Road to Home 2022 Day 13: Gretton - Great Oakley

28.5 km

Walked through the village of Gretton and followed the Jurassic Way across fields of vetch to the pretty town of Rockingham, granted a charter as a market town by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600.

Rockingham market cross (1600)

Pub in Rockingham frequented by Charles Dickens 

Rockingham village tea room

For those just joining me, I am walking from Leeds, my birthplace, to Canterbury, where the Via Francigena pilgrimage route to Italy begins. I am about halfway now. You can see my route on the interactive map on Tony Maskill-Rogan's Abbey Walks web site, coppied below. 

Today St. Bernard's Way took me from Rockingham through the villages of Great Easton and Bringhurst, through fields of sheep, wheat and vetch. 

Now grown as fodder for livestock, vetch (favino in Italian) is related to beans and peas (most closely to the broad bean, fava) and was one of the first crops  domesticated, already grown in the Near East 9500 years ago! But over the millennia people have found better things to eat, and by the time St. Bernard of Clairvaux shared a bread-of-vetch meal with his monks during the famine of 1124 to 1126, it was considered an emblem of his humility. So it is appropriate that I should be walking through fields of vetch on St. Bernard's Way! 

"Their bread like the prophets of old, was made of barley, millet and vetch and was of such miserable quality that once a visiting monk, lamenting sadly their plight, took away with him some of what had been set before him in the guest-house, that he might show to everybody the marvel of men, and such men, living on the like." (Vita Prima I.v.25, quoted in Williams, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1952), p. 24).

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? 

In the village of Cottingham I wandered into St. Mary Magdalene Church, where some major cleaning and decorating was underway in preparation for the Jubilee next weekend. The volunteers greeted me warmly and offered me coffee and cake.

Sarayou is originally from South India and has lived here 25 years. She walked the Camino de Santiago from León, with her husband and children! We had lots to talk about 😁

From here I proceeded on to the neighbouring village of Middleton and then followed a wide, straight footpath along the side of East Carlton Countryside Park, through a field of horses, and over more fields to Wilburston, where I stopped at a bench with a view to eat my lunch. The bench was inscribed Rest awhile and think of those who did not come back to the land they cherished. 1914 - 1918 remembered 2018. I thought this was a fit place to stop and rest on a walk dedicated to my great-grandfather, who perished in France at the age of 28 in 1916. On the third day of my walk I passed his birthplace, and when I continue on the Via Francigena in France I will visit his grave. 

In the afternoon, more fields and a rather monotonous walk along the runway of an abandoned airfield. Then I came to the former site of Pipewell Abbey: St. Bernard's Way touches upon all the Cistercian abbey sites along the route. Following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1538, Pipewell Abbey, like so many others, was used as a convenient source of ready-cut blocks of stone. So it may be said to live on in Pipewell Hall, built out of its stones. Pipewell Hall is now used as a wedding venue, and you can't go and see it unless you're invited to a wedding. The closest I could get was the other side of the field. 

This is what it's like walking on an abandoned airport runway

This is, possibly, what Pipewell Abbey looked like

The birds don't think much of the information panels

Where Pipewell Abbey was

That's Pipewell Hall in the distance 

It was only a short walk across the fields to Great Oakley, but one of those fields contained a small herd of bullocks and heifers, i.e. teenaged cattle, who seemed to find it entertaining to follow me over the field and see how close they could get before I shook my sticks at them. I tired of this game before they did and ducked under a barbed wire fence to walk through the adjacent field instead. From here I followed Harper's Brook into Great Oakley, where I made my way to the roundabout on the A6003 and pigged out on junk food at McDonald's before retiring to my airbnb. I had a good mind to order a proper beef burger just to get my own back on those naughty cattle, but I stayed true to my vegetarian diet and had a McPlant instead! 

My room tonight

I walked a half-circle around Corby today! 

Road to Home 2022 Day 12: Collyweston - Gretton

28.5 km

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

It's not March any more, but it's that sort of day! When I drew back the heavy curtains on the window of my palatial room at the Collyweston Slater and saw the sun shining brightly, I dressed lightly, but as soon as I was outside I put my puff jacket on! Crossing the fields in the sunshine I took it off again, then walking through the woods I was cold.... I finally settled on a windbreaker as the right compromise. 

I walked back a couple of kilometres along the Ketton Road to regain the Rutland Round footpath through the fields to the lovely village of Duddington. 

The old watermill, being restored to functional condition 

The village church was open and I tiptoed around the interior, not wanting to make a mess with my mucky boots. 

On the way out of the town I passed Pear Tree Cottage, with a thatched roof, before plunging into Fineback Wood, coming out at the park café, where I sat down for a toasted sandwich and a cup of tea . 

I set off down the footpath marked JW - Jurassic Way, but it led me to a field with a bull in it. This one was small and shaggy, like Highland cattle, but it had big horns and I didn't fancy it so I backtracked a little and walked along a very quiet road which soon rejoined my intended route, coming out behind the church at Wakerly. This cut a bend out of today's route, which is already zig-zaggy enough! 

St. John the Baptist Church, Wakerley 

Sheep in Wakerley 

A new use for an old phone booth

From Wakerley I crossed another field of sheep and a bridge over the River Welland to the neighbouring village of Barrowden. Barrowden has been home to a mill first recorded in 1259. The river not only powered the mill but provided water for use in the manufacture of farm implements and the tannery where hides from local cows were processed to make products such as rugs, drumskins and glue. The tannery closed in 1885 and was used as a factory for ammunition cases during WWII before being demolished. 

The tannery is gone but the street name remains 

I followed the signs to Barrowden & Wakerley Community Shop, a grocery shop and café run by volunteers from the two villages. I hadn't seen a food shop for two days and was as dazzled by the variety of choice as if I had been in an Asda superstore!! 

I bought a packet of raisins to liven up my morning oatmeal which I make with hot water from the kettle when my accommodations do not include breakfast, and some supplies for this evening and/tomorrow's lunch. Then I sat outside and devoured some fruit, yogurt and a sweet. Ten days or so into the walk I have regained not only my walker's legs but my walker's appetite! 

Barrowden was the birthplace of travel pioneer Thomas Cook. I passed a commemorative plaque on his house (I assume) on my way out of the town. 

More fields, more sheep, more thatched roof cottages in the hamlet of Shotley.... I crossed a road and walked round a car just as the driver was opening the door, giving her a bit of a fright. I caught an American accent, though tempered by years of living in England, and struck up a conversation. Kathy grew up in New York and Connecticut, lived most of her adult life in Bermuda and has been in Rutland for thirteen years. (She didn't know where it was before she came here, either 😅!) She has been a marine biologist, a sailing instructor and a school teacher and lived on a boat for five years. The two of us and her Labrador Retriever Ted crossed a few fields together before it was time for them to go back, and for me to continue on to Gretton, where I have a very comfortable room rented through airbnb with a lovely lady, Ann, who is also a walker.  We had a cup of tea in the garden and talked about travels. 

Kathy, Ted and I

Crossing the fields into Gretton, the 1878 Welland Viaduct was visible in the distance 

Ann's place has a hammock! 

Ann & Dean

Today's wiggly route