Christopher Somerville

There aren’t many proper old upland hay meadows left in England, but the one at Low Birk Hat farm in Baldersdale is an absolute beauty.
First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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That’s thanks to Hannah Hauxwell, the lone woman who farmed these fields in an entirely traditional way until her retirement in 1988, and also to Durham Wildlife Trust who took them on, renamed them ‘Hannah’s Meadow’, and continued the good work.

We stopped in to the sparse little exhibition in Hannah’s Barn below High Birk Hat farmhouse, and then followed the Pennine Way beside the meadow – not yet cut, its sweet vernal grass and sedges full of old hay meadow flowers such as yellow rattle, knapweed, moon daisies and blue powder puffs of devil’s-bit scabious. Miss Hauxwell became a TV start in the 1970s when a series of programmes followed her unadorned, narrow life through the seasons. A reluctant star, she never could quite understand what all the fuss was about. But what a wonderful treasure her decades of hard work left us in this Durham dale.

From Low Birk Hat the squashy, puddled track of the Pennine Way led us up and out onto Cotherstone Moor. A half gale from the west shoved us around like a ruffian, then got behind us when we left the National Trail and struck out east across the moor. Curlews and golden plover piped plaintively, a great crowd of starlings went swooping all together, and a red grouse planed away on stubby scimitar wings. Swaledale ewes among the sedges stared incredulously in our direction, then averted their gaze like a pew full of spinsters at the sight of something unspeakably shocking – a vicar in cycling shorts, perhaps.

On a wild open upland, unfenced for miles under a gigantic sky, we found an alternative loop of the Pennine Way and followed it back north. Above the path the flat-topped granite outcrop of Goldsborough stood proud of the moor – a miniature table mountain, whose sheer southern crags are only seen by sheep and walkers.

We lingered under the rocks, admiring their weather-cut striations and the brilliant purple heather lining their ledges, and then dropped back down over many stone stiles into sunlit Baldersdale and the homeward path. Lapwings creaked in the sedgy fields, oystercatchers zipped down the wind, and every blade of grass squeaked and sparkled underfoot.

Start: Balderhead Reservoir car park, near Romaldkirk, Co Durham, DL12 9UX approx. (OS ref NY 929187)

Getting there: On outskirts of Romaldkirk, right off B6277 Cotherstone road (‘Reservoirs’). In 4½ miles pass ‘High Birk Hat, Hannah’s Meadow’ sign on gate on left (933190) in another 250m, left through gateway to Balderhead Reservoir car park.

Walk (8 miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL31): Walk back to ‘Hannah’s Meadow’ gate; go through, and down lane (‘Pennine Way’/PW). At gate (933190), right to Hannah’s Barn exhibition. Return to PW; follow it past Low Birk Hat (936184), across Blackton Bridge (932182). Fork left (no waymark) across beck. At triple PW fingerpost (934181), right up stony track to road beyond Clove Lodge Farm (935177). Ahead; in 200m, right (PW) across Cotherstone Moor. In 1 mile, at Race Yate, cross stile in fence (942161, PW). In 100m, left off PW through gate (blue arrow/BA); follow grassy track (sometimes faintly marked on ground) east for 1⅔ miles. At gate where wall and fence meet, left (969164, BA) along Bowes Loop of PW. In ½ mile, at cross-wall by ruin (965171), go through left of two gates. In 20m fork left, aiming for crags of Goldsborough. Cross Yawd Sike (stream) by railed footbridge (960174); carry on below left slope of Goldsborough. At crest beyond (952178), fork left aiming for West Friar House Farm.

At road (948179, PW), left for 100m; right down drive to East Friar House. Down left side of byre (acorn, yellow arrow/YA); left over stile (946182, YA); follow PW/YAs west through fields and stone stiles to Low Birk Hat and car park.

Lunch: Picnic

Accommodation: Rose & Crown, Romaldkirk, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham DL12 9EB (01833-650213; rose-and-crown.co.uk) – really comfortable, efficient and helpful

Information: Middleton-in-Teesdale TIC (01833-641001); thisisdurham.com
www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk visitengland.com

A late flight from Stansted, and half a day to kill – how better than to spend the previous night in the friendly Swan Inn at Great Easton, only a spit and a shout from the airport, and get out for a leg-stretch along the green lanes that thread the gently rolling landscape of this rural north-west corner of Essex? First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Great Easton is full of lovely old houses, half-timbered and whitewashed, with some fine pargetting plasterwork on the walls of the former Bell Inn – a beaky gryphon, a sun in splendour, a bell enfolded by its ropes. Broad fields of rape surround the village, and crossing them felt like walking in a Sergeant Pepper-style dream of intense, opiate yellow, all the more sense-scrambling for lying under a sky full of sharply defined but still grey clouds from which issued the occasional grumble and whine of a Stansted-bound jet.

Apple blossom frothed in pink and white along the path to Tilty Mill, a witchy ruin caught with its curly-spoked flywheels in a thicket of ivy. In the field beyond stood the crumbling walls of Tilty Abbey, the magnificent rose window and chequerboard flint flushwork of today’s parish church the only reminders of the former glories of the 12th-century Cistercian foundation. ‘Allelu-alleluia,’ sang the congregation at their Sunday morning devotions within, their harmony floating us past and away over the billowing cornfields.

Sleek horses were grazing the paddocks at Brookend stables. ‘There’s wartime USAF runways hidden under these crops,’ said a man over his garden gate. ‘You’ll find a window to those brave young men down in Little Easton church.’

That wasn’t the only memorial in the church. Beautiful medieval frescoes adorned the nave walls, and the south chapel was packed with magnificent monuments to Bourchiers and Maynards – ruffs and beards, armour and silks, faces lean or podgy, all lent authority and in some cases arrogance by their whiteness and immobility. Yet it was those young Americans, far from home, daily facing death, who filled my mind as we walked the fields under the growling airliners of the modern age.

START: Swan Inn, Great Easton, Essex CM6 2HG (OS ref TL 606255).

GETTING THERE: Bus service 313, Saffron Walden-Great Dunmow
Road – M11, Jct 8; A120 to Great Dunmow; B184 to Great Easton; left to church and Swan Inn.

WALK (7 miles, easy, OS Explorer 195): From Swan Inn, left up village street, left beside The Bell (607255; fingerpost), over stile, on across fields (stiles, yellow arrows/YA). In ¼ mile, at footbridge (604258), don’t cross, but turn right along right bank of stream, aiming for Duton Hill ahead. At top of field, left across footbridge with metal rails (604265); across stile; half right to stile into road. Right for ¼ mile. Opposite the right turn into Duton Hill (602269, ‘Lindsell’), turn left across ditch (fingerpost). In 200 m path bears left; cross stream and keep ahead to Tilty Mill (600267). Left through gate opposite mill; cross field and pass Tilty Abbey (600265) to road.

Turn right; in 400 m, 2 adjacent footpaths go left; take the first (597264, black wooden fingerpost) and follow Harcamlow Way (marked on map but not on ground). In ½ mile, at bottom of 2nd shallow dip, follow track to right (595256); in 200 m, left (YA) to cross road (594253). Over stile (YA); down track and through gate. Right (YAs and white arrows/WA) down right side of paddock; through gate at bottom (YA, WA); up field edge to road (594250). Right; in ½ mile, on right bend, keep forward (589245; fingerpost, blue arrow/BA) along green lane. In 100 m fork left and continue between stream and paddock; on between paddock fences. At Brookend stables (587242), bear left past house. Left along drive (YA) for just over a mile to Little Easton church.

Left by church gates (604235; fingerpost), through gates of Little Easton Manor; along drive with manor on left and barn on right; through gates beyond and on down field. Cross between two ponds (606239); ahead up fence with garden on right. Bear right round top of garden (BA); follow track to road in Little Easton (608241) with Stag Inn to your right. Left; right at village sign down Butchers Pasture, through gate at end (YA); cross footbridge and bear half left across field. Cross footbridge (610245); go straight ahead (not left) for 50 m, then turn right over another footbridge and stile. Bear left along right bank of stream (YA). Cross a stile (610247, YA); fork left, aiming for church; follow stream. In 300 m, by metal rails on left, turn right (608248) up right bank of a ditch. In 100 m, left across ditch (YA); follow path up to Great Easton.

LUNCH: Swan Inn, Great Easton (01371-870359; swangreateaston.co.uk); Stag Inn, Little Easton (01371-870214)

ACCOMMODATION: Swan Inn, as above

INFORMATION: Saffron Walden TIC (01799-524002);
visitessex.com www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

They dress their wells in the Peak District – always have, probably always will. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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The old springs and sources of Derbyshire are famous for the intricate way they are ornamented by the local people with pictures of flowers and seeds in high summer. But here in Middle Mayfield across the county boundary in Staffordshire, they’re proud to carry on this ancient pagan tradition, too, garlanding the village wells in June come rain, come shine.

On a close, steamy morning, with heatwaves and thunderstorms threatened, we passed three or four wells on our way up Hollow Lane out of the village, the dark still water concealed like a treasure behind gridded gates or wooden doors. Spatters of blue and white seeds and stones showed where they had been glorified only a month before. Now the dimpling sources lay in secret among the borage and comfrey, knapweed and moon daisies along Hollow Lane.

From the ridge at Ashfield Farm we had a view lent mystery by the thick grey heat – the misty woods and hayfields of the River Dove’s deep valley behind us, and the long bald head of Blake Low rising ahead. Then we plunged down through Gold’s Wood to walk the bank of the shallow, glass-brown Ordley Brook. The local geology seemed to be having an identity crisis – the houses were of beautiful sun-paled pink sandstone, but the abundant scabious where the butterflies were feeding spoke of lime beneath the soil. The knobbly old shaft of the medieval Ousley Cross beside the road was peppered with conglomerate pebbles – another puzzle.

A stony lane between fields of skittish cattle brought us up to Stanton, from where Flather Lane rose northwards under shady ash and hazels to leave us on the brink of Cuckoohill Wood and its steep little gorge. Here Ellis Hill Brook chuckled under giant hogweed and the sky-blue flowers of nettle-leaved bellflower.

After skirting Leasow and Ellishill Farm we dropped into the cleft and went south beside the brook through thickets of nettles and brambles. A stiff climb to the ridge once more, and we followed the ill-waymarked but lovely Limestone Way path across newly mown hayfields on the crest of the land, with a wonderful breeze to cool our sun-baked faces.

Start: Rose & Crown PH, Middle Mayfield, Staffs DE6 2JT (OS ref SK 148447)

Getting there: Bus 409 (arrivabus.co.uk) Ashbourne-Uttoxeter
Road – Middle Mayfield is on B5032 (off A52, 2 miles west of Ashbourne)

Walk (7½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer 259): Opposite Rose & Crown, up Hall Lane. Just past Old Hall, left up Hollow Lane (147449, fingerpost). In 500 m leave trees by stile (142448); ahead with hedge on left. Cross stile; bear half right, aiming right of Ashfield Farm, to cross stile (139448, 2 yellow arrows/YA). In 30 m, right through squeeze stile/SS (YA). Diagonally left, over stile beside right-hand of 2 gates. Follow right-hand hedge to cross concrete roadway (137447); in 50 m, right through gateway (no waymark); half left to cross SS. Follow hedge on your left. Through next SS; on past conifer plantation. At end, over wooden stile (133447); right to bottom of slope, left along wood edge. In 250 m, right through stile (132447, YA); down path through wood, curving right in 150 m to descend and cross Ordley Brook by footbridge (131448). Left along far bank for 700 m to road (126445). Ahead for 50 m to see remains of Ousley Cross on right.

Retrace path along Ordley Brook. In 200 m cross side stream; in another 50 m, left (128447) through stile gap (YA, ‘Weaver Walk’/WW). Follow path through wood to stile out of trees (128448, WW). Forward to stone wall; left along it (YA, WW). Soon path becomes grassy lane. In a little over ½ mile, at a gate by Smithy Moor Farm (131457), don’t turn right (YA), but go through gate ahead (fingerpost) and on up farm track for ¼ mile to road on outskirts of Stanton (130460). Left; in 150 m, right up Flather Lane.

In ½ mile, after passing silage clamp on right, continue along wide grassy lane. Descend to cross stile (131472, YA); then steeply down to Cuckoohill Wood. Cross stony gap in bottom left corner of field (131473); bear left along stream bank for 50 m; cross footbridge and up steps to cross stile into field. Bear left and follow line of electricity poles across field to cross stile/kissing gate into field just south of Leasow (132477). Right along fence for 100 m; right over triple stile (YA); half left to cross double stile (133477). Half left to go through SS by holed stone. Aim for Ellishill Farm across field, and through SS.

NB Path is currently being diverted to pass left of house – please watch for signs! At time of writing, path passes close to right of house (134474) and continues for 50 m to go through wall gap (135473). Ahead along ridge with hedge on left and valley on right. In 100 m (135472), diagonally right down slope to bottom edge of field. 100 m from end of field, right over stile into wood (135469, YA). Follow path (can be very overgrown!) south for ½ mile on left (east) bank of brook. Just beyond stile out of wood, pass well and standing stone (137464) to Stanton Lane (138462).

Left up lane, past Harlow Farm drive. In another 150 m, at top of hill, right through gate (142464, arrow) on Limestone Way (labelled as such on map). Through SS above farm and on; at next gate, through stile on left of it (143461). On with hedge on right, through gateway (YA); half left across field to stile (144459, YA); on with hedge on left to double stile (YA). Across field to SS (YA); halfway across next field, right through hedge (143455, stile, YA) and left along green lane. Cross stile by metal gate; same at next one. In another 70 m, left (142452, YA, WW on your right) up hedge, over ridge and down through stile in left corner of field (143451, YA). Descend with hedge on left for ¼ mile to lane by Old Hall (148449). Right into Middle Mayfield.

Lunch/Accommodation: Rose & Crown, Middle Mayfield (01335-342498; roseandcrownmayfield.com). NB Closed Sunday evening, all Monday; but B&B operates 7 days.

Middle Mayfield Well Dressing 2014: Sat 14 June, 11 a.m.

Info: Ashbourne TIC (01335-343666); visitpeakdistrict.com

visitengland.com www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

The Fox Goes Free at deep-sunk Charlton is one of my favourite Sussex pubs, especially when it’s warm enough to sit in the garden with a pie and a pint, looking out across the flint wall and over the grazing sheep in the meadow beyond to the double swell of Levin Down and North Down. First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Those seductive hills soon called Jane and me away, up along North Lane and past open sheds at Ware Barn full of hay bales and sacks of wool from last year’s clip. Old-man’s-beard hung soft and white in the hedges, and loose flints chinked under our boots as we climbed a dark holloway through an old yew grove.

From the broad whaleback of Levin Down we had a wonderful southward prospect across Singleton’s grey houses huddled in their valley, over to the flags and white pavilions of Goodwood’s racecourse and the round knoll of The Trundle, crowned with the ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort. It’s a view from a patriotic wartime poster, a landscape worth fighting for, thousands of years of history rolling out in plain view. And if this is one of southern England’s great views, it’s outdone by the panorama from The Trundle itself – Chichester Cathedral spire, the twin grandstands of the racecourse, the sails of Halnaker windmill, the silvery windings of Chichester Harbour, the Isle of Wight lying like a cloud along the smoky blue bar of the sea.

On the ramparts of the fort we sat and stared. At the height of summer the race meeting aptly nicknamed ‘Glorious Goodwood’ fills the downland racecourse with noise and colour, but today it lay quiet, a green snake of grassy track rollercoasting below us between its white railings. A childhood memory came to Jane – watching an excavation at the foot of The Trundle, a female skeleton being unearthed, and the archaeologist pointing out the woman’s excellent teeth – ‘Because there were no sweeties in those days!’

The Trundle’s embanked fort was built well over 2,000 years ago, but the remnants of an enclosure three times as old underlie the stronghold. It’s a resonant place with a stupendous view. Two sparrowhawks skimmed the ramparts, hanging with heads down as they scanned the banks, and a pair of lovers lay in the long grass at the summit, talking quietly, as lovers have surely been doing here since long before men fortified the hill.

Start: Fox Goes Free Inn, Charlton, West Sussex PO18 0HU (OS ref SU 889130)

Getting there: Bus – Service 99 (pre-book on 01903-264776; compass-travel.co.uk), Petworth-Chichester
Road – Charlton is signed off A286 Chichester-Midhurst road at Singleton.

Walk (7 miles, easy/moderate, OS Explorer 120): From Fox Goes Free, right along road; in 150m, right at crossroads up North Lane. In ⅔ mile, a footpath forks to right (891140), but you keep to track; in 200m, left (bridleway fingerpost). Track climbs through trees; in 350m, near top, you pass yellow arrow/YA footpath marker on left; in another 100m at T-junction, go left (889145, ‘Singleton’) through gate. Bear half right across open grassland of Levin Down between 2 woods to far corner of Lady Wood on right (886143); follow fence over skyline for ¼ mile to gate (883138). On for 100m; bear right past fingerpost for 300m to kissing-gate (880135, ‘New Lipchis Way’); descend to cross road in Singleton (879132).

Bear half left across green; on between houses; in 100m, right (880131) along The Leys. At T-junction, dogleg right and left past houses, across end of recreation ground, past church gate to T-junction at end of churchyard (878130). Left (YA, ‘The Trundle’). Through farmyard, up steep grass path and on for ¾ mile to lane (880119). Right to cross road (880113); follow fingerposts up steps and path to The Trundle hillfort. From summit (877111), left/east past ‘Monarch’s Way/MW’ arrow on post, through wood to join track; left (MW) to road (882110) opposite Goodwood Racecourse.

Right along verge; in 250m, left (883107) beside road past racecourse on grass verges/woodland edge for 1 mile. 100m past end of racecourse, turn left (897114); hairpin back left along first track of several, through gateway (unwaymarked), following Chalk Road track for 1¼ miles back to Charlton.

Lunch: Fox Goes Free, Charlton (01243-811461, foxgoesfree.com)

Goodwood Racecourse: goodwood.co.uk

Information: Chichester TIC (01243-775888; visitsussex.org)

www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk

Where to walk in the Leicestershire Wolds, that rolling landscape lying east of the county capital, so beautifully maintained by its farmers and landowners, so overlooked and undervalued by the walking community at large? First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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A glance at the map showed a ring of villages all named ‘Langton’ – Tur Langton, Church Langton, East Langton, Thorpe Langton – each with its own prospering pub. ‘I’ll drive,’ Jane volunteered, unselfishly. Right, then. Half a pint in each, and a damn good walk to link them up and shake the ale down.

Tur Langton sits on the roof of the Wolds, handsome, settled and comfortable with its houses of dark gold stone and its Victorian Italianate church. Glossy horses cropped the Manor’s paddocks and shook themselves for pleasure – ‘Glad to be rid of their winter jackets,’ said the woman tending them. We followed a path through fields of young wheat and of oil-seed rape so intensely yellow under this morning’s sun that it hurt the eye to gaze on it. A yellowhammer sat on a wire, giving out its characteristic chatter and wheeze. Its head and breast were yellow, too, but of a shade so subtly rich as to put the brashly glaring rape to shame.

In Church Langton, a half of Old Golden Hen outside the Langton Arms, to the nostalgic chime of church bells. At East Langton, a half of smoky-flavoured, locally brewed Caudle Bitter, in the garden of the Bell, to the intrusive splutter of a microlight overhead. Never mind – the beer was great, and so was the walking, moving on over ridge-and-furrow fields where medieval villagers ploughed and sowed before the more profitable sheep usurped them. At the Bakers Arms in Thorpe Langton, a tasty half of Bakers Dozen from the village’s own Langton Brewery, and we went floating along the lilac-fringed lane that led up to the high spot of the walk, the summit of Langton Caudle hill. A view to take your breath, a view to all quarters – a landscape sailing and billowing with yellow rape and green corn, patched with thick brown ploughland under a huge blue and white sky.

Down in Stonton Wyville, grassy lanebanks showed the layout of an abandoned medieval village. In a sheltered hollow near Tur Langton we found the square-mouthed well where in 1645 King Charles I, in flight from disastrous defeat nearby at the Battle of Naseby, stopped to give his horse a drink. It was poignant to picture the beaten man in bitter contemplation by the pool, a fugitive from his own subjects in the wide land where he was no longer king.

Start: Crown Inn, Tur Langton, Leics LE8 0PJ (OS ref SP 713946)

Getting there: Bus service 44 (centrebus.info), Fleckney-Foxton
Road – Tur Langton is on B6047, 1 mile north of Church Langton (signed off A6 Leicester – Market Harborough road)

Walk (8½ miles, easy, OS Explorer 233): From Crown Inn, right (west) along street. At right bend (710946), ahead down The Manor drive (fingerpost). Immediately right over stile; follow yellow-topped posts (YTP) and yellow arrows (YA) through paddocks and round farm buildings. In field with chapel ruins, cross stile (708945), then ahead down right side of field. Path bends left along field edge past moat. At bottom of slope (704941), blue arrow points left along left bank of stream; this is wrong! Ignore, and cross stream; right along right stream bank. In 400m, left over footbridge (704937, YTP, YA); up field with hedge on right, following YTP/YA towards Church Langton church tower.

Cross road in Church Langton (722932); by Langton Arms pub signboard, enter pub car park. In 30m, right over stile; left to cross next stile (YTP); follow YTPs to road (725931). Right to T-junction (725929); cross road and stile (fingerpost); at bottom of field, left through gate (726928, YTP); on to reach road opposite Bell Inn, East Langton (727927). Left for 50m; right (fingerpost) up path beside Yew Tree Cottage. Cross stile (728927); across field to cross stile (YTP, YA) by last house on left. Narrow hedged path to road (728926). Left; through kissing gate and follow ‘Leicestershire Round’ (LR) for nearly 1 mile to pass church in Thorpe Langton. At T-junction beyond church (741924) left to road. Right; just before Bakers Arms, left (741925, LR) down lane. At ford, keep right over right-hand bridge (743930, LR); follow LR for ¾ mile up to trig point at summit of Langton Caudle hill (795942).

Walking on from trig point, ignore YTP ahead and to right; keep to left-hand hedge in corner of field, left through gate (BA, YTP), follow BA, YTP for ½ mile down to lane (738946). Right to cross road (737948); ahead (‘No Through Road’) into Stonton Wyville. At right bend, left (736951, YTP) through iron gate; half left across field to YTP; right along hedge. At far end of lumpy ground of Stonton Wyville medieval village (735949), aim half right for YTP and cross footbridge (733949). On to go through hedge gap (YTP); left (YA) up field edge with hedge on left. Follow YTP past King Charles’s Well (722949) and on to Tur Langton. Cross road (715946); down road opposite, to reach Crown Inn.

Lunch: Crown, Tur Langton (01858-545264): Langton Arms, Church Langton (01858-545181); Bell Inn, East Langton (01858-545278); Bakers Arms, Thorpe Langton (01858-545201).

Accommodation: Nevill Arms, Medbourne, Leics LE16 8EE (01858-565288; thenevillarms.net)
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