It rhymes with 'totem' ...

... that's Gotham, a few miles south of Nottingham.

I set off down the M1 last Sunday, thinking I'd be there in next to no time ... and I would have, if the motorway hadn't been subject to a 50mph speed limit because it's being widened.

Parking near the church, I walked along the road towards the south. Just on the edge of the village is the site of some gypsum mines. I walked up the bridleway to the side ...

The bridleway comes out into a field below the Cuckoo Bush. The view behind is fairly flat ...



I'd been following the Gotham Heritage Trail and saw their waymark quite a few times ...



The Cuckoo Bush is an ancient tumulus but in more recent times, but still a few hundred years ago, local people tried to cage a cuckoo nearby in the hope that summer would last all year round. Then the crops would grow and there would be work and food for the peasants ...

On reaching Leake New Wood I could just see the tall chimney of Ratcliffe on Soar power station sticking up above the woodland.



I'd already seen more walkers and horse riders than I had on the whole of my last walk in Nottinghamshire.

Underfoot there was a crunch of dead leaves ...



I came out of the wood, looking towards [somewhere in the distance] Kegworth and Sutton Bonnington ...



I followed the footpath in the photo above as it ran alongside the hedgeline. The path had not been ploughed up !  Now what's the betting that if we had been in Derbyshire it would have been ploughed ~ or overgrown and uneven.



At the far side of this field I turned round and looked back from whence I had come ...



As I walked back towards the woods, on a different bridleway, there were signs of violent death strewn across the track ~ the remains of the prey ?



Not all of Nottinghamshire is flat ...



As I was passing Hillside Farm, I caught a glimpse of Gotham again in the valley ...



I climbed Soldiers Lane and noticed a pillbox to my right. Hard to believe that 70 years ago, we were afraid of being invaded.



There were a couple of horses at the gate, just dying to be photographed.



Also by the gate was another Gotham Heritage Trail interpretation panel. You may have to enlarge it to read it ... but it's worth it ...



A bridleway runs along Gotham Hill and beside Gotham Hill Wood there's this block of stone ~ a boundary stone or a mounting block ? Too small for the latter surely ... 



 Back in Gotham, near the church, I saved a life. I say it modestly ... it was just an insect, a shield beetle I think. You can just see it on the right hand side of the photo below ...



It had been caught in a tatty cobweb.

Then I had a burger in the Cuckoo Bush [a pub].

Date of walk ~ 11th October 2009

Length of walk ~ 5 1/4 miles.


Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 43 3/4 miles

Our days on the Earth are as a shadow

I didn't see one other walker ... and by that I mean another walker with a rucksack. I walked seven miles on a beautiful, sunny day in pleasant surroundings and didn't see one. There were dog walkers. There were fishermen. There were people messin' around on boats ... but no 'real' walkers ...

I parked just over Townend Bridge on the northern side of Hayton in Nottinghamshire and walked east and then north on Hollinhill Lane ...

I was heading towards a trig point on a Hill Without A Name, at least according to the OS Map ...



The trig point was nowhere to be seen when I got there.

I passed through Ash Holt and for some reason my senses seemed heightened, perhaps because I was alone ...



I reached the lane and walked up Haughgate Hill and could see Cottam Power Station in the valley five or six miles away ...



From here I strolled down the Roman Road towards North Wheatley but before I got there I  turned north along Northfield Leys Road, following the Trent Valley Way, nearly missing the waymark which was just about overgrown in the hedgebottom ...



 A tiny toad, no bigger than my thumbnail, just managed to avoid being crushed underfoot.

There were clumps of teazles.



 I walked through the main street of Clayworth, an attractive village beside the Chesterfield Canal, with a 12th century church ~ St. Peter's ...



And the church has an interesting sundial, which was a bit slow ...



 The words on the sundial read "Our days on the Earth are as a shadow".

Then it was down the lane opposite to join the Chesterfield Canal which I followed all the way back to Hayton.



On the way I passed the moorings of the Retford and Worksop Boating Club ~ there must have been nearly half a mile of boats, most of them narrow ...



Look, no one to be seen.



Beside the canal, a milestone, 3.5 miles from ... where ?



A milestone erected by a husband in memory of his wife ...



Before long I was back in Hayton where I dropped in at the Boat Inn for a hot dinner and a pint of Highland Whisky Ale brewed by Davenports. The same Davenports who used to do 'beer at home' I wondered ...



Date of walk ~ 4th October 2009



Length of walk ~ 7 miles.


Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 38 1/2 miles

Along the Cuckoo Way ...

The sun was shining brightly as I parked beside Shireoaks Marina, near Worksop, last Saturday to try and finalise a walk around Worksop for my next Pocket Pub Guide ...

Initially I walked along the Chesterfield Canal towards Worksop itself and passed the Lock Keeper. Just beyond this I swung right to cross the Worksop bypass. I managed it but I wouldn't want to ask walkers to do it regularly or in a group. Crossing the dual carriageway [even near a roundabout] should be avoided wherever possible !

I continued west towards Manor Lodge and Lady Lee, walking alongside the River Ryton ...

Near what used to be a pub, Manor Lodge, I turned north towards Lady Lee and Rhodesia. Just as I entered Rhodesia, I noticed this on a gate ...



There's been quite a lot of trouble with these noisy irritating vehicles on the edge of towns. I would imagine some of the local kids have been racing them along the bridleway I had just walked along. If a horse and rider had been coming the other way just think what could have happened.
Now it seems the Police can seize the vehicles [and destroy them ?]. Hurrah !

Almost as soon as I got into Rhodesia I was walking out of it, towards the Chesterfield Canal.

Just before I reached it I crossed this wooden stile ...



It just struck me as such an English scene.

I walked up the embankment to the canal and had a look along it, towards Rhodesia and the lock before the railway bridge ...



I skirted Shireoak, walking around the southern side of it. I passed Shireoaks Hall ...



I rejoined the canal half a mile east of Turnerwood and walked through some of the loveliest countryside you could imagine. The sun seemed to encourage the fish to rise near the surface much more than when I had walked through this area a few weeks ago.

Then there was the piling that British Waterways is undertaking, to shore up the canal bank here and there ...



  It's obviously much more mechanised than it used to be ...



It was getting so warm that I was kicking myself for not wearing my shorts though there was the shade along the side of the canal from the trees. This was welcome ...



When I reached Turnerwood I called at the last cottage on the right and had another ice cream from the little redbrick kiosk there. Apparently they only opened 'Orchard Teas @ Turnerwood' four months or so ago. It's a nice idea and I hope it goes well. They just sell local ice cream, tea and coffee but an ice cream in particular was very welcome on this hot day.

In the next photo the 'last cottage on the right' is out of picture to the left ...



With ice cream cone in hand I walked away from the canal towards Brancliffe Grange. The path follows the canal feeder all the way to the Grange.



Once you get to the Grange the canal feeder keeps straight on, rising gently all the time of course, before it wheels through 180 degreees to enter the woodland of Moses Seat to the north of the grange. I turned right on reaching the bridleway into the wood and then left, in front of Dove Cottage ...



Just beyond Dove Cottage I turned southward along a bridleway towards the railway line ...



A couple of fields later I was back beside the canal and walking east ...

The Cuckoo Way runs along the Chesterfield Canal for its entire journey except where the canal no longer exists ... and where the canal passes through Norwood Tunnel. Here's one of the Cuckoo Way signs in Shireoaks ...



So then it was back to the marina ...

 Date of walk ~ 26th September 2009

Length of walk ~ 6 1/2 miles.


Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 31 1/2 miles.

My Monyash Teashop walk ...

After the smashing weather on the Saturday, we went out locally the next day, from Monyash.

It was a much duller day ...

We managed to find a space in the small car park in the village and walked across the fields to Cross Lane. Natasha was deep in thought ...



I don't think there was anything on her mind in particular, it was just one of those days. She soon picked up when we got out Sainsbury's Fruit & Nut Mix ...



We then walked over a mile along Huttmoor Butts [which always sounds like a porn star for some reason].~ I know, you're shocked.  

At the end of Huttmoor Butts, there's a donkey sanctuary at Newton Farm.

Even the donkeys seemed melancholy ...



We crossed the A515 by the Bull i' th' Thorn and crossed the field towards the High Peak Trail, walking up the side of the Trail ...



We turned right with a view to walking towards the Duke of York on the A515. Beside the Trail a bull was having a scratch against a farmgate ... 



 We then crossed the A515 near the Duke of York, another pub 'under new management', and walked across the fields towards Flagg. The path in the field before Pasture Barn had been ploughed up but it was good to see the farmer had restored the path by running his tractor across the field.



Many people think it strange, or indeed wrong, to walk across a field with a crop though if it's a field of grass [which can be a crop] it's okay. What many people forget is that the path has probably been there a damn site longer than the field ... and this from a farmer's son !



 No sooner had we reached Flagg than we turned right away from it following the Limestone Way back to Monyash. On the way we passed Dalehouse Farm ...



It seems likely that it has been a few years since this was a farm ... or perhaps I'm doing them a disservice.

We turned right again, back along the road towards Monyash, passing the pinfold.





Then it was off to the Old Smithy for a cup of tea and a rather large and enjoyable bacon bap.

Date of walk ~ 13th September 2009


Length of walk ~ 5 1/2 miles.

Total since 1st September 2009 ~ 25 miles.