It has been a while since I last did a local walk, time to put that to rights. A good friend of mine wanted to have a look at the Church in Easton Maudit so a shortish walk was planned. The starting point today is the village of Grendon or 'Grenrian' as the locals call it. I've often seen seen a footpath sign in Grendon and wondered where it goes to? Today is the day I will find out. The path in question is just over the way from the Crown Inn. It is down a narrow alley that could easily be missed. Passing through the gate the view then opens up across the meadow towards Castle Ashby. We cross over the stile into the next field which has been ploughed. The footpath is straight through but hasn't been marked. We decide to take the longer route around the field edge. Far less muddy too.
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We make our way round to where the path would have come out. We follow the road that takes us past Castle Ashy House to our right. There are lots of fishing lakes around the estate. There is also a large lake designated for open water swimming. Something I've quite fancied having a go at for the health benefits. We make a detour to have a closer look. Looks as though a couple have been in already and warming up. We meet a chap on our way back who extols the many benefits of open water swimming. Definitely something I will come back to , albeit it when it has warmed up a bit...
The road takes us to a T junction, at which we turn right before taking the footpath through the hedge on the left. There is the sound of a Woodpecker in the distance, we later see a pair with their distinctive flight pattern. We are well on the way towards Easton Maudit
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| Castle Ashby Swimming Lake |
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It's a lovely stretch of the walk, wide open spaces, Skylarks singing and best of all blue skies and sunshine. Continuing on the footpaths we arrive in Easton Maudit. I've done a couple of walks in this area before. We leave the fields and head up into the village where the Church of St Peter and St Paul comes into view.The graveyard of course has a famous resident; the Actor and Wit 'Derek Nimmo' who did once lie in the village. I'm pleased to see the remains of the gnarly old Oak tree are still there.It is just about hanging on with plenty of support to keep it upright
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Easton Maudit Church
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We leave the Church turning right and take the the footpath marked by some beautiful 'Cedar of Lebanon' trees. The path is very obvious and takes us past some old farm buildings. Plenty of old Owl pellets scattered around under the beams. No sign of any Owls today though sadly. The path then sweeps to the left in the direction of Grendon. Once again we walk around the field edge, we should really have gone diagonally to find the footbridge. After a bit of searching we did eventually find the path.
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St Mary's Church Grendon
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We cross a couple of horse paddocks before arriving back in Grendon. We pass the Church which is open and take a little look inside.Originally built in the 12th century, the nave arcades and the chancel were rebuilt between 1368 and 1380,
with the clerestory being added in the 15th century along with the
four storey tower. It has been a cracking little walk, a total of around 6 miles covered.
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