 |
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 |
