Exton and Greetham, 25th May 205

Angela's 7½ mile walk started in The Green in Exton and took eighteen of us along the Viking Way up to Greetham for coffee near Jacob's Well.  We then followed the North Brook on its way to join the Rivers Gwash and Welland, through the Greetham Valley Golf Course and past the Fort Henry Lakes before turning west and heading back to Exton.

The start on The Green ...

... near the Fox & Hounds (temporarily closed)

Exton is most famous for its walking dragline in the nearby Exton Park Quarry, the 1400-tonne Sundew, built in the late 1950s and at the time the largest machine of its kind in the world.  Sundew rose to fame when it undertook a 21km trip to a new quarry near Corby in 1974. The whole trip took three months at a speed of 0.16km per hour and came to be known as the Great Walk

One of many fine buildings in Exton, name not known

Old Pump House in Exton, a Grade II Listed Building at the junction of the High Street and Top Street

Setting out on fine, dry tracks and footpaths

ALL YE WHO HITHER COME TO DRINK

REST NOT YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW

REMEMBER JACOBS WELL AND THINK

WHENCE “LIVING WATERS” FLOW

Crossing North Brook in Greetham

The Wheatsheaf, Greetham - lunch stop on a previous walk

The Old Mill on North Brook

Heading down the river valley

Lunch stop opposite Fort Henry in Exton Park.  The building is a pleasure-house built in 1788 in the Gothick style

Heading back to Exton

Epperstone, Lowdham and Thurgarton CP, 17th May 2025

Howard led 17 ramblers on a 7-mile walk exploring the high ground to the north-east of Epperstone.  Beginning at the Holy Cross Church, the walk took us firstly via the water meadows of the Dover Beck to Lowdham before we crossed the river to climb up to Bankwood Farm Airstrip on well marked field paths and tracks and on to Bankwood House for lunch.  Great views over the Trent Valley.

Thanks Howard, Steve and John for the map and photos.

The start on Main Street Epperstone

Fine topiary at Epperstone House

Setting out

The Hut. This impressive mansion on the brow of Eliment Hill north of Lowdham Church stands on the site of a home that was once made of old railway carriages!

Goslings near Lowdham Mill

Coffee stop

Our leader leads

Thurgarton Sheep Wash in Thurgarton Beck - thought to be the second-oldest surviving in Britain, dating from the late 17th century

Muffin Top Wood

Bankwood Farm Airstrip

Pond near Bankwood House

Lunch at Bankwood House.
"We're a small and friendly Group of the Nottinghamshire Area Ramblers Association based in the Vale of Belvoir"

Hartshorne and Calke Abbey, 11th May 2025

Paul's 9.8 mile walk attracted six VBR members and four visitors who learned about our walks on the Ramblers' website where we are publishing our walks again. In glorious weather, we started at the Village Hall car park opposite the Bull's Head in Hartshorne and enjoyed a  beautiful, undulating rural ramble around the National Forest, through woodland with lots of beautiful English bluebells.  Lunch was taken in the grounds of Calke Abbey.

The start in Hartshorne

Lots of bluebells in the woods near the start of the walk

Extensive tree planting in the National Forest.  Fine views back towards Nottingham

Approaching Calke Abbey

Lunch stop under a fine oak tree at Calke Abbey

Distant view of the church in Ticknall

Part of the Calke Abbey Tramway Trail

Strawberry fields forever

St Peter's Church, Hartshorne

Today's walk and Rab's 2017 route  Also shown is the Calke Abbey Tramway Trail which uses some of the old horse-drawn tramway that linked Ticknall to Ashby

Cotgrave Country Park and the Grantham Canal, 4th May 2025

Sue's 6.1 mile morning walk, starting at the Fosse Bridge car park near the old A46, took fifteen VBR members and four guests along the canal for a few hundred yards before leaving it to cross fields to reach Stragglethorpe Road.  This was followed as far as Colliers Way which we joined to enter the Country Park.  After a coffee stop, an excursion and a short climb took us up to Windmill Hill (51m) to view the landscape towards Nottingham before we dropped back down to the canal to follow it back to the start.

Heading off towards Foss Bridge under the old A46

Maythorn and cow parsley in abundance

Entering the Country Park

Dragonfly Lake

Click on these images to read them

Cotgrave Country Park is on the site of Cotgrave Colliery which was planned as a show colliery for British Coal. It closed in 1993 due to unsuspected geological faults

Restored lock in the Country Park

Windmill Hill

Return across Lock 11 of the Grantham Canal to the Fosse Bridge car park