Syston to Humberstone 19/07/23

11.1 miles, via Lewin Bridge, Shipley Hill, Ratcliffe Mill, Ratcliffe on the Wreake,

 Thrussington, Rearsby, East Goscote, Queniborough, Syson Grange, Barkby, Barkby Thorpe,

  'Thorpebury in the Limes', Hamilton, Nether Hall, and Humberstone Garden Suburb. 

After our Three Day Weekend, we immediately shift over into our Nine Day Weekend, or early Summer break, which I'm spending Down Country with the intent of getting into the gradual tidy-up and clear-out at Mum's house, which has now entered its fifth year and continues its minimal progress as me get into more yard work than planned, as there are hedges and trees to be trimmed, a lawn to be mown and a lot of weeding and pruning to be done, all of which turn out to be major tasks when we both have only about 90 minutes of active stamina to be working with, and she at least has the excuse of being north of 80, while I'm still trying to toil through the post-Covid experience. The legs can still go though, as seemingly the most enduring power source in my body, and when Mum has a day of church synod business in Nottingham, I have the opportunity to walk in the Old Country again, getting dropped off somewhere that's convenient for her whilst en route, and that transpires to be at The Gate Hangs Well inn, on the old Fosse Way to the north of Syston village on the banks of the river Wreake, where we won't be tilting any further up the Roman Road and up the ridge towards Six Hills among the traffic on the A46, but will instead take a bit of a tour around the other major river valley in Leicestershire before tilting for home, to see how greater Leicester is swelling outwards, far beyond the city's boundaries. So we alight at 9.30, at the northernmost extremity of Syston's parish, and set off north, immediately crossing the river Wreake via Lewin's bridge, and strike into the riverside meadows, where the local cattle are only too happy to usher me on my way away from them, over a drainage ditch and under the A607 via the flood relief passages and into the fields beyond, where big birds in the raptor fashion are disturbed and the ridged and furrowed fields make for some heavy going as we press on to re-join the riverbank, passing below the wooded tumulus of Shipley Hill as we push south of the Soar - Wreake watershed ridge. Heading upstream, we enter the woods along the tightening riverside, which gets us into some dense vegetation and undergrowth as the walkable space diminishes, which gets out boots and trews dampened up nicely while the route finding starts to get a bit speculative, having us feeling rather lost when a fallen tree blocks the path, despite being directly across the reedy channel from Beedles Lake golf course, and it's a fight to get back on track before we find the ROW pulling us away from the river and alongside a concealed farmstead as we are drawn on to Broome Lane, ending our off-roading exploits a step or two away from Ratcliffe corn mill, its cottages and phantom canal bridge.

The Local Cows see me on my way, away from The Gate Hangs Well.

Shipley Hill and the ridge & furrowed field walk.

On the banks on the Wreake, heading into the woods.

Lots of vegetation to fight through, across the river from Beedles Lake Golf Course.

The phantom canal bridge on Broome Lane, Ratcliffe Mill.

We pass away from this uphill, towards the first village of the day, taking a right onto Main Street in the shadow of Ratcliffe Hall and its farm, and continuing northerly among the modestly scaled village of Ratcliffe on the Wreake as it reaches out by the village hall up from St Botolph's church on its bluff, with its slender spire rising high above this settlement that hasn't seen much suburban swelling on its perch to the north of the Wreake valley with its old farmsteads still in place among the few later arrivals and outliers that stretch along the lane, with the riverside fields opening out to the southeast as carry on into the countryside on a north-easterly trajectory. It's turning out to be a nicer day than expected as we press on along Thrussington Road beyond the extensive Ratcliff Equestrian farm, where we find ourselves on terrain from 5 years back as we cross over the Leicestershire Round path, past the lane's only notable kink as it heads cross country towards Rearsby Mill, and finding that local folk also walk, run and cycle along these roads and among these fields too as only a couple of cottages are to be otherwise found at the roadside before we are greeted into Thrussington village some distance beyond, with farmsteads sat along the Ratcliffe Road before the more suburban heart is met beyond. The 40 year-old joke of referring to it as the 'Heavy Feathered Songster' still endures for me as we come up to the Rearsby Road corner, crossing by the Blue Lion inn and tagging this as the last village in an 8-mile quadrant to the northeast of Leicester to receive a visit from me on my travels, before immediately turning south and away from it to pass its local industrial crafting plant, and over the Wreake in the shadow of Holy Trinity church, and setting off to the southern side of the valley among the fields of recently herded cattle, judging by the amount of mud on the lane, and carrying on across the flood plain on an elevated pavement, illustrating just how busy this minor channel can get and taking us along to the Syston & Peterborough railway line, which is crossed by the old Rearsby Station. 

St Botolph's church, Ratcliff on the Wreake.

The Wreake Valley, from Thrussington Road.

The way of the Leicestershire round, towards Rearsby Mill.

Ratcliffe Road, Thrussington,

Elevated Pavement, the Wreake Bridge, and Holy Trinity, Thrussington.

Rearsby Station on the Syston & Peterborough Line.

Back inside the Leistershire Round, and definitively heading back to base, we rise among Rearsby's suburban closes and the redevelopment of the nunnery in Church Leys house, to pass St Michael's church at a remove and come around to the waterfront features of the village along Brookside, taking in the rural atmosphere that endures around the village school before taking an elevenses break by the ford and packhorse bridge, with the weather glooming up markedly before we resume, following Brook Street out to the old bypassed Melton Road, landing by The Wheel inn and heading south as the village stretches out, past the end of Gaddesby Lane and the Horse & Groom in, which seems to be on the wrong side of the road in my mind. Rain threatens as we pass out of the village, taking a look back across the Wreake valley to the vicinity of where we were an hour or so ago, following a route I know well as My Dad's red-route to (and from) his workplace at the Rearsby automotive plant, passing into the open fields along the over-sized and under-used land as it transitions over to the edge of East Goscote, the village in the county which is wholly a late 20th century suburban entity, looking wholly of its period, and still growing it seems, among the fields to the north of Queniborough Brook,  which is crossed before we come upon the A607 again, bypassing Rearsby and Syston, returning us to the latitude from whence we started out. Under the subway and around the island and then it's onto the minor roads again, as Rearsby Road leads us past the playing fields and into Queniborough village, an actually old settlement that has also become a suburban satellite of the greater city, with its Main Street hidden away in the east, and only the village hall giving the hint that it's not another suburb, as we progress over its crossroads and on southbound down Barkby Road, to find that another estate has landed, beyond the familiar urban boundary, filling out the fields down to the rugby club, where we join the road as it carries the traffic that likes to avoid passing through Syston, which sits to the west of us, with the Charnwood Forest Hills describing the horizon beyond.

Brookside, Rearsby.

Gaddesby Lane and Melton Road, Rearsby.

Melton Road, East Goscote.

Queniborough Brook.

The Crossroad, Queniborough.

Suburbanisation in Queniborough.

Passing the nursery and outlying cottages, it starts to brighten up a bit again, which is welcome, as there's not a lot else to see among these local hedges, and attention wanders towards Syston village, an appendage to greater Leicester and showing an eastern face that's wholly contemporary suburban and swelling still towards the Syston Grange farm crossroads, which needs traffic lights, and such developments will hold our gaze until Queniborough Road comes down by the lodge house and long wall of the grounds of Barkby Hall, and the cemetery at the top edge of Barkby village, the settlement that has resolutely resisted suburban additions, despite its proximity to the city. All its rural red-brick flavour endures on its Main Street, by the Malt Shovel, St Mary's church and the still active forge and smithy, and the kinks and corners of the lane are negotiated as we pass over Barkby Brook and through the local arbour that surrounds the local grazing meadows and cricket field beyond, which Thorpe Lane bisects and will always be noted as the home of the caged 'Dangerous Trees', many of which have grown to maturity after being so dubbed some 40(!) years ago, all of which need to be passed between as we rise up to the Queen Street corner at Barkby Thorpe, the farm hamlet on the hill rise that still service three farms. They are to be found around the King Street corner, with Thorpe Farm being home to popular pandemic-era meet-up spot Roots Café, while Manor and Hill Top still run most of the arable fields that still remain around-abouts, so close to the city. Its presence can be felt beyond the hedges among the undulations Hamilton Lane, as the rural landscape starts to break apart, with the 'Thorpebury in the Limes' development bringing the growth of the de facto city beyond its de jure boundary, where a suburban population might find themselves in the future, expecting the benefits of city dwelling while finding themselves under the governance of the Charnwood county borough, which for now merely continues the scarring of this corner of the county.

Syston encroaces into the fields, from Barkby Road.

The North Lodge house, Barkby Hall.

The Smithy and St Mary's church, Barkby.

Barkby's 'Dangerous Trees', Thorpe Lane.

Hill Top Farm, Barkby Thorpe.

'Thorpebury in the Limes' bring suburban growth into the county.

The Hamilton development marks the horizon across the shallow valley to the south as the road shifts east, still not properly acknowledged in my mind after 30 years in situ, and not having grown marked closer to the fields around the Hamilton Grounds farmstead, across the way from Picks Organic farm shop, and while the cattle grids on this lane may have gone, it remains tight and rural as it comes down to the lost village of Hamilton, where most of its lumps and bumps in the fields have been obscured by cut grass, and the passage over Melton Brook is noted as where My Dad once flooded his car by driving into the swollen stream on the way to work, possibly the daftest thing he ever did. We rise beyond, past the other Hamilton Grounds farm, where one of my nursery school teachers lived, if I recall, which now houses a kennels and dog school, next to another suburban close that has grown into the county, with the city boundary being crossed as we meet the Scraptoft Golf Club and Hamilton secondary school, ot the Orchard Mead academy as it know these days, meeting the corner of the Nether Hall estate and quitting Dad's Red Route to Rearsby as we turn onto Keyham Lane West to explore this northeastern corner of the city that I think I know well, no longer the urban boundary as the southern edge of the 90s Hamilton estate now faces the 60s Nether Hall, containing the Keyham Lodge primary school ahead of the turn down Chestnut Avenue. From here we seek the enclave of local significance that I'd never properly acknowledged, until now, namely the Humberstone Garden suburb, located along Laburnum Road and established as a housing association, and estate, by the workers of the Anchor Boot & Shoe cooperative in the 1880s and constructed in the early 20th century, it endures as a early garden city development, and an historic pre-council estate, an earlier vintage and quite a different style from what surrounds it, with its tenants hall, shops and community church still in use, and its Victorian era covenants still inherited by the residents after all these years, which went seemingly unacknowledged in the two decades that I lived locally.

Hamilton on the horizon, across Melton Brook.

Hamilton Grounds farm.

Hamilton Village lost beneath the mown grass.

The other, and former, Hamilton Grounds farm.

Keyham Lane West. between Nether Hall and Hamilton.

Laburnum Road, Humberstone Garden Suburb.

Humberstone Garden Suburb, looking east.

The blighted houses on Hungarton Boulevard.

The final few minutes of footfalls then follow as we emerge through the council estate, to meet Nether Hall Road, where the Moat Garage and the Moat Inn are now long gone, replaced by house and a drive-through McDonalds respectively, and the downhill push takes us along Hungarton Boulevard where the houses blighted by the construction of A863 Leicester Ring Road still remain, far too close to the road, and our route concludes after we've turned down Abbotts Road South to pass along among the suburban houses and across the Willow Brook to meet our regular Humberstone start and finish line, next to Abbotts Road URC, wrapping it up at 2pm, only a short trot from my home from home, and less than an hour ahead of the Parental Taxi's return as well, with the both of us having utilised our day off well.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 6081.3 miles

2023 Total: 159.1 miles

Up Country Total: 5,589.5 miles

Solo Total: 5738.7 miles

5,000 in my 40s Total: 4681.1 miles

Next Up: Getting Back in the Saddle, Up Country.