Stretton Magna, Stoughton & Thurnby.
Down country again for an emergency visit to Leicestershire as My Dad is in hospital after a fall and My Mum is need of some moral support after a minor incident a couple of weeks back has evolved into something more serious, with a diagnosis of him having a Subdural Haematoma, and currently being in the care of the LRI's stroke services, awaiting an MRI scan to check the extent of his brain injury. Thankfully he's mostly still there, but looking extremely tired and responding like a his battery has run almost flat, and My Mum is demonstrating all the qualities of a trooper as the scenarios shift almost daily with the hopes and fears that come with them. The whole family is down for a long weekend, so My Dad can have some company daily and I can not feel to bad when I feel the need to get out of the house to get my head clear, and the first Leicestershire walk that I had plotted for 2016 can go down on the Friday, which looks like the best available day whilst I'm down here, and my tilt at 2000 miles before I'm 41 and 600 miles before the end of 2015 can be completed whilst among family and in the lands of my birth. If nothing else, it will give me some extra good news to report to My Dad when visiting him over the weekend.
So, the second tour of the villages of East Leicestershire kicks off at 9.30am, My Mum dropping me off at the top of Scraptoft Lane, just along from All Saints church and a mile or so from the family pile, setting course eastwards along Covert Lane, which has been a road to nowhere for as long as anyone can remember, but now has started to gain traffic thanks to the redevelopment of Scraptoft campus, and now it's lane popular with those doing jogging as exercise. I push on, beyond the old Polytechnic's sports grounds and make my way to the bridleway that departs on a southward path through Square Spinney, setting off with great purpose before reaching the fields and disappearing from view, leaving us with hedges to follow down to the very obvious railway remnant stretching across the landscape. Heading eastwards on a rising gradient is the alignment of the GNR branch from Leicester Belgrave Road to Marefield Junction, operational from 1882 to 1964, and hosting a few relics on the half mile that is now a farm access track, namely an overbridge that carries the bridleway, an aqueduct carrying Willow Brook over the cutting close to its source, and most impressively the west portal of Thurnby Tunnel. Despite being sealed and partly infilled, a hole cut in its plating means it is accessible but I don't have the torch with me that I hopefully took to Barndale and Crigglestone, so what's left of its 516 yards will have to go unexplored, odd to think that such a significant structure could have gone unvisited in all my years in Leicestershire. Return to the fields in the direction of New Ingarsby farm, and the easiest path to continue my circuit in the direction of the A47 is up the farm driveway, which has no PROW, I'm guessing, but it gives me the best access to the paths that head into Houghton on the Hill from the south, its continued expansion convincing me that this village is still a growing satellite beyond the city of Leicester. Main Street still has most of the village's old face along it, and I had never really acknowledged its elevation as a settlement, but the fact that the spire of St Catherine's church is possibly the only distinctive man made landmark on the local horizon suggests the 160m of its location must be considerable.
Pass out to the A47 having had my fill of bucolic charm, close to the Rose & Crown, previously visited, and pass on along the roadside for a while getting a good view of Billesdon Coplow, the distinctive hill in this quarter that was just beyond the reach of this late season circuit. Continue the outward stretch when we hit Gaulby Lane, a very quiet road which slips downhill to pass over the River Sence, which I hadn't anticipated finding out here, and retain the views of Coplow as the lane presses on to the south, and a detour could be made to the lost village of Frisby, not too far beyond this track, but I'll save that for another day. Roll into Gaulby, not a big village once you've looked past the manor house and the modest church of St Peter, with its Wren styled tower, but it's got a bench and a place to pause for an early lunch before Norton Lane draws me on to the next village, not really all that far away beyond a single kink in the road. King's Norton is a name to really overstate the size of this village, but its immediately recognizable from Car Trek days, with the oversized church of St John the Baptist and its ridiculously ornate gates, as well as the chequer-boarded chimneybreast and dovecote on one of the largest houses. The path back starts on Main Street and onto another Gaulby Lane, and the roads seem the best option when I'm not fancying late season field walking, and the view to Houghton suggests we haven't really travelled that far, though the distance to Stretton Lane is surprising. Onwards to Little Stretton, which lives up to its name, with the tiny and quite medieval looking St Clement's church tucked away down a side alley, but it's the only one of the pair of Strettons to endure, the other being on the Lost Village list, and hidden away down a length of Gartree Road. Any Leicestershire school pupil will tell you that this was part of the Roman Via Devana, the military highway betwixt Colchester and Chester, and these days it's one of the major rat runs out of the city, so care is needed as the Sence is crossed again, and this once straight road offers a lot of challenging corners. Wrinkles in the fields suggest the location of Stretton Magna, abandoned in the 15th century, and despite the continued presence of St Giles' church isolated far from the road, the whole site seems to be strictly out of bounds to visitors, more's the pity.
So on, along Gartree Road, past the Leicester Airport, with a name that overstates its significance somewhat, it may be an extensive airfield site but I think it does most of its business in paintballing and go-karting these days, and the turn to the northward leg comes as I finally rejoin the fields, making path through a growth of very odd purple plants and along the tree lined field boundaries in the direction of Stoughton. Meet the lane and hit the 2000 miles before I'm 41 target as I pass the church of St Mary & All Saints (scoring points on the duplicated church name bingo), and pose for a celebratory selfie and send texts to the family before moving on, noting that almost every house in the village has been whitewashed, surely a relic of an estate which may still endure locally. The Thurnby and Stoughton Road is vergeless and unfriendly to the walker, so I'm glad to get onto the fields to slip downhill to the crossing of Bushby Brook, but am less enamoured by the haul back uphill to Thurnby village, the only pull of any significance on the whole circuit, but the village views on the way were aces. Emerge by the Rose & Crown (ping! pub duplication too!) and pass in the direction of St Luke's church, which has named everything in the vicinity, and here's another village on the city boundary which has been consumed by suburban growth but still retains a lot of village character, passing onto the footpath across the Manor Field park before arriving on the A47 for the third and final time. Cross over to Station Road, and the name gives a clue to a point of interest hidden away from the suburbs and on the edge of the Thurnby Lodge estate, namely the site of the GNR Thurnby & Scraptoft station where the main building still endures as part of a shopping parade, despite last seeing regular passengers in 1953, as does a pair of railway cottages, quite incongruously among the 1970s bungalows. Naught remains of the road bridge though, but the dip in the road is still obvious, and the final push sees the 600 miles in 2015 target eclipsed too, and that brings me some joy as I descend to cross Willow Brook and carry on uphill to return towards Scraptoft village to wrap up at the All Saints corner at 2.35pm, an excellent timing, proving this county is pretty good for a fast burn, and I'll have earned my pint in the White House before an amble back on the last mile or so, whilst everyone else does the important business of keeping My Dad company in the hospital, at least for today.
5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 2003 miles
2015 Cumulative Total: 600.8 miles
Up Country Total: 1829.3 miles
Solo Total: 1772.9 miles
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| All Saints Scraptoft, still a country church despite the continuing encroachment of the City of Leicester. |
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| Thurnby Tunnel, how could the this relic of the GNR Leicester branch have gone unseen by my eyes for so long? |
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| Only half a mile of alignment endures, but three substantial structures make it well worth a trespass. |
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| Houghton on the Hill war memorial. (St Catherine's church is so prominent, it's almost impossible to photograph!) |
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| Billesdon Coplow, East Leicestershire's big hill. |
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| St Peter's, Gaulby, with distict Wren influence on the tower. |
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| King's Norton. The church of St John the Baptist must have always been too large for this village. |
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| St Clement's, Little Stretton, still almost Medieval! |
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| Stretton Magna, and St Giles' church. Not open to visitors. |
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| Leicester Airport. No, really. |
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| St Mary & All Saints, Stoughton. Using both of the most popular church names in the county, and 2000 miles before I'm 41 achieved here! |
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| Thurnby village and St Luke's church, the only dynamic village view on the whole circuit! |
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| Thurnby & Scraptoft Station, still enduring since passengers last alighted back in 1953! |
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| The White House, Scraptoft. It's taken a while, but this end of town finally has a popular boozer. |
Next Up: Back up country to the Leeds & Wakefield hinterland.
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