Fosse Way: Narborough to Syston 28/03/22

13.7 miles, via Enderby, Fosse Park, Braunstone Town, Rowley Fields, 

 West End / Westcotes, West Bridge, Roman & Medieval Leicester, 

  The Golden Mile / Belgrave, Rushey Mead, & Thurmaston.

Pandemic conditions (as well as necessary housework and heatwave) means that it's been a while since we last dropped feet in Leicestershire, so while we are Down Country for a week, to attend a memorial service for a family friend and to aid Mum with some garden tasks and junk clearance, it's definitely time to get back in the Old Country saddle, and revive some plans that I've had on my slate since September 2019, to expand on the county experience that had been built via the courses of the Leicestershire Round and the Long Walk to Leicester, if we can recall that far. The scheme is to trace all the major roads to the minor towns around the county, and we'll be starting with those of Roman vintage, with the Fosse Way as our first, tracing its portion across the city from southwest to northeast, and not its full lengths to Exeter or Lincoln, and we'll not be needing to abuse Parental Taxi privileges to get the start line, as we can bus and train our way out, not starting too late as we're walking the first available day after the shift into British Summer Time, so it's not even a late start as we alight at Narborough station at 10.30am, under the bright sunshine that's lingered on for more than ten days now. This is easily the best vintage village station in the county, with all of its elements still in place and to be regarded before we press up Station Road to the main street by the Narborough Arms, to immediately get us onto our trajectory at the Coventry - Leicester Road corner, not on the actual Fosse but on the old A46, which has migrated away from the city through the 1970s to 1990s, taking the route northeasterly as it takes us past All Saints church and through a Leicestershire village landscape that I haven't seen up close in so long, as we're drawn out beyond St Pius X RC church and the end of the B4114 bypass road, where we pass under the M1. The city appears to lie beyond, but we're still in the county as we enter another suburban enclave, which is probably counted as part of nearby Enderby, just off to the west beyond the motorway, with the width of the road indicating it past significance as it pulls us up to the B582 Blaby - Enderby Road island by the Miller & Carter steakhouse, with St John's road taking us onwards, past the last fields to be seen on this side of the city, as well as Palmers Garden centre, the Park and Ride facility and the HQ of Leicestershire constabulary, ahead of us approaching the A653 Soar Valley Way, the outer Ring Road.

Narborough Station.

Leicester Road, Narborough.

The B4114 Passage under the M1.

Leicester Road, Enderby (?).

The green space, by the Police HQ, St John's.

The Fosse Park retail outlet has recently grown right out to this corner, replacing the site of Everard's brewery that has now shifted to a smaller facility across the road, and the route gets tangled with the links onto the M1 and M69 as we pace the pavements past Sainsbury's, M&S and ASDA, to finally get onto the Fosse Way's historic path as we join the A5460 and Narborough Road South, taking us into the suburbia of Braunstone Town, along possibly the oddest of roads to be found locally, where the dual carriageway of the old A46 is flanked by bi-directional roads on both side, forming eight lanes of traffic flowing in six alternating directions. This landscape of lanes and semis persists all the way up to the Braunstone Lane East junction, by the Jaguar Dealership and the Premier Inn, where the de jure city begins, taking us between the Braunstone estate and the older suburbs of Rowley Fileds, back inside our city field of experience, and getting a reminder of the proximity of the Soar Valley as we progress us on, with the Trinity Methodist church making a bold statement on one side of the lane, before we meet the KFC in the old estate pub, across the way from the 1935 tram shelter, marking the edge of the Victorian - Edwardian city, where a late elevenses break is taken. The terraced district of Westcotes, or West End, is met beyond, with the bridge on the railway line to Burton advertising the hosiery and shoe-making history of the city, as we move on among the bustle of the stores on Narborough Road, where the second wave of Leicester's immigrant population has created a thriving little corner, inserting stores, temples and community facilities among the terraces and chapels of the old town, where the lost bridge on Upperton Road, a ghost sign on Beaconsfield Road, and the terraces named after ancient European tribes have to be noted, around Westcotes Library and before our turn onto Braunstone Gate. 

Fosse Park.

The multi directional A5460 Narborough Road South.

Narborough Road between Braunstone estate and Rowley Fields.

The 1935 Tram Terminus Shelter, Narborough Road.

The West End Bridge, Narborough Road.

The Jalaram Temple and Community Centre, Westcotes.

Tracing the Fosse Way beyond this most hipsterish corner of the city is not really possible, but we can keep on up towards the ancient West Gate of Leicester, or Ratae Corieltauvorum, if you prefer, going past the lost bowstring bridge as we pass over the Old Soar and head up Duns Lane past the QE2 Leisure Centre to land on St Augustine Road, the A47, between Bow Bridge and West Bridge, where we can start our tracing on the Roman and Medieval boundary of ancient Leicester, which remains identifiable on the ground around the contemporary streets. Richard III Road starts us up the side on the canal, behind Castle Mead academy, and opposite the recently reconstructed Friar's Mill, the enduring feature on the side of the Black Friars landscape that has turned into a wholly new urban village since we last observed it, pacing the footway up to the River Soar weir, where we meet the Soar Lane bridges, which I know I've never seen before, taking the eastward turn, away from The Rally parklands and over river and canal into the post industrial building site that will soon be wholly residential urban, ahead of the north end on the old GCR Central station. We'll not examine its own recent renovations, as we go over High Cross Street, the site of the ancient North Gate, and follow Sanvey Gate east, through an almost enduring industrial landscape, up to the A6 St Margaret's Way, where we turn south, opposite its eponymous church, which served the parish without the city walls, now standing across from the A594 inner ring road, where we'll cross Vaughan Way to progress into the city along Church Gate, getting increasingly narrow as it slides us into the contemporary city centre, where the Medieval roads converged and the 19th century Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower stands, by the Roman East Gate. 

Braunstone Gate.

Bow Bridge, St Augustine Road.

Friar's Mill, and the redeveloping Black Friars.

Soar Lane bridge, and the continuing redevelopments.

St Margaret's Church, from Sanvey Gate.

Church Gate.

The boundary of the old city is then traced down Gallowtree Gate, the premier commercial street of the city's pre-shopping mall days, where the southern boundary is the least clear of the four, either stretching past the Market Place and down Friar Lane, or down Horsefair Street, where beasts were traded outside the medieval city on what is now the home of Leicester Town Hall and its square, and ahead of our progress out of the retail district, down Millstone Lane, among a number of enduring pubs, through notably not the Princess Charlotte, the city's premier music venue for the longest time. Cross over the by the Newarke Gatehouse, at Southgate, and pass through Magazine Square, a new-ish urban open space in amongst the increasingly large campus of De Monfort University, ahead of the Newarke House Museum and Hospital, both parts of the 'New Work' outside the medieval city boundary, and our turn into Castle Gardens, where lunch can be taken, early enough in the season for the Norman castle motte to not be obscured by trees, sitting above the canal-side green space, next to the old Great Hall and the still spireless St Mary de Castro. Having spiralled around the city, we land back on the A47, and head into the city around St Nicholas Circle, below the Holiday Inn and across from the ancient sites of the Jewry Wall, of the Roman Baths, and St Nicholas's church, before passing over the Ring Road again to approach Jubilee Square, home to Wyggeston's Hospital and the High Cross, the cross roads at the centre of Medieval Leicester, from where we'll strike east along High Street, past the still expanding Highcross Centre and up to East Gates, where we arrive by the Clock Tower once again.

Gallowtree Gate.

Millstone Lane.

The Newarke House Museum.

The Motte, Castle Gardens.

The Roman Baths and the redeveloping Jewry Wall Museum.

East Gate, and the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower.

We can get back onto the Fosse Way from here, joining Belgrave Gate, where the old city grew beyond its walls, though nothing of vintage is left thanks to the 20th century development of the Haymarket Centre and theatre, until we are beyond the old Savoy Cinema site and the modern bus station at the top of Charles Street, and then it's onwards, out of the rapidly diminishing city centre and under the A594 ring road again, via Burley's Flvover, and pace on up pathway on the central reservation of the A607, past the former St Mark's church and the Abbey Park campus of Leicester College. Beyond the Belgrave Circus island, and the former GNR station / Sainsbury's site to its east, we join the Giolden Mile, the heart of Indian Leicester which has grown to being a nationally renowned street of Asian stores, running through the districts of Belgrave and Rushey Mead, where first wave immigrants created a community in the 1960s that endures to this day, with specialist retail in textiles, jewellery and foodstuff abounding, with the shopping bustle going on as we pass, among the many terraced blocks on the Belgrave and Melton Roads, all the way to the edge of the vintage city. Beyond Marfitt Street, we head into the suburban band of the city, where old paths have brought us previously, as the Melton Road widens to a dual carriageway and we shift past the Rushey mead academy, and the Owl & Pussycat inn,  before pacing on under blossoming foliage, past light industry on the far side of the lane and suburban houses with Scottish names abounding on the streets ahead of the A563 outer Ring Road, Troon Way, which is crossed by the new Sainsbury's on the Thorn EMI factory site, with the suburbia with a golf theme lying beyond.

The Savoy Cinema mural, Belgrave Gate.

St Mark's church (former), Belgrave Gate.

The Golden Mile, Belgrave Road.

The Golden Mile, Melton Road.

The leafy Melton Road, Rushey Mead. 

The 'new' Sainsbury's store, Troon Way.

We pass out of the city, and enter Charnwood district, though the de facto city endures for a considerable distance beyond, as we finally find a reason to pace over the footbridge that heads over the A607 as it bypasses Thurmaston village, rejoining the long run of Melton Road as it passes through, on a lane that I couldn't be sure I've ever visited, as we progress north, past the Harrow Inn, the memorial hall and St Michael & All Angels church, finding that it's urban city and rural village in almost equal quantities as we come up past its WMC and the Top House inn, and the rather natty Dudley Row terrace. An industrial estate lies at its top end, which is passes around before we meet the traffic island at the top, across from the Thurmaston retail park and ASDA, where we'll pass over the A607 again, as the old A46 bypasses Syston, crossing another footbridge that's been passed under multitudinous times before we set course for the last settlement of the day, rejoining the Melton Road and passing under the footbridge to the Roundhill Academy on the road's leafy approach towards Syston village, which we won't be approaching that closely as the named Fosse Way splits off to its south, carrying us on with the Roman Road. Suburban living of all vintages sit on both sides of the Wanlip Road, showing no immediately obvious progression of development ahead of the urban landscape ending beyond the industrial park, the railway bridge of the Midland Main Line and its neighbouring woodyard, and we'll enter the countryside as the road leads us on, beyond the unnatural lake of the Syston Sailing club, taking us as far as the Fosse Way is practically walkable, up to the Gate Hangs Well inn on the bank of the River Wreake where the pavement ends on the A607 bypass island, and the A46 continues north.

The Thurmaston Bypass footbridge.

St Michael & All Angels', Thurmaston.

The retail parks, north of Thurmaston.

The Fosse Way, for reals, Syston.

Urbanism of all vintages, Fosse Way, Syston.

Syston Sailing Club, and Lake.

We can ponder the wisdom of heading onward one day, towards Newark and Lincoln on a dual carriageway road that has no facility for walking, but that's where we'll wrap it for today, at 3.35pm, having maintained a good pace on the first day of a scheme that will probably fill my Old Country visits for the next few years, and I'll not feel bad about abusing Parental Taxi privileges to get a ride back to base, as Mum just happened to be visiting a family friend in the area, and collecting me isn't making any prohibitive additions to her petrol budget.

The Gate Hangs Well, at the end of the walkable Fosse Way.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5400.7 miles
2022 Total: 116.8 miles
Up Country Total: 4924.8 miles
Solo Total: 5069.9 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3995.3 miles

Next Up: An un-traced West Yorkshire trajectory, with 4,000 miles in My 40s in sight.