Flore to Badby

Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 17th October 2020

7.8 miles (3 hours 30 mins including lunch break), 7 miles on route of Nene Way

For photographs of this leg of the Nene Way (including the false start) click here

We had attempted this walk on Sunday 4th October, but we should have realised when we saw the flooding near our flat in the village of Simpson in Milton Keynes that we might encounter similar issues in the Nene Valley. Fortunately we hadn't walked far from Flore when we encountered an impassable section of path, at the first crossing of the River Nene; there was a perfectly decent footbridge across the river but the flooding meant we couldn't get to it. At that stage we'd thought we'd be facing a substantial delay before returning to the Nene Way, as we were expecting to be taking it in turns to stay with our daughter and son-in-law in Wiltshire to help out around the time of the birth of our first grandchild. However, somewhat to our surprise, Albert had made his appearance on 11th and everything was going so well that we'd retreated for a while to give the little family some time by themselves. So we unexpectedly had some time for walking, and we were in Simpson en route between Wiltshire and Denver - perfect for a second attempt at the final leg of the Nene Way, and the weather was also favourable. The Nene Way as a whole had been a rather better walk than we'd expected, but I think it's fair to say we'd saved one of the very best legs until last.

The weather forecast gave a low probability of rain, but suggested that it would be a dull day, so we were pleasantly surprised when the sun came out as we drove north up the A5 and we also had occasional sunshine during the morning. We parked one car in the little car park near Badby Wood, on Chapel Lane Badby (SP564589). When we were here a fortnight ago this car park was just about full, as it was by the time we left this afternoon; we didn't have any difficulty parking this morning but it is worthy of note that there are also parking spaces around the Green in Badby and people seem to park in the passing places further east along Chapel Lane too, though I feel these should probably left in order to serve the function for which passing places are intended. We drove back in the other car, via Newnham and Weedon Bec, to Flore, where we parked in the same excellent place as we'd used on the previous leg, on The Avenue at SP643599, opposite the School.

The route of the Nene Way passes our parking place and continues along to the Church and across the attractive churchyard, emerging at the other side onto a good path across a field to the River Nene (the point at which we'd abandoned the walk last time). Today the River Nene was comfortably constrained within its banks and there was no longer a lake between dry land and the footbridge! We continued across another footbridge and so to the A5. On the other side of the road, a track led to the Grand Union Canal, at a bridge where we had noticed the Nene Way sign when walking along the canal back in April 2018. We turned right alongside the canal for a couple of hundred metres, past Weedon Wharf and towards Weedon Bec, with the busy main West Coast railway line just over the other side of the canal (which is the case for much of this section of the canal). Just as we were about to leave the canal so as to pass underneath it we noticed a familiar person on a canal boat. Amazingly, it was a former research student and colleague of mine who lives on a canal boat. So I knew he'd be on the canal network somewhere, and probably not too far from MIlton Keynes, but it was nevertheless a very pleasant surprise to happen across him right here!

After stopping for a chat we descended the steps from the tow path to the road which led through a tunnel under the canal. On the far side we were surprised to see a Nene Way sign apparently pointing back to the canal, but we only followed it to the churchyard of Weedon Bec Church and then we took a path across the churchyard. It was nice to walk past the Church as, somewhat frustratingly, we'd walked above it and the rest of the village when on the Grand Union Canal Path. Today our route continued around the minor streets of the village and emerged into lovely rolling countryside, albeit on a road.

At a T junction we took a track straight ahead and continued with the glorious views in all directions. We crossed a tributary of the Nene by a little weir, and noticed a distinctive ridge and furrow landscape. When we stopped to photograph this we also noticed some rather ominous black clouds; that wasn't what the weather forecast had said! Fortunately it didn't come to anything. We skirted around the delightful hamlet of Little Everdon and passed Everdon Hall; this really is an ancient landscape and here the ridges and furrows were very clear, partly because we were walking across them and the little climbs and descents felt quite steep in places, and partly because the sheep in the field sometimes aligned themselves picturesquely.

We crossed the River Nene again, stopping to say hello to a couple with a tractor and a sheepdog who were doing something further along the stream, perhaps rescuing sheep? Then we climbed to Newnham, which we already knew to be a pretty village as we'd driven through it twice this morning and also a couple of times on our abortive attempt to walk this leg of the path a fortnight ago. As we walked past spire, which is built on a tower over an open arch, Richard noticed a bench so we stopped for an early lunch (...becoming a trademark..).

We continued through Newnham on the main road then took a path to Badby. The infant River Nene was now to our left, with a ploughed field with red soil rising to our right and good views back to Newnham. Just before Badby the little brook did a sharp 90 degree turn to the right and we crossed it for the final time. A man had been following us but he continued alongside the "river"; it appears there is maybe an alternative route here, though it isn't shown on the map. We headed straight across the field which climbed towards Badby, expecting to do a 90 degree turn to the left at the far hedge boundary (and resisting the temptation to take the obvious path at 45 degrees). However at the far side we were surprised to see the Nene Way signs pointing straight ahead again.

So, where does the Nene Way actually end? It's not entirely clear. According to the Ordnance Survey map we should have turned left and emerged onto Chapel Lane. However, the Ordnance Survey hadn't bathed itself in glory for its mapping of the Nene Way. According to the signposts we did the right thing in keeping straight ahead and this brought us out onto the Green, perhaps a more suitable end point and the point at which I have decreed the Nene Way to end in calculating the lengths of today's walk at the top of this page. However, we continued through the village and climbed steeply up to the Church, which I feel would be the most fitting end point; it is also the starting point of the Knightley Way, thus removing the awkward gap between the two.