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.

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.

The Long Walk to Leicester #8 - Loughborough to Leicester 05/09/19

15.5 miles, via Loughborough Moors, Pillings Lock, Barrow upon Soar, Meadow Farm,   Mountsorrel Lock,  Sileby Mill, Cossington Mill, Rothley, Wanlip, Birstall, Red Hill, 
  Ellis Meadows, Abbey Meadows, Abbey Park, St Margaret's, and the City Centre.

Long Distance Trek means Selfies!
#7 at Loughborough station.

The Last Leg of the Long Walk comes around, the latest of my cross country schemes to come to fruition, feeling fortunate that the opening of the late season of 2019's walking has sent some rather good walking days our way so far, and there's not massive pressure to get out early again as the morning temperatures are markedly lower than the preceding couple of days, and anyway, the return rail ticket I bought to Loughborough if off-peak and thus not valid until after 9pm, so the Parental Taxi doesn't need to be ready for the crack of dawn to get me underway. So back to the point where my Up Country and Down Country trekking points finally touched, getting away from the railway station in the shadow of the Brush works at 9.40am, striking across the car parks to Nottingham Road, by the mill that is getting the upscale apartment treatment to descend beck to the towpath of the Loughborough Cut of the Grand Union Canal's Soar Navigation, coming down on the opposite side of it to the residential complex built around a former hosiery factory and passing under the Great Central Railway's canal bridge, their next fixer up job before they can start building their embankments to get to the bridge of the Midland Mainline. We strike southeast from here along the towpath, hemmed in by thick hedge and the town having grown to fill all the plots up to the west side of the canal, surrounding the once rural Little Moorland bridge, and looking like its probably ready to consume the factory site to the south of it, the one with large ghostly lettering along the length of its wall that resolutely refuse to resolve into any readable words, and beyond the town looks to have breached a path into the low fields of Loughborough Moors to the east as a new close or two have arrived on the far side of Moor Lane bridge. That's as far as this town's suburban splurge has grown, with the town ending by the boatyard of the Peter Le Marchand Trust, who run boating trips for the elderly and disabled and whose boats were spotted more than once along the path of the previous day on the trail, beyond which we enter the low fields once again, with only cows in the fields and the morning air still feeling chilly despite the sunshine, with all feeling peaceful beyond Miller's bridge, where there are only random boaters and solo dog walkers out on the canal with me.

The Long Walk to Leicester #7 - Shardlow to Loughborough 03/09/19

13.1 miles, via Derwent Mouth, Sawley Bridge Marina, Ratcliffe on Soar, Kegworth Marina, 

 Sutton Marina, Diamond Wood, Zouch, Normanton on Soar, and Bishop's Meadows.

Long Distance Trek
means Selfies!
#7 at Shardlow

We get off to another early start as we head back to the bottom right corner of Derbyshire, with the Parental Taxi adding another 50+ miles to the 130+ miles that it put down on my behalf yesterday, which well illustrates My Mum's willingness to go above and beyond when it comes to accommodating my crazy walking schemes when she could have so easily cast me out to travel by train and the Skylink bus service, so the note of gratitude needs to be posted here, rather than buried in my later summation. We land at the Navigation Inn at Shardlow at 9.10am, so Mum can make a beeline homeward to do here thing with her Church Lunch Club, and so I can get on with the last mile or so of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, which we meet when we return to the bridge of the Trent & Mersey canal and descend to its towpath, heading eastwards into the still intact landscape of wharves and warehouses at the heart of this late 18th century boom town, where goods travelling to and from the northwest would by stored and sorted before going on their new markets on the burgeoning canal network. It's a quiet idyll for leisure boating these days, making it hard to believe just how much industry would have gone on here in the 50+ years before the railways became the new transportation method of choice, it's now a place for waterfront living, and going back in time by visiting the watermen's inns such as the Malt Shovel or the New Inn, which we leave in our wake as we pass under Wilne Lane bridge, and we carry on pass the last few canalside cottages and the flood lock that protects the village from inundation, to meet Shardlow's extensive marinas. We can race the active boaters on the canal as we head east, along the long cut that passes Porter's Bridge, the very first on the canal as it makes its long way to Liverpool behind us, and the Derwent Mouth lock leading us out to the very end of the channel where it spills out into the River Trent, where the Derwent Mouth confluence can be observed from the remaining abutment of the original and now demolished Long Horse Bridge.

Leicestershire Round #7 - Sutton Cheney to Newtown Linford 05/09/18

17.1 miles, via Bosworth Park, Market Bosworth, Carlton, Shackerstone (station), Odstone, 

 Nailstone, Bagworth, Thornton (Mill & Reservoir), Markfield, and John's Lee Wood.

Long Distance Trail means 

Selfies! #7 at the Hercules 

Revived, Sutton Cheney.

A relatively chilled couple of days drop in between my trekking days, with nothing more active than having My Sister and her family drop by for lunch while passing through on a cross country jaunt, and getting My Parents over to the church dinner club the following day, knowing that the gardening exploits are due once my walking days are finished, so I feel decently recharged once my second 17 mile jaunt of my Down Country break comes around. Unfortunately, after six clear runs to my start points on the Round, the seventh and final one is the longest trip of all, which forces us through Leicester's morning rush hour traffic, preventing a very early start and meaning that we don't get our jump off in Sutton Cheney until 9.05am, with the skies suggesting coming blueness in the west, but general grey pudding hanging over the rest of the county. Depart from the Hercules Revived public house (a name I really can't get enough of), and roll up Main Street, through a village that would surely glow red on a sunnier day thanks to all it construction in brick, passing the Old Hall that is plainly the most impressive structure in the village, running up as far as the Royal Arms Hotel, the other village pub that has a sideline as an actual hotel complex, and our route passes through its car park and into the fields beyond. Trace a bunch of boundaries as we tack to the northwest, which will be our trajectory for the next 5 miles, noting that we are passing though enclosures that were growing beans, judging by the quantity still on the ground post-harvest, rising towards Spring Wood and Woodhouse farm whilst feeling a light regret that the Round doesn't pass through Cadeby, a mile or so inside its path, where the Reverend Teddy Boston used to famously operate a narrow gauge railway in the Rectory Garden. The path leads us into Bosworth Park, once the extensive parklands of Bosworth Hall, seat of local benefactors, and general oddballs, the Dixie family, where we follow a tree lined avenue that leads among the open meadows and small spinneys, still looking the same as the would've a century ago,  for a solid half mile before we arrive in the public park at the top end. Meet the local exercisers and strollers here as our route tracks around the shaded memorial garden and the Bow Pool before meeting the open parklands as we run in towards Rectory Lane, with both Bosworth Hall and St Peter's church just beyond the passage of the Round path as we enter Market Bosworth.

Leicestershire Round #6 - Frolesworth to Sutton Cheney 02/09/18

17.2 miles, via Claybrooke Magna, Claybrooke Parva, High Cross, Fosse Way, 

 Fosse Meadows, Sharnford, Aston Flamville, Burbage (Wood & Common), Barwell, 

  Odd House, Ashby Canal, Sutton Wharf, Ambion Wood, and Bosworth Battlefield.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!

#6 at St Nicholas's, Frolesworth.

After my long weekend away in Wharfedale and a gratifyingly short week back in work, we can set our sights on the last holiday of the Summer, heading Down Country once more with August already receding into memory and all intentions set on getting the Leicestershire Round completed, with the two longest and most distant days still to go, trips that I had worried might prove to be logistically unfeasible due to the travel durations necessary to get to my start lines. We need not have worried though, as My Dad can be left to nap of a morning without great risk, and maximum flexibility can be gained from starting out as early as possible, not that I'm entirely sure that My Mum is entirely enamoured with having to get the Parental Taxi fired up for a departure from home at 7.15am, so that the trail might be joined again at St Nicholas's church in Frolesworth at 7.55am, which is easily the earliest I've started out, and the day's sunshine has already come on, for which I'm immensely grateful after last Sunday's damp debacle. Away on Main Street we go, past the gates of the Rectory to the corned by the now absent Royal Oak inn, taking a southerly track as we set course for the Heart of Roman England, down a grassy track that leads onto a field walk, seeing the village recede rapidly, but making sure to note the Dutch Barn at Manor Farm, a modern office building that looks exactly like an open barn stacked with straw bales, the sort of modern design that should be replicated in every rural redevelopment. Our path rises, gently, up towards Hill Farm, aside plots of corn and across the recently harvested wheat fields, before cresting by the equestrian grounds and then declining through open plots before shifting into rougher fields, where I'm greeted along the way by a farm worker and her enthusiastically yappy dogs, and I continue to enjoy the warm morning sun as we field walk to Frolesworth Lane and then hot foot it over to Claybrooke Mill, secluded away in its own little spinney. Trailing around the West Riding moorlands can make you unprepared for regularly rural Midlands landscapes, with its many stiles, ditches and plank bridges, and they will become the testing features of the day as we progress, across recently ploughed fields and enclosures full of docile cows, as we lead over to Claybrooke Magna, one of a Leicestershire pair which seems to have the majority of the modern suburban houses in it, apt to it's 'large' name, which our track only sees a corner of, on Bell Street.

Leicestershire Round #5 - Saddington to Frolesworth 26/07/18

14.7 miles, via Fleckney (sorta), Shearsby, Bruntingthorpe, Peatling Magna, 

 Willoughby Waterleys, Dunton Bassett, and Leire. 

Long Distance Trail means

Selfies! #5 at The Queen's

Head, Saddington.

The off days between treks get filled with useful activities, like trimming My Parents' hedge (again), belatedly celebrating My Dad's 77th birthday, and mug washing (don't ask, long story), when we are not trying to avoid the heat, and after getting a Hottest Day of the Year peak on Monday, we get the promise of another on Thursday, so we need to plan creatively for a day that promises to get thirsty fast, and so I scheme the idea of chilling two litre bottles in the fridge, while freezing a third to ensure I have sufficient cool liquid in my bag for a six hour trek. Starting early is the other trick to beat the heat, as the Parental Taxi can get out to Saddington for an 8.20am start as we have probably the shortest drive out of the entire Round today, which is mildly ironic as the entire path for today will be through a part of the county of my birth that have barely seen in all my years, and so onwards, away from the Queen's Head (which I have manged to colour coordinate with) and St Helen's church, possibly the only one on the trail that I won't deliberately detour to see up close. Onto the Round Path once more by The Limes, a house with an impressively large mud wall at its boundary, and we depart the village by the path that leads from Bakehouse Lane between the back yards of virous houses and out onto Kibworth Road, where we are immediately presented with a cow problem as this Longhorn breed is not apt to move away from the gate that I need to access. Fortunately a second gate up the lane allow easy access, and I sneak past them to find the next gate in the hedge which leads us over towards Fleckney, a village that has seen some exponential suburban growth, even though it's quite a distance from Leicester and between two A-roads, and we'll draw right up to the edge of it, meting dog walkers and fence builders before we turn west, the fields looking like they are being plotted out for some future building work as the village continues to bafflingly expand. It's a field boundary walk for quite a distance to come now, and in the early going we at least have Fleckney lodge to keep us company but soon we slip into a landscape of hedges and bare fields that would challenge anyone's powers of description, lacking an obvious horizon and looking the same from plot to plot, and so we have to content ourselves with the fact that the early morning sun isn't coming on hard and that the local cattle around Glebe Farm are feeling docile before we get a location of sorts to see, as we drop out onto Arnesby Road.

Leicestershire Round #4 - Hallaton to Saddington 23/07/18

13.9 miles, via Othorpe, Cranoe, Glooston, Stonton Wyville, Langton Caudle, 

 Thorpe Langton, East Langton, Foxton, Gumley, and Smeeton Hill. 

Long Distance Trail 

Means Selfies! #4 at the 

Bewicke Arms, Hallaton.

Summer Jollies coming around has me hurrying Down Country with almost indecent haste, so that I can get onto the Leicestershire Round again on the days available to fit in around My Parents' plans and needs, happy to lend a hand when needed and aiming to scratch off another three legs from the guide book in two trips, and that cold day on Saturday is already seeming like a distant and aberrant memory, as we are already back in the grip of hot, hot days where the heat tells even when leaving the house in the early morning. So Leicestershire in July looks much riper than it did last year as the Parental Taxi rolls me out to Hallaton so that we might get a jump off at the Bewicke Arms at 8.35am, still rating the village as one of the prettiest in the county in the Rutland Ironstone fashion and we start our track into the southeast corner of the county by walking along Churchgate, past the church of St Michael & All Angels and the CofE primary school to find the path that leads us out into the countryside for the start of the field walking down to cross the stream that flows on down towards the River Welland, reminding us that we are in the corner of the county that doesn't sit within the vast Trent-Humber watershed. A fun thing to note in the adjacent field is Hallaton Castle, a motte and bailey construction that is dated to the Iron Age and the protection of the ancient metalworking industries in this quarter, and looks particularly well preserved and is something to regard as our field walk raises on a southwestern track to eventually present views over the wrinkles around the Welland valley, where Slawston village sits in the shadow if its own hill and an almost new farm is located at the hills crest. Drop sharply down through the pasture to cross the stream at Horseclose Spinney, and then rise again to meet Othorpe House Farm, which mostly hides behind its woods, and standing as all that remains of the lost village of Othorpe, a theme that just keeps on coming around in this county, soon left behind as we pass the barns and machinery store to hit the fields once again. Onwards through wheat fields and more sheep pasture to approach Cranoe village, which also hides, below the slope of the hillside that we are traversing, and just off the alignment of the Round path, but a short detour has to be made so we can get an up close look at the church of St Michaels's, as taking many pictures of the village churches in the county will probably always be a hobby of mine.

Leicestershire Round #3 - Somerby to Hallaton 24/05/18

12.7 miles, via Owston (& the Woods), Withcote Hall, Launde Abbey, Ridlington Ridge, 

 Belton in Rutland, and Allexton.

Long Distance Trail means selfies!
#3 at the Stilton Cheese inn, Somerby.

You will know that it's not my nature to walk on consecutive days, but my rescheduling of my walking days has given me opportunity to get in a third day when I'd only intended to walk two, though the Friday weather looking like hot garbage means that I have to get out on Thursday morning, not quite with the lark like the preceding trips, but early enough to tend to the pressure blister that I've developed on my right sole, so padding is applied and we return to High Leicestershire with the feeling that could get painful. So on the my third leg of the Round and the guide's fourth as the parental Taxi drops me off at the Stilton Cheese inn in Somerby at 9.05am with village looking a lot less bright beneath overcast skies and it's off down Manor Lane on a southwards track, with foot injury in tow as we pass the Manor Farm and note the new build houses that perfectly complement their surroundings before we push out into the countryside, fully intent on passing this way again. There's a pretty heavy mist hanging over the eastern county, and once we hit the edge of the high plateau that's home to both Somerby and Burrough, there's not much of a view to see, so the path descends one of the many stream grooves down the hillside, away from another large dairy herd, and on up another landscape rise where there's a staring bench on the field boundary, from where there isn't much of a view in the direction of Tilton on the Hill. Then on, down past plantation that isn't on the map or in the guide book, to meet the stream crossing by a very old sign pointing to the "Leic's Round", and join Newbold Road, which is rising hard surface that takes us uphill towards Owston, which was once home to a monastic foundation, since vanished but living on in the name of The Priory house, next to St Andrews church, with the rest of the small village strung out along the Main Street. Pass the village pump, nicely preserved and on to the cluster of very rustic farmsteads at the bottom, and then on to the farm track that leads on towards Owston Woods, concluding by a large open field with many cows in it, and with the way out not visible, so that doesn't make for the easiest going as I start to feel like I'm going on one leg. I pass through untroubledthough, and the ancient woods spread out ahead, a couple of fields distant, but there's a lot of grass to cover to get there, downhill and uphill with little other landscape context to see aside from Owston Wood Road as we approach.

Leicestershire Round #2 - Rearsby to Somerby 23/05/18

15 miles, via Thrussington Mill, Hoby, Rotherby (sorta), Frisby on the Wreake, Gaddesby   (sorta), Ashby Folville (sorta), Thorpe Satchville, Burrough Hill, and Dalby Hills.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#2 at Rearsby Packhorse Bridge.

No walking opportunities for Monday or Tuesday, as I'm more useful to aid My Parents on a trip to the hearing aid clinic on one day, and to accompany them to the church lunch club on the other, though the heat and sunshine seem to have retreated once Wednesday comes around, but  the cue to get back onto the trail comes once time is freed up again, through the part of the Leicestershire countryside that feels most familiar to me. So my leg #2 starts, aiming at taking in the remainder of the guide's second and all of the third as I strike into the East of the county from Rearsby village, starting out from by the Packhorse bridge of 1711 as the Parental Taxi drops me off at 8.15am, under glum skies with a sharp wind blowing from the northeast, and the path leads us over the bridge, past Manor farm and up to the Church of St Michael & All Angels, and deciding that I'm feeling under-dressed as I sneak the paths from the suburban enclave of Church Leys and down past the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace convent. The waterproof is donned as a windcheater as we meet Station Road, and I'll wander slightly from the Round path to see the still-considerable remains of Rearsby Station, where the Cross-Country services now run over the level crossing without stopping, and only the mildest of trespasses is needed to get back on the right track, meeting the Round path by the foot-crossing for a field walk in the direction of the River Wreake, well away from the large dairy herd in the fields below Thrussington. Hit the riverbank after passing over three plots, finding the channel can look more like a stagnant ditch in places, but find it looking more active as we approach Thrussington Mill, where a canal-style bridge takes us over the channel of the river and the remains of a lock chamber, evidence of the Melton Mowbray Navigation, which canalised the Wreake from 1797 to 1877, noted before we pass the mill itself, firmly in the grip of a makeover to make it more like its neighbour downstream. From the driveway, it's back to field walking, through bouth cultivated fields and rough pasture, heading upstream and not really getting any aspect that would suggest we are at the bottom of a river valley, and also feeling no joy towards the wind as it keeps the early going cool, as we come up to Lodge Farm, and its enclosure of Christmas trees, which I always seem to forget have to be grown anew every year.

Leicestershire Round #1 - Newtown Linford to Rearsby 20/05/18

14.7 miles, via Bradgate Park, Woodhouse Eaves, Swithland Reservoir, Mountsorrel, 

 Cossington, and Ratcliffe College.

Long Distance Trail means Selfies!
#1 at Bradgate Park, Newtown Linford

Spring Jollies time, and the days of getting away to a fresh trail in the countryside are sadly done, as My Dad is no longer able to travel as he continues to struggle with the onset of Parkinsons Disease, and thus my holiday breaks this year will be spent in The Old Country to lend him some extra company and to be an extra pair of hands and ears around the house for My Mum, a sequence that will finally give me an opportunity to tilt at the Leicestershire Round. Devised by the county's Footpath Association in 1987 and standing at 100 miles long, it will be the longest trail that I have attempted so far, and its circuit is relatively accessible from our base in Humberstone, though the guide's division of the route into ten legs seems a bit modest, so I boldly figure that it can be easily done in seven, and that's the plan that I have in mind as the Parental Taxi drives me out to Newtown Linford for a very early start on Sunday morning, planned as such so that I might be of maximum use to My Parents on my non walking days. Pass through Newton Linford village to get dropped off at just after 8.15am in the Bradgate Park car park, and we are certainly not the earliest starters out here as joggers and folks gathering for the Emergency Services day already crowd the tarmac, and as we have no distinctive route marker to indicate the Round's start line, I'll set out from the main gate to head on into the park itself, along the side of the stream that flow eastwards, in the shadow of tall trees and outcrops of granite. Immediately get entertainment from the herd of juvenile Red Deer, retreating across the track and stream from the main park into the deer enclosure as we march on towards Bradgate house, the home of Lady Jane Grey, and the Earls of Stamford, and notable as one of the oldest all-brick stately homes in the country, now ruined but preserved along with the rest of the park for the people of Leicestershire in 1928, thanks to the generosity of Charles Bennion of British Shoe co. Naturally the route takes us uphill immediately from here, up past Bowling Green Spinney and through the recumbent herds of Fallow Deer to rise to Charnwood Forest's most notable hill, where the Old John Tower sits atop it, not the sort of climb the body wants as the heat of the day comes on already, but it's alway good to be up on this granite top to take in the view around the county from 212m up, even if there's way too much morning haze to see much all that clearly in these conditions.

Humberstone to Markfield 28/03/18

12.2 miles, via New Humberstone, Northfields, Latimer ward, Belgrave Road, Abbey Park, 
 Abbey ward,  Gorse Hill, Anstey, Newtown Linford, Field Head, and Hill Hole Quarry.

Despite being a week into it, Spring has definitely not sprung when I'm prepped to get walking again whilst in the Old Country to spend the Easter Week with My Parents, providing company and assistance in exchange for hospitality, deciding that it's wise to get busy on the trail before My Sister and family arrive and I need to borrow Dr G to get to do a rebuild job on the raised vegetable bed in the garden which has suffered with rot and partial collapse in the last season. I look to the west for a change in the county of Leicestershire, feeling that I ought to strike for Charnwood Forest again after abandoning it back in 2013 and not having been back that way since, thinking it wise that I ought to link up to that isolated trail out that way before I envisage a year of visits to do the Leicestershire Round over my next three weeks off work in 2018, as I fear that My Dad's holidaying days are sadly behind him. So we set off to our regular start up point at Abbots Road URC, and strike to the Northwest, over the A563 Hungarton Boulevard in the direction of Humberstone village, feeling that I might be running short of unique routes across the city of Leicester already, on just my third trip, arriving by my Old Schools and Manor House gardens, pushing on along Main Street past St Mary's church and its ancient mud wall, and the enduring shopping parade and the village pub that I've still never visited, the Humberstone. The village is departed by the Grange, the Thatched cottage and the Royal British Legion, and the rain comes on as we pace down through the suburbia that has grown all over the grounds of the former Humberstone Hall, tracing Tennis Court Drive and Greenland Drive to meet the estate perimeter at Humberstone Drive, passing that one house that My Parents had thought about moving into in the 80s before choosing to extend their house instead. Move on to meet the estates of New Humberstone, ranked along Wycombe Road, where Mundella college used to reside, where My Dad was educated in his youth, and did much woodworking in the first decade of my life, all replaced by a medical centre now, while the district looks of a mode entirely consistent with the orange bricks and stucco look of Leicester's estates, not seen elsewhere. Run out onto the Portwey - Tailby Avenue, plotted as part of the original outer ring road, but never completed between the A47 and A607, though it still sees a lot of traffic as it leads us to the lower edge of the Northfields estate, where the child-shaped bollards on Hastings Road, outside Merrydale Junior School, seem to have been designed to haunt your darkest nightmares.

Leicester to Loughborough 06/09/17

16.1 miles, via Frog Island, Abbey, Stocking Farm, Leicester North, Mowmacre Hill,
 Thurcaston, Rothley, Swithland, Woodhouse, Quorn, Woodthorpe, & Charnwood Water.

No Late Summer Jollies away this year, as we are instead Down Country to celebrate My Parents' Golden Wedding Anniversary, and after the exertions of the last walking weekend and a frankly harsh four day week, I could be forgiven for not wanting to walk at all when my nine day break comes around, but that would be a foolish choice to make, with 3,000 miles on the immediate horizon, and so we fit in one day to wander at the mid point of the week, tidily accommodated amongst everything else that's going on. I do seem to have spent a lot of my blogging life lamenting the industry and the railways that we have lost over the last half century and more, and so to make a change, we will today take a more positive approach and go in search of the Great Central Railway, both former and preserved, between Leicester and Loughborough, because as of this very week, exciting developments are afoot, and probably demand my immediate attention while I have another landmark to attain in my walking career. To the Town then, bussing it out to give the Parental Taxi another break, starting out, as so many days used to in Leicester, from the Clock Tower at 9.05am, with our long and meandering path setting off down High Street, rapidly away from the shops that haven't even opened yet, to the High Cross, and on to St Nicholas's Church on the far side of the Inner Ring road, a location that seems to always turn up on my city walks regardless of where I'm headed. Detour to Great Central Street to start the railway exploration proper, at the site of Leicester Central station, active from 1899 to 1969, it's still largely intact, probably because it would be too hard to demolish, and we keep on hearing of the redevelopment plans for it, but for now it still hosts light industrial units within and upon, high above street level. Press north to meet the A50 across the canal and Frog Island, still a largely industrial quarter, taking the turn onto Slater Street to catch the sole section of viaduct that endures, standing tall in blue bricks up to the edge of the River Soar, and it hurts my mind to think that there used to be so much more of it, having not been demolished along with its many bridges until 1980, on measure, one of those sights that I'm really glad I didn't witness in person.

East Leicestershire Village Circuit #4 19/07/17

15.2 miles, from Humberstone, via Netherhall, Scraptoft, Beeby, Hungarton, Quenby Hall,
 Coplow Hill, Houghton on the Hill, Thurnby & Bushby, and Thurnby Lodge.

We're down country again, for my customary week off work in July, mildly frustrated that my first weekend got scratched from the schedule as my legs really needed a rest, despite having had a couple of days out from my usual routine at the hospital, and so to the Old Country we return, having travelled without a concrete plan, and so when my walking day comes free, we are as close as possible to heading out with a completely improvised plan. A village circuit seems in order, starting from close to home as I think that the Parental taxi deserves a rest, having aleady done a year's worth of driving in May, to give myself plenty of walking time whilst allowing My Parents to do their own thing while My Dad is not in the best of conditions, sadly, so onwards to walking in circles once more, not getting out too early to burn my way around some familiar territory in East Leicestershire, more filling in some un-walked paths than venturing far afield. So we commence in Humberstone, just after 10am, with a 6 hour circuit in mind, commencing from the corner in front of Abbots Road URC, a mile of so distant from my weekly base, starting out north and clockwise, to Hungarton Boulevard, where the Leicester eastern relief road was somehow squeezed between the houses, up to the corner of Netherhall Road, where the Moat Inn still dwells in my mind, despite having been replaced by a suburban branch of McDonalds more than decade ago. Onwards into the Netherhall estate, still showing a façade of many 1950s vintage council houses coated in a layer of off-whitewashing, followed in great quantity up the shopping parade that has a much more singular character and on past the open park with Scraptoft Brook running through it, having gained enough altitude to be able to look back the various tower blocks in Leicester's city centre. Pass the school locally known as Scrappy Valley, which appears to have been half shut down and forgotten about, and roll on to the newer part of the estate, 70s vintage below Hamilton College, and sweeping around the curve of New Romney Crescent, which leads us to the edge of the city, where Scraptoft's Nether Hall farm still endures as an equestrian establishment, and lending its name to the estate below.

The Leicester Circular 29/03/17

17.5 miles, via Humberstone Heights, Northfields, Rushey Mead, Belgrave, Abbey,
 New Parks, Western Park, Braunstone Park, Rowley Fields, Aylestone, Knighton Fields,
  South Knighton, Stoneygate, Horston Hill, & Crown Hills.

The end of March is time to go Down Country to see My Parents and to help out around their house for a few days, and having already done city circulars in Leeds and Bradford, doing one on the city of my births seems like a good plan whilst I'm here, as does seeking out the remnants of the Leicester Corporation Tramways, long lost to history, grown between 1874 and 1927, electrified in 1904 and closed down from 1933 to 1949, a rough plot the termini of which gives me a tour of some 17 miles. So, a more modestly sized city than those of West Yorkshire gives a circuit that is much longer, but this will take in a lot of suburbia as well as the limits of the Victorian - Edwardian city, and this will be the best opportunity to put in a significantly long distance down before the bright and warm days of late Spring arrive, and thus we steel ourselves for a long day, starting out at The Terminus on Uppingham Road by the 1934 tram shelter, our constant local companion, and set out in search of the other remaining shelters about the city as well as the end point of every other line on the city's major arteries. Head off anti-clockwise for a change, pushing up the suburban lane of Humberstone Drive, between the suburbia that grew on the Humberstone Hall site and the council estates to the west, heading in the direction of Humberstone village but pulling away at the Thurmaston Lane corner and noting that the grounds of the Towers Hospital, the former lunatic asylum, has been completely redeveloped residentially, dropping a wholly new settlement into the local landscape, which I'll call Humberstone Heights, after the local golf course. Join Gipsy Lane for the westward push, looking into the new suburbia and noting that most of the old hospital buildings have endured, sure to get an executive makeover in the future, for all those who'd wish to put up with the local ghosts, and than its on, over the A6030 link road that took decades to arrive, and on into the district of Northfields, where council houses and terraces face each other at quite a remove from the city, as well as containing The Salutation Inn, one of the most infamously rough pubs in the locality. Then we pass below the Midland Mainline under the low bridge that still seems to attracts regular collisions with wayward high vehicles, and on to the Catherine Street corner, often pronounced incorrectly by non locals, and home to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple, which has such an elaborate makeover that you'd never believe that it used to be a factory.

Humberstone to Great Dalby 21/07/16

12.9 miles, via Keyham, Hungarton, Lowesby Park, Twyford & Thorpe Satchville.

Two days of intense heat, the sort not experienced in years, is not that useful for me getting active whilst on my jollies, so not get much gets done aside from an early morning start for three hours of shed painting, so the hope comes that my batteries will feel recharged when the temperature drops and the need to walk comes on. Thursday has a 4 degree drop from the previous days' highs, so it has to be the time to get some miles under my feet, as it's been 12 days since my last serious burn, and it's good to keep things relatively local whilst in Leicestershire, adding a few new places to my wandering field and establishing a new boundary to the land of Car Treks and youthful travels. A 9.30 start then for a projected 5 hour trek to the north-east, starting out from Abbots Road URC and heading up to the ring road to detour into Monk's Rest Gardens, one of the three local parks of my youth, the others seen in March, taking the route between tennis courts and bowling green to the wooded shade beneath the Cedars and Beeches on the lawn of the Italianate vicarage. Arrive in Humberstone village at the lych-gate of St Marys, and head east on Main Street to take in the Medieval Mud walls preserved on the north edge of the churchyard, and the imposing red brick house in the old folks flats that I always assumed was 18th century but is actually a 1970s reproduction, before passing my old schools once more but this time continuing east once we reach the top of Keyham Close. Across the Ring Road again, and the ongoing road will always be Keyham Lane to me, bordering the outer edge of the city regardless of a name change to Elms Farm Cottages in it early going and the Hamilton Estate having grown over the last 20(!) years to its north, and largely hidden from view anyway, with the correct name returning with its West addition as it passes on above the Nether Hall estate.

Humberstone to The King Power Stadium 18/07/16

5.9 miles, via Uppingham & Humberstone Roads, St Martin's, Kate Street & Filbert Street.

A Summer week off from work, and I'm off Down Country because it's July, and not feeling the need to attempt the 30+ miles that I did last year, so this time around we are scaling back the wandering so that the stamina might last a bit longer as the warm months press on, and it sure looks like we've got a few hot days on the immediate horizon so modest distances are a given. Rather than heading for the countryside, it's good to start with a city walk, as Leicester's centre has still to drop onto my schedule, and an early start from the East is due so the trail might be done before lunch time, departing my chosen local start point of Abbot's Road URC at 9.05am, and setting course along Scraptoft Lane. Always felt that this was a good road for illustrating the development of suburbia in the early 20th century, showing up both the planned estate developments of the late 1930s and the more haphazard and bespoke building that preceded it, and this leads to the Troc and the Terminus, already mentioned here, before joining the A47 and Uppingham Road for the Red Route to the city. The shopping parade along here has seen a lot of family custom over the years, from Nando's the Barber (spoiling the Chicken restaurant in my mind forever) to the Hong Kong (the Chinese restaurant that was a favourite until becoming takeaway only last year), before we go a bit more Victorian Residential past Coleman Road, the sort of townhouses which I always desired way back when. Pass the site of Humberstone station on the GNR Leicester extension, where the station house remains, and on into the empire of takeaways on the latter portion of Uppingham Road, ending by Swallow Park, The Uppingham Hotel (the pub being an Islamic school these days) and The Shaftesbury (a lost cinema that still names the junction). Continue on as the A47 crosses the Willow Brook and becomes Humberstone Road, and beyond the terraces, the Merlyn Vaz health centre is the major new arrival in these parts, and a telling indication of changing times is noting the second-hand electrical retail store occupying a shop which once sold Pianos. Pass under the Midland Main Line, and the site of Humberstone Road station (the building now preserved at Shenton), and some of the industrial buildings to the south are worthy of note, the ones to the north (and the St Matthews Estate) rather less so, but you do have to love the name of Lesta Packaging PLC, don't you?

Humberstone to Oadby 24/03/16

6.3 miles, via Old Schools, Urban Villages and Lost Estates.

Two more days of making myself useful spent, dismantling a built-in wardrobe that My Dad had constructed to never come apart, and lugging ridiculous quantities of compost around so that Spring might bring some gardening action for my folks, and the remaining day available for walking doesn't look too promising, with only half of it looking good before a lot of rain arrives. So I'll do only half of the walk planned, as it takes in quite a lot of my personal history, and leave the countryside half for later, as I ought to do more urban walking in Leicester, for it is the city where I was born and grew up. Places from my formative past are to fall beneath my feet then, and where better place to start at 9.20am than at Abbotts Road URC, where the family have had an influence for many years, and many significant social lessons were learned, not a place that will be removed from my psyche with any ease despite my religious nature being lost a long time ago. Not to far away, beyond the Ring Road and at the top of the street is to be found Humberstone village, where both my Infant and Junior schools still endure, where I had my formal education between 1978 and 1985, still housed in buildings of frustratingly indeterminate age that owe more to Victorian ideals than those of the Post-War age, and whilst the pre-fabs and the wooden nursery have gone, it's good to see how much remains. Tour the whole combined site by taking the walk along Main Street and then back through Windmill Park, to return down Lidster Court by St Mary's Church, a Victorian rebuild job of a Medieval foundation, before taking in the small corner of the villages that suggests it rural heritage before the city grew to swallow it in the 20th century. The loss of the rural aspect of this corner can be found in the tale of Humberstone Hall, the site of which, south of the village, was completely consumed by housing in the 1930s with the house itself demolished with only a couple of estate lodges remaining, and its driveway becoming the locally legendary Pine Tree Avenue, where the huge and proud trees are still present, despite actually being Sequoias.

East Leicestershire Village Circuit #3 21/03/16

16.7 miles, via Houghton on the Hill, Ingarsby, Billesdon, Rolleston,  Illston on the Hill,
 Burton Overy, Great Glen & Stretton Magna.

Down Country as per tradition at the end of March, to offer company to My Parents and to make myself useful around the house now that My Dad is rather less mobile than he was, so a Sunday lunchtime carvery trip followed by a good afternoon of yardwork gets us off to a good start, but as Spring finally arrives on the calendar it's time to get back on the trail, and as it's been a lot of short trips around so far this must be a cue to get some good miles under my boots. Leicestershire is good country for piling on the forgiving mileages, so another village circuit comes together, almost off the cuff, and deliberately aligned to overlap with my previous circuits of the east of the county, so start out from the yard of the Old Black Horse in Houghton on the Hill, dropped off by My Mum at 9.35am, with it all looking much the same as it did last October, right down to the uninspiring weather. Head northwards up Main Street to the crossing of the A47 and thence out into the countryside along Ingarsby Lane, to take the shortest possible route to my favourite lost village, spotting the burgeoning static solar energy field developing above Houghton village, and this might be the popularist lane in this quarter today as it's here and only here that other wanderers are to be found on these tracks. Rise on the bridleway to the lost village, still as lovable as it ever was, and the lack of vegetation cover this time around means I can see the viaduct over Ingarsby Hollow, the major bridge relic of the GNR Leicester extension line, and that's a nice spot, not seen last time. Eastwards then, on the bridleway that feels like a lane that dropped from the landscape along with Ingarsby village, for some muddy going with attention focused towards Coplow Hill, the distinctive hill in these parts, prominent without being all that tall, hidden away by behind the woodlands of Botany Bay Covert, passed through before arrival on Tilton Lane, running close to the top of the hill. Unfortunately, the wood on the hill top offers no permissive walks of any kind, so a gaze into the trees is all you can offer as the roads skirt around the hilltop, which feels somewhat frustrating as a viewpoint up here would be most welcome to get views towards the city or to the majestic Quenby Hall.

The East Leicestershire Village Circuit, v.2.0 23/10/15

14 miles, via Scraptoft, Houghton on the Hill, Gaulby, King's Norton, Little Stretton, 
  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.