Hello and welcome back to my blog 😊.

Today I met up with Mick and Chris to do a circular 7 mile walk starting in the Leicestershire village of Branston. We passed through the villages of Croxton Kerrial, Harston and Knipton before landing back in Branston.

It was a slightly chilly day with light rain forecast towards lunchtime. We parked outside the Church at Branston and followed the route through the village and then, disconcertingly, through somebody’s front garden, to pick up a track headed towards Croxton Kerrial. Fields were either side and red kites glided in the sky.

As we neared Croxton Kerrial, at the sewage works (no smells 😊), the path turned to a concrete road.

We had been walking uphill most of the way when Chris chimed ‘I’m just saying, but there is a lot of uphill in this walk!’ Indeed there was, with more undulations to come.

Reaching the village, and opposite the church of St Botolph & St John the Baptist, we visited the site of an Anglo Saxon encampment.

We spent some time looking at the ruins and reading the plaques. Further info on the ruins is available here https://croxtonkerrialheritagetrust.home.blog/

We walked along the lane by the church and picked up a footpath that took us across a field and then down towards a small wooded area.

Passing through the wood we found fallen trees. In the spring the wood is carpeted with lovely bluebell’s.

Exiting the field we faced a trek across a wet field. Our boots were certainly covered in mud after this.

Having crossed the field we then passed by a valley where historically Ironstone had been mined using opencast methods. There used to be many opencast Ironstone mines in the area . It had its own railway line to haul the ore to the steel smelters in Scunthorpe or Corby. Chris pointed out an old railway building that is still standing. There is an interesting YouTube video about Ironstone Quarries in Leicestershire here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5vAMma5lg&t=47s

In Harston we passed a horse friendly house.

The rain was coming down lightly at this stage. We followed the road out of Harston and headed towards Knipton passing by the cricket ground.

Walking through Knipton we passed the war memorial where there was a bench – a stop for a cuppa? Its still raining – Mick remembered that there was a covered shelter further along the village so we headed for that and had a break in the dry.

Mick spotted a photo opportunity at the village water pump – a cows tail pump according to Chris due to the shape of the handle!

We left Knipton suitable refreshed and headed along the road up to Branston passing by a house that has a nice view of Knipton Reservoir. We spotted a buzzard and a kestrel as well as more Red Kites.

We had one more uphill section before arriving back at our cars .

It had been a cracking walk despite the gloomy weather.

Till my next blog,

Happy Walking! 😊🚶‍♂️