Walgrave Circular Walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a few weeks since I posted a local walk so time to put that right. Starting 'up the road' in the village of Walgrave. 

The forecast is not good with heavy and persistent rain likely late morning. Starting point is the Church of St Peter  a sandstone-spired church, is in the centre of the village dating from the 14th century. 

The route will be based on the one detailed on the Northamptonshire Walks website, with the odd detour no doubt. I'm also hoping to pick some more Sloes ahead of the 'Sloe Amnesty' at Warner's Gin distillery tomorrow. For all the Sloes (Fruit of the Blackthorn) picked Warner's will exchange for bottles of their own Sloe Gin. Anyway, more about all of that in the next bog write up for those that are interested. For now I'm heading west, out of the village on the Holcot Road.  

 

On my right is the 'Dial House' dating back to 1715 with 19th century alterations. The Sundial is inscribed with 'We shall Die All' and a poem follows underneath:

Hours Fly. Flowers die.
New days. Oldways. Passby.
Love Stays.

This taken from One of Henry van Dyke's best-known poems titled 'Time Is'(Music and Other Poems, 1904), also known as 'For Katrina's Sundial'.

I continue out of the village and onto the footpath past a small cemetery. There are rich pickings of Sloes to be had here. Not to mention some lovely ripe Pears and Plums. I'm not entirely sure if they are on private land so only sample one of each. I do get a decent amount of Sloes though.   

Although I'm reasonably close to home I have never walked this part before. It is a beautiful spot too, just over the field is the border of Pitsford Reservoir Nature Reserve.

The footpath is very clearly marked out too which is always a bonus. The footpath will take me all the way to Old. I take the opportunity to pick a few more Sloes, just the odd dog walker and a particular hound that tries to mug me for my Sloes....  'He won't like these' I tell the owner, 'Oh he will eat anything' came the response. 

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 From the village of Old I pick up a familiar footpath that will take me across fields in a straight path for about a mile. I will finally arrive at the peculiarly named 'Old Poors Gorse'. This has been covered in previous walk blog reports. The hedgerow on my left is providing a rich harvest of Blackberries, I'm only too happy to avail myself of the vitamin C packed freebie. 

'Old Poors Gorse' in the distance

This is a smashing wide open space with uninterrupted views of the countryside. Old Poors Gorse always seems to be muddy though. I think horses have been through which hasn't helped. 

Exiting onto the Loddington Road there follows a bit of road walking. Typically there are the biggest Sloes by the roadside! The cars come down here at quite a speed so don't want to hang around for too long. I am glad to get off and down the bridleway half a mile later. It has also started raining quite heavily so there is some shelter albeit a temporary reprieve. 

 

There is quite a lot of Pheasant activity. there are feeding stations set up to fatten the poor creatures ahead of the shoot. There are also several fresh 'Badger Latrines' although no sign of any obvious setts. 

I am starting to head back towards Walgrave now. I talk a bit of a wrong turn, instead of keeping on I go down a farm track. There is a brief moment of panic as it is getting really wet now. Thankfully I manage to pick up the footpath again and the re-assuring sight of a footbridge. 

This path then seems to run It's course into thick hedgerow... Looking back it seems to disapear into a verge on the left. Backtracking I pick up the path and find another footbridge over the stream. That's solved the problem of how I was going to get over without getting soaked at least.   
 
 

 

 

It is then just a case of following the path with the hedge on your right until you reach the road back in to Walgrave.

Emerging on to the road a dog walker says 'Welcome to Autumn' as the rain continues to pour down. The road continues past the village War Memorial and back up to the church.

It has been a lovely walk despite the weather and a total of 8 miles. I can see how in the winter it is likely to get very muddy across some of the fields and Old Poors Gorse. 

A good crop of Sloes collected and a healthy amount of fruit consumed too!