Bardney to Horncastle

It had rained in the night, though perhaps not quite as much as it sounded like from our railway wagon, and on the basis of last night's weather forecast, I was worried that it might rain all day. However, the only rain we had stopped by the time we put our waterproofs on, and the sun came out in the afternoon. We had another excellent walk.

Barry cooked us a lovely breakfast and told us more about the Heritage Centre and the B&B/fish and chips/cafe/cycle hire that he runs with his partner Lynn. We left around 9.15 and walked back towards the centre of the village then right along a track shared with the Water Rail Trail. There were a few dog walkers about, and views back to Bardney and to the sugar beet factory. We noticed that it didn't appear to be processing (we live near the Wissington sugar beet factory and know the signs!) and a quick Google search later told us that it was Lincolnshire's 'first and last' beet factory, processing from 1927 to 2001.

The Viking Way and the Water Rail Way part company just before Southrey Wood and we took Barry's advice and followed the Water Rail Way rather than the Viking Way, just as far as Southrey. The disadvantages of doing this were that the route was slightly longer and that the surface was tarmacked. However I am pleased that we took this route. We saw one of the sculptures on the trail (pigs foraging - and someone had helpfully given them some apples!) and when we reached the river it was delightful.

We left the Water Rail Way at the former Southrey Station and walked up through the village. Southrey appears to be pronounced in exactly the same way as Southery (a village in West Norfolk close to where we live), and you could easily mistake the landscape in the two areas, both fenland and river. Then suddenly we came across the little weatherboarded and whitewashed Church of St. John the Divine, and we could have been way out west! Apparently the Church was built as a temporary structure...in 1898.

We continued to meander our way around field boundaries and the edges of woods, with the landscape feeling increasingly like Thetford Forest, with clumps of pine trees and distant views to caravan sites. We reached the edge of Woodhall Spa and took a passageway through a modern housing estate, then walked down to the Edwardian centre. We stopped for lunch at Janet's Tea Room, a delightfully old-fashioned place, full of memorabilia, especially wartime memorabilia. Janet's Tea Room are right opposite Royal Square, site of the former Royal Hotel which was bombed in WWII and is now home to the 'Dambusters' memorial. 617 Squadron (The Dambusters ) was stationed at RAF Woodhall Spa from 1944 until the end of the war.

I can't say I liked Woodhall Spa very much (the mock tudor toilet block says it all) but the walk from Woodhall Spa to Horncastle was very much more interesting and enjoyable than I'd expected. Initially we walked next to the National Golf Centre's Bracken Course then we crossed the Hotchkin Course, apparently consistently rated amongst the world's best heathland golf courses (currently the 4th 'best' golf course in England) and a SSSI. There were not too many golfers about and it was a pleasant walk.

We reached a minor road and turned right, then left onto a disused railway line, formerly the Woodhall Spa to Horncastle line and now the 'Spa Trail'. This was perhaps the most interesting trail along a railway line that we've ever followed. The information boards were genuinely interesting (we particularly enjoyed the story of the wartime training exercise in which the troops managed to 'storm HQ' by catching the train right under the noses of the guards; it sounds delightfully like Dad's Army) and there was a series of attractive sculptures, including a Viking longboat (to acknowledge the Viking Way) and three 'nature magnified' sculptures which made us feel small, like Alice in Alice in Wonderland.

The Spa Trail initially took us through woodland, then more open countryside, and finally it followed the banks of the River Bain (Horncastle Canal). We crossed to the other side of the canal and continued alongside it, eventually following a waterway to the right towards Horncastle town centre, and then crossing a main road and taking a passageway past the parish church to the market square. A very helpful man, out dog walking with his family, ensured that we knew the right way to go.