We did this section
of the walk on Saturday 17th September, so some weeks after the last
walk. A previously planned walk in August had been called off because the weather was too hot for long distance walking.
Today it was considerably
cooler than it had been over the previous week and the temperature had
dropped by 15 or so degrees. This was a
very flat walk, in the Wreake and Soar river valleys with only a couple of
small hills. We crossed the Leicester to
Melton Railway line 3 times, as well as the main London to Sheffield line. We also had 3 crossings of the River Wreake
and one over the River Soar so a day of railways and rivers!
This area is prone to severe flooding during long periods of rain so we wanted to get it completed before any possible future spells of rain which may stop us reaching our target of finishing the round during 2016.
As we
arrived at the start, a fine drizzle set in and we had this for the first 2
hours of the walk. This eventually
cleared and although cloudy and dull for most of the time we had good walking
conditions.
Frisby on the Wreake to Hoby
We left Frisby
by the Old Cross Stump firstly through a recently ploughed field, then through fields of cows, sheep and horses.
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| Recently ploughed field near Frisby |
Just before reaching Rotherby, the path
turned sharp right and took us over the Leicester to Melton railway line for
the first time and then after a short distance crossed the River Wreake across
a long narrow bridge.
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| Train, with old style carriages, passing at the crossing |
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| River Wreake near Hoby |
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| Footbridge over the Wreake |
We followed the
river for a short distance before climbing a short steep hill into Hoby.
Hoby is a small
village that sits high above the Wreake.
We entered the village near All Saints Church which dates from the 13th
century. The book said we should go past
both the church and the Bluebell Inn – the pretty thatched village pub, but
that turned out to be the wrong direction so we did go out of our way a bit
before finding the path out of the village.
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| All Saints Church, Hoby |
Hoby
to Rearsby
The walk took
us over grassland where we could see the course of the Wreake and the railway
line below us until the path turned left towards the river. We passed Thrussington Mill House, which
seems to be in the process of renovation and then crossed the Wreake for the
second time.
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| Thrussington Mill House |
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| River Wreake near Rearsby |
We made a short
stop here for a drink and snack. It had
stopped drizzling and we were able to remove our waterproof outer layers. We walked alongside the river for a short
distance before turning towards the railway line from where we could see Thrussington church and village on our right.
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| Thrussington Church and village |
We crossed for the second
time and into the village of Rearsby.
From the tracks we could see the former Rearsby Station house and the
level crossing on the Thrussington to Rearsby road. Rearsby used to lie on main A607 road between
Leicester and Melton until a bypass was built in 2004.
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| Rearsby Level Crossing and former station from our crossing point |
We passed
through a well kept grassed area with the grounds of St Josephs convent to our
right, and made our way towards St Michael and all Angels church. The walk took us along the side of the church
down to a ford over the Rearsby’s Brook, a tributary of the Wreake. We crossed over the brook by the old medieval
seven arch packhorse bridge.
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| St Michael and All Angels Church, Rearsby |
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| Packhorse Bridge and Ford, Rearsby |
Rearsby
to Cossington
After leaving
Rearsby, we crossed the railway for the 3rd and final time and then
reach the River Wreake for the 3rd time at Rearsby Mill. We passed through the mill grounds with the beautiful
Mill House and Mill House cottage on our right.
Rearsby Mill is nearer to Ratcliffe on the Wreake than it is to
Rearsby.
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| Rearsby Mill House |
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| Rearsby Mill Pond |
We walked down the drive
towards Ratcliffe Road. Before leaving
the driveway to the mill the round takes a short cut across the field to the
main road which cuts the corner off but we couldn’t get the gate open so walked
the extra distance to the end of the drive instead. The route then
took us along a pretty tree lined track where we turned off just before Spinney
Farm.
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| Driveway to Spinney Farm |
We then crossed a field of sheep then uphill around muddy fields of newly sown crops to the A46. At this point we had some great views to the east towards Burrough Hill, which we climbed on Walk 5.
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| Easterly view with Burough Hill to the right |
Crossing the A46, a very busy dual carriageway,
took a long time. There was no real
break in the traffic and we eventually had to make a dash for it when crossing
each carriageway.
Once across we went
through a small spinney of young trees into the grounds of Ratcliffe College. We left the college grounds and continued
along tracks, sometimes muddy, until we reached the Cossington to Ratcliffe
Road where we crossed the main railway line between London and Sheffield (over
a road bridge this time) and into Cossington village where we had a very nice
lunch at the Royal Oak pub,
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| Royal Oak, Cossington |
Cossington is a
small village with a population of 598 according to the 2011 census.
Every alternate Easter some of the villagers open their gardens to the
public for “'Secret Gardens of Cossington'” event. The village church is All Saints dates from
13th century. Opposite the
pub is a large white house where Lady Isobel Barnett, TV personality and
presenter from the 50s and 60s (panellist on "Whats my Line") used to live until she took her life, in this house,
in 1980 after being found guilty of shoplifting.
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| Former home of Lady Isobel Barnett |
Cossington to
Mountsorrel
The last 2
miles from Cossington to Mountsorrel was delightful as it passed through
Cossington Meadows, a reserve owned by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife
Association. The lakes in Cossington
Meadows are formed from the old gravel works and we saw quite a few fishermen
and bird watchers in the area. It is
certainly somewhere to go back to in the future.
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| Heron and ducks on gravel pit lake |
The walk took us out of the reserve and alongside
the River Soar which we followed for some distance until we reached Sileby Marina
and locks where tpart of the river has been “canalised”.
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| Sileby Marina |
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| Sileby Locks |
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| Paul taking a rest near Sileby Marina |
After this the
route became a little unclear and we ended up at an underpass. There was a sign for the Round which would
have run alongside the A6 but it looked very overgrown and virtually
impassable. The book tells us that there
is a crossing point over the A6 further up but the underpass is an alternative. After our experiences with the A46 we decided
to take the underpass into Mountsorrel.
Mountsorrel
village is situated on the River Soar.
It is home to one of the largest granite quarries in Europe and there is
an overground conveyor that moves the stone from the quarry to Barrow upon Soar
where it is sorted. The centre of the
village is marked by the Buttercross, site of the village market.
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| Mountsorrel Green |
Distance
We clocked up 11.98
miles on this walk but some of this was due to us taking the wrong route in
Hoby. I remembered my pedometer this
time and that registered 33,000 steps.
Next
Walk
The next walk will be
from Mountsorrel to Markfield, hopefully in 2 weeks time.
