Bardon Hill from Mount St Bernard's Abbey, 24th September 2023

Paul's 9.5- (or 8.1-) mile walk took sixteen of us from Mount St Bernard's Abby to Blackbrook Reservoir and through Charley and Bardon Civil Parishes to Bardon Hill, the highest point in Leicestershire at 278m.

Mount St Bernard's Abbey, a Cistercian monastery established in 1835

Paul briefs the troops

Leaving the Abbey grounds

Bridge at the upstream end of Blackbrook Reservoir. The reservoir was constructed in 1796 in order to feed the Charnwood Forest Canal which has long since vanished. The first dam constructed was an earthworks one and this failed on 20 February 1799. In eleven minutes much of Shepshed and nearby Loughborough were affected by flood waters. The present gravity dam was constructed in 1906. In 1957 the dam felt the effects of a magnitude 5.3 earthquake and cracks appeared in the faces of the dam

St James the Greater, Oaks in Charnwood - 

- coffee stop

Approaching the radio mast on top of Bardon Hill

Bardon Hill Quarry has been operated for over 400 years and produces three million tonnes of rock a year, 15% of UK output

The quarry exposes rocks from a Precambrian volcano as explained here

The view to the south west extends to over 5,000 square miles or one twelfth of England and Wales - but not today

More lunch on Bardon Hill

Leaving Bardon Hill in a fragment of the National Forest

Re-entering the Abbey Grounds at Abbey Lodge

The Abbey at the end in brighter weather

The shorter route in blue and the extension in red

Grimston, Ragdale, Hoby and Shoby, 17th September 2023

 Susie led 17 walkers on an 8 mile walk starting from Grimston Green. The walk took field paths to a coffee stop at All Saints Church at Ragdale. The lunch stop was at All Saints Church at Hoby before walking to Shoby and back to Grimston.

Grade II listed stocks at the start point on Grimston Green with a large menhir or standing stone behind.  This interesting site shows many more stones, actually glacial erratics, in Leicestershire similar to those seen in Gaddesby and Rearsby on earlier walks.  

Grimston Green

Our Leader and assistants

All Saints, Ragdale - coffee stop

All Saints, Hoby - lunch

Likely route

Frisby, Rotherby and Gaddesby, 10th September 2023

Starting at the Old Village Cross in Frisby, Elaine's 8½ mile walk took 14 ramblers towards Hoby to  cross and recross the River Wreake before stopping for coffee in Rotherby.  Then we pased through Brooksby to Gaddesby church for lunch, not diverting this time to see the erratic stone on which John Wesley once preached.  Field paths took us back to Frisby just as the heavens opened to bring some relief from the very high temperatures and humidity.

The start at the junction of Main Street and Water Lane

Setting off

First crossing of the Wreake

River Wreake looking downstream.  Site of old Hoby Lock

The Melton Mowbray Navigation was formed when in 1797 the River Wreake was made navigable upstream to Melton Mowbray from its junction with the River Soar near Syston.  Largely river navigation, there were numerous lock cuts, to accommodate the 12 broad locks built along its length.  The canal continued as far as Oakham along the valley of the River Eye

Distant view of Hoby, high above the Wreake Valley

Riverside properties

Waterhouse Bridge, 1794

(Most of) the group on Waterhouse Bridge

All Saints, Rotherby - coffee

Brooksby Hall, now merged with Brooksby Melton College

What you all missed!  A large glacial Ice Age erratic, known locally as the Blue Stone, from which John Wesley preached when visiting Gaddesby.  Suspiciously similar to another nearby erratic where John Wesley preached when visiting Rearsby

St Luke's, Gaddesby - lunch

Fine floral display at the church

The Cheney Monument inside the church.  Colonel Cheney had four horses shot from under him at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815

Field of buckwheat in flower and its characteristic arrow-head leaf

And three weeks later - going to seed

Willoughby on the Wolds and Wysall, 3rd September 2023

 An excellent turnout (21) on a very warm day for Angela's 5.4-mile walk.  From the church in Willoughby, we followed the Wolds Way/Midshires Way alongside Kingston Brook to Wysall for a short break before returning through fields to Willoughby.

St Mary and All Saints, Willoughby.  Click here to hear the bells

The group on the Wolds Way to Wysall

Holy Trinity, Wysall
Wysall is one of forty one Thankful Villages that did not suffer any fatalities during the Great War of 1914 to 1918