Gayton, Tiffield, Astcote and Eatcote Circular Walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This walked was originally planned on the the one in 'Northamptonshire walks' (number 110) As is often the case things don't always go according to plan...

I realised on arrival in Gayton that I had forgotten to pack my trusty Ordnance Survey map, a cardinal sin indeed.I did have some abbreviated notes about the route we needed to follow though. There was the promise of seeing four Churches if we stuck closely to the details provided.

At least we saw one early on in Gayton, the Church of St Mary. very early church with a Norman tower incorporating a late Saxon door case and internally a Norman font. The main body of the church though dates from the 13th / 14th centuries.

We started off correctly, facing the church and walking down the Blisworth Road t leave the village. 

 

Old sheep has seen it all before

We leave the road after some old railway cottages. The path is quite overgrown, something we will see a lot of today. An old sheep sheltering by it's shed is quite unperturbed by our presence. There are some large Badger setts too that are potential leg breakers. 

Leaving the path we pick up the 'Northampton Round' to our right. To our left is the old railway bridge over steep drop to the valley below. 

We emerge by a lovely house 'Gayton Wilds' and continue on the Tiffield Road. We are supposed to see signs for a 'Pocket Park' anytime  now...one that never arrived. The road takes us all the way to Tiffield. We continue on to the village church of St John the Baptist. The church dates from the 13th century & quite possibly replaced a wooden Saxon church which existed on the site when the Domesday Book was written in 1086. As with the church in Gayton there is also a Commonwealth War Grave. 

'Gayton Wilds'

Although not particularly sunny it was very humid and quick pit stop was needed to take on some fluid.

We back track slightly turning left at Meadow Rise and picking up the track along a narrow passageway. We emerge along the Gayton Road, this is where it all started to go wrong. Not having a map didn't help the situation very much. 

My notes said we needed to head towards Caldecote going past a cattery? There was no sign of the stated cattery, not a miaow to be heard. I was trying to navigate from the 'Strava' app on the phone which didn't show footpaths. 

We did take a path towards Caldecote but we were continuously met with dead ends and no obvious paths. As you can see from the map there was a lot of 'zig zagging'  about. We had to climb over a barbed wire fence at one stage to get on a marked footpath. We resorted to heading towards the A5 Road as a bearing point. 

At last a decent clear footpath

Lost in the long grass under the power lines

Walking up the side of the A5 the famous Watling St wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. It is one of Britain's greatest arterial roads of the Roman and post-Roman periods. We take the first opportunity to take a footpath leading off though. Compared to the previous ones this is pure bliss, clearly marked and the Farmer has cleared of any crops. We are on our way to Astcote and back on track!

Passing the village Green and Red phone box we pass through some gates and stiles close to private properties. Unfortunately the footpaths deteriorate once again. Two fields of Oil Seed Rape is almost at head height. Thankfully the bright yellow flowers have now gone to seed. 

We emerge further up on the A5. The route crosses the A5 towards Cold Higham. We decide to miss this part because we are running behind schedule. Instead we follow Banbury Lane into Eastcote. Rather than more fields we walk up the hill into the village. We are back on the planned route again!

At the top of the hill, close to where you leave the village is a path on the left. We are on the way back to Gayton! 

We then pass through a farmyard and into large open fields and Gayton is visible on top of the hill in the distance.

There are some beautiful views around here, although my walking companion takes some convincing as fatigue has set in ....The uphill finish is not welcomed lets just say. 

   

It has certainly been a disjointed walk at times that is for sure. Although given the lack of a map I think we haven't done too badly all things considered.
In total a distance of some 11.60 miles. A walk I shall definitely try again in the future to try and put right where I went wrong this time hopefully?

 

Commonwealth War Graves