returning via Bleak Hills to Nether Broughton. It was a hot sunny day and many walkers enjoyed an ice cream from the van at the finish.

Fiona briefs us

St Mary the Virgin Church

Our leader(s)

Village pump, Long Clawson

Long Clawson Windmill at Mill Farm showing the characteristic Lincolnshire-style cap

Shire horses

Alpacas

Lunch stop

Good to see our back markers

If I could talk to the animals, just imagine it

Ices

This image shows thumbnails of Steve's photos (above) superimpsed on an OpenStreetMap. The images had been geotagged by his smartphone which adds latitude and longitude data to the files' metatdata

Hoby, Rotherby, Rearsby and Ratcliffe, 19th September 2021

Maggie and Glen's walk, a repeat of a mid-week walk in 2020, took twenty seven VBR members and five guests from Gedling up and down the Wreake Valley from The Blue Bell Inn in Hoby to follow the Leicestershire round to Rearsby for coffee. The group split with eighteen returning to Hoby via Rotherby whilst the others continued down the Wreake to Ratcliffe returning to Rearsby for lunch and then to Rotherby and Hoby.

The start outside the Blue Bell

Old mill house on the Wreake

Packhorse Bridge over Rearsby Brook. The original wooden bridge would have been medieval, but was replaced in 1714 by the one we can see today

Coffee stop for all the group in Rearsby and lunch stop later for some

Rearsby Mill

Entrance to Ratcliffe Water Mill

Maize

Brooksby Hall, a late 16th century manor house

All Saints Church Rotherby - rest stop

Waterhouse Bridge

This beautiful brick bridge was built in 1794 by the Melton Mowbray Navigation Company as part of work to make the River Weake navigable from Syston, where it joins the Leicester Navigation, to Melton Mowbray where it linked with the Oakham Canal

Leicestershire Round in green

Bourton on the Water, 11th, 12th and 13th September 2021

For this year's Weekend Away, twenty two VBR members and friends stayed at HF's Harrington House in Bourton on the Water for a three-day programme, organised by Sue, with five walks led by Sue, Elaine, Gordon, Rab and Dave. And a quiz and raffle courtesy of Dave and Sue!

Saturday 11th September

The Slaughters and Naunton, 10.5 miles & Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter, 5.6 miles