Exton, Empingham and Rutland Water, 30th July 2023

Angela's 8¼ mile walk started outside the Fox and Hounds on The Green in Exton and took twenty one of us on field paths and tracks to Empingham and then on to Rutland Water for lunch, returning through the village of Whitwell.

The start in Exton

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

Setting off down Blacksmiths Lane

One of many fields of crops .... 

... oilseed rape, wheat, linseed and wild flowers

Taking a breather

Empingham Dovecote

St Peter's Church, Empingham

Approaching Rutland Water for lunch

Rutland Water's new Aquatic centre

St Michael and All Angels Church, Whitwell and a local celebrity (yours for £99, a saving of 99p, from Discount Garden Statues)

Looking back at Whitwell Village

Before and after

And a welcome drink at the Fox and Hounds

Lambley Dumbles, 25th July 2023

Starting at the Lambley Village Hall on Catfoot Lane, Sue's 4½ mile walk took us alongside one of the Lambley Dumbles and then up to high ground between Lambley and Woodborough with fine views over towards Epperstone and the Belvoir Ridge.

Fine views in evening sunshine

Crossing Lambley Top Dumble

Hungarton and Quenby, Lowesby and Baggrave Halls, 23rd July 2023

 Rab led sixteen of us on this 7-mile walk past three Leicestershire halls, at Quenby, Lowesby and Baggrave, all set in rolling parkland.  The walk also passed the sites of  four medieval villages , now no more than a series of bumps and depressions in fields.  There are many such sites in the East Midlands most of which have  become deserted through a combination of epidemics and the spread of sheep farming which required fewer workers than arable farming.

Paul took a slightly different route in December 2019 but in the opposite direction which went closer to Quenby Hall.

St John the Baptist, Hungarton - the start

Setting off along Church Street, Hungarton

Quenby Hall is a Jacobean house in parkland.  It is described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "the most important early-seventeenth century house in the county ".  The Hall is Grade I listed, and the park and gardens Grade II, by English Heritage

Quenby Hall

All Saints Church, Lowesby

Lowesby Hall, a large Grade II* Georgian mansion

Baggrave Hall, an 18th-century Grade II listed country house

Edwinstowe and Sherwood Forest, 16th July 2023

 

Scott took the Magnificent Seven on a 10-mile walk starting in the RSPB car park in Edwinstowe, up to Budby Heath and almost to the River Meden, returning round the edge of Sherwood Forest to the Visitor Centre.

Cattle on Budby Heath - the other side of the fence fortunately

Budby Heath, historic heathland wilderness, once part of an ancient hunting forest but now a quite different landscape

Lunch stop

The Centre Tree

The iron cross with the inscribed stone was placed here by the Duke of Portland in 1912 and marks the location of a ruined chapel or shrine and is dedicated to the dark-age King of Northumbria, Edwin, who was killed at the Battle of Hatfield in 632 AD

The Major Oak was renamed in honour of Major Hayman Rooke in 1806. To celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth, the Miner2Major Project, The Sherwood Forest Trust, Mansfield Woodhouse Heritage Link and Ramblers have created a new Heritage Walking Trail in Mansfield Woodhouse.  See also this interesting video about Sherwood Forest and other local areas

Group at the Major Oak

Robin Hood fights Little John

Cricket at Edwinstowe

Radcliffe on Trent and Shelford Evening Stroll, 12th June 2023

Starting at the Grange Hall, Radcliffe on Trent, Rab led this 5-mile walk out along Cliff Path above the River Trent, then on Stoke Ferry Lane to Shelford and back along field paths and the Cliff Path.

Coffee stop at St Peter and St Paul's Church, Shelford

Rainy sunset, looking across the River Trent from the Radcliffe Cliff Path

Goadby Marwood to Eaton, Eastwell and Wycomb, 9th July 2023

Steve D led 13 ramblers (and Carrie the dog) on an 8-mile walk starting in Goadby Marwood across flat fields to Eaton for coffee next to St Denys Church. The day was cooler than recent days and less humid. The walk progressed across more fields to Eastwell where lunch was taken in the seating area at the Village Hall. The final section was along more field paths back to Goadby.

Steve points out the risks of today's walk

Today's Leader, photographer and blogger

Memorial to the crew of a Lancaster bomber that came down midway between Goadby and Eaton in 1942

St Denys Church, Eaton - coffee break

Eastwell Village Hall - lunch

Goadby Marwood Village Hall

The thirteenth-century St Denys Church, Goadby Marwood - the start and finish.  This is one of the seven Ironstone Churches of Leicestershire - Chadwell, Eastwell, Eaton, Goadby Marwood, Scalford, Stonesby and Waltham on the Wolds