Harlaxton to Croxton Kerrial, Lincolnshire

Date: 2012-08-01

From: Harlaxton to Croxton Kerrial

Region: Lincolnshire, South of Grantham

Walk :  Linear

OS Sheet: Explorer 247

Start Grid: SK 884 330

Finish Grid: SK 836 291

Distance: 8.5 ml, 13.6 km 

Height Gain: 497 ft, 151 m

Height Lost: 324 ft, 99 m

Notes:  Walking mainly on canal towpath and farm tracks, with sections of roads and paths to join things together. There were a few stiles and along the canal there were a couple of chicane type barriers.

Route

These notes are provided to enable the walk to be plotted on a 1:25,000 map.

From the A607 Grantham Road go down High Street to the footpath on the left to the Grantham Road, along the road to the track North to the Grantham Canal and Harlaxton Lower Lodge. Join the canal towpath heading West to Longmoor Bridge. Cross the bridge onto the Viking Way South to the A607. Go West along A607 to footpath on right, through fields to just outside Croxton Kerrial.

Journey

This walk is the first of several walks I have planned based on using the bus services available from Loughborough to get me to the start and back home again.

It is many years since I made regular or frequent trips on buses, about 45 plus years in fact. Although since getting my bus pass I have made use of it for short hops, a journey of over an hour was going to be a new experience. The 8 service runs from Loughborough to Grantham via Melton Mowbray once an hour throughout the day, travelling across 35 miles of wolds landscape and through a dozen villages. I got off the bus at the cross roads in Harlaxton. I felt that the  journey had been long and tedious but interesting at the same time as I watched and listened to the people on the bus and saw things along the way I would never see while driving a car.

I had the usual 5 minute faff of getting myself organised, GPS on, map out, hat on, camera ready, rucksack on and comfortable, all done on the side of a main road with cars zipping past and a bunch of Council workmen doing a repair seventy metres away, instead of behind the boot of a car. Then having got myself orientated I strode off about twenty metres the wrong way, before tentatively headed off in the right direction.

Harlaxton Manor

Crossing the first field I was surprised to see what looked to be a splendid stately pile sitting above a shallow valley with a wooded hillside as a backdrop, and gate houses and parkland in the foreground. I immediately racked my brains for stately homes in the area, with Belvoir and Belton the only contenders it wasn’t Belvoir Castle and Belton House was to the north of Grantham. The map showed it as Harlaxton Manor, which the internet now tells me was built in the 1830’s and is an American owned and run College. See Manor 

Grantham Canal

2 Miles from Grantham

Moving on I was soon on the Grantham Canal towpath, as I walked I realised that this part of the walk was a journey along the canal which had been used by bargees, their families and horses for a hundred years or more. The Grantham Canal had been a vital link between the coalfields of Nottingham and the farmlands of Lincolnshire. The canal opened in 1797 to move of coal from Nottingham to Grantham and the towns and villages beyond. In return the barges brought much needed food, sheep, pigs, cattle, vegetables and building materials to Nottingham. Movement of material by canal was quicker, cheaper and in much greater quantity than had been ever been possible by road. This process continued until the late 1800’s, although from about 1830 the railways gradually took over much of the trade. See Canal

Bridge 62

Swans

Walking along the towpath was very pleasant and quiet, even though it was well used by cyclists, walkers, including two small groups of ladies and a couple of fishermen, unfortunately in many places sight of the water was limited by the height and density of the waterside vegetation. Walking the canal gives an insight to the countryside, its history and how it has developed. The canal is also a wildlife habitat and corridor. I have little knowledge of flora or fauna but what I see as I walk I enjoy.

As an engineer I am always attracted by industrial remains and the second part of the walk is another journey with probable industrial and agricultural links to the canal but possibly also much older.

Shortly after crossing the canal and heading south along the Viking Way the track passes through the remnants of an embankment and bridge. The map shows a network to lines leading to the bridge site from the south, while a short distance east near the Rutland Arms there’s bridge over the canal and what could be sidings along the side of it. I guess that this may well have been a track-way or even a small/light railway network taking stone and timber from quarries and woodland down to the canal for shipping to Nottingham or Grantham and beyond. The OS Map shows a number of quarries, open workings and sawmills in the vicinity of the interconnected tracks.

However, having walked from the canal, past Brewer’s Grave, which I could not find, and up to the A607  I am fairly sure that from its route, appearance and feel that this part of the Viking Way is probably a much older route, possibly a drove way or similar. Looking at the wider map it certainly appears to extend over many miles beyond this section.

Trapped Rabbit

As I walked up towards Brewers Grave I found a small rabbit with its foot caught in what I assumed was a snare. When I got closer to it I could see that it had a bunch of tough grass stems twisted around its leg, it was squealing and thrashing but I managed to hold it and break most of the stems off, it didn’t try to bite me, but as soon as it could it ran.

On the section from the Denton - Harston Road towards Big Wood there were several  sweet Chestnut trees all with these long yellow catkins sprouting all over them. When I took photograph below the noise from the bees etc. in the ‘flowers’ was so noisy and intense I could feel the buzz, it was weird and I was glad to move away. Then I came upon a section of track that could almost be called cobbled, but I think the stones were too small, I’ve not seen any paving quite like it before. Further up the hill the track was paved in smashed up old concrete and tarmac (demolished airfield?)

Sweet Chestnut Flowers

'Cobbled' Track

I expected this walk to be a fairly bland training walk and it turned out to be more interesting than expected. At only 8.5m miles it was completed in exactly 3 hours including stops and photographs. I reached Croxton Kerrial along the A607, not quite as hairy as anticipated, in time to eat my lunch and catch the next bus home.

Belvoir Castle from A607

If anyone can shed any light on the history of rail/tracks down to the canal, the Viking Way, or the cobbles please leave a note in comments. Ta.