Barrowden, Harringworth, Seaton, Barrowden

The weather forecast for the area in which we were planning to walk today was for wall-to-wall sunshine, but at home in Norfolk, the sunshine was forecast to be preceded by a couple of hours of fog, However, there were no signs of fog when we woke, or at any time until we left home around 8.30 am, and we reckoned that by waiting until then to set off, the temperature would be sufficiently high for comfortable walking by the time we had driven to Barrowden. We drove through a patch of fog near Nordelph, where the road runs alongside a river, but we were soon out of it again, and the temperature had reached the dizzy heights of 4 degrees Celsius by the time we'd reached our parking place by the cricket club and recreation ground in Barrowden (at SK948004, the same place as we'd parked last week). The temperature continued to rise as we were walking and there were delightful signs of spring; the flowering snowdrops, aconites and crocuses from last week had been joined by daffodils and - delight of delights - there were baby lambs in some of the fields. It was rather muddy in places though!

From our parking place, we headed down Tippings Lane and past the Exeter Arms to the point near the duck pond where we'd left the Jurassic Way last time we were here. We continued past an attractive farmhouse and,  on another house, a plaque commemorating 150 years of Thomas Cook Travel. Thomas Cook apparently came to Barrowden in 1828 as a Baptist preacher and married the Baptist Chapel's Sunday School teacher; they apparently married at St Peter's Church because the Baptist Chapel wasn't licensed for weddings. The couple lived in Barrowden for a while, Thomas Cook returning to his previous trade as a cabinet maker before later organising his first "excursion" and, with his son, forming the travel company that bore his name.

Just as we were leaving the village, the route turned onto Station Road and then into a field full of sheep and lambs. The lambs were tiny and hadn't learnt that strange human walkers are to be avoided, but our presence caused their mothers some distress. Two walkers who we met in the next field commented that they would give the lambs a wide berth; that's tricky when one is lying right next to the gate! In the next field, a line of poles with white ties attached led to our onward route alongside a disused railway line. 

There were good views back to Barrowden Church, though the direction in which the Sun was shining made photography difficult. To the north of Barrowden, we also noticed two peculiar red brick structures; later research revealed that these were apparently built around 1915 by prisoners of war for the roasting of iron ore from an adjacent opencast mine, before the iron was transported away on the railway. However, the mine was closed before the kilns had been used.  We crossed to the opposite side of the now-disused railway line, and started to get our first views of the impressive 82-arch Welland Viaduct, also known as the Harringworth Viaduct. That carries a still-functional train line!

We'd been walking approximately parallel to the River Welland, which meandered on its way a short distance to our left.  We climbed up to a track which crossed the river at Turtle Bridge, thus leaving Rutland behind. Rutland makes something of a fuss about its county boundary; here there was a sign even though we were on a muddy track not a tarmacked road! It turned out that we hadn't had our last encounter with either the river or the county for today, but it was our final crossing of the River Welland on the Jurassic Way, and the route does not return to Rutland.  After flowing through Stamford (where we'd first met it on the Jurassic Way), the River Welland flows on to join the Wash at Welland Mouth.  We'd encountered that end of the river several times when we were on the Lincolnshire section of the Kings Charles III England Coast Path at the end of last year (finally watching The Haven and the Welland flow into the Wash when we were walking as close to the sea as you can get, between Boston and Freiston Shore);  The Welland had begun to feel like an old friend!

Returning to today's walk: On Turtle Bridge, we passed a family with a young dog, and on a path that we took diagonally across the fields on the other side, we met a woman with an older dog that was apparently celebrating its 11th birthday; we gave it a fuss! The path is very close to the river at this point and we'd worried it might be very wet underfoot, so we'd been reassured when we saw the dog-walker coming towards us. It was fine to start with, but we had to go through a gate on the final approach to Harringworth, and there was an enormous puddle here.

The view to Harringworth now made it look as if the Welland Viaduct was actually in the village, immediately behind the Church! By now we'd decided that we would continue past the village to take a closer look at the viaduct, and we'd noticed that if we continued to Seaton we could join the Rutland Round and return to Barrowden on that route. Thus our planned short there-and-back walk turned into a slightly longer circuit, exploring more of Rutland's rolling countryside and pretty villages. First of all, we completed our walk across the field to reach Wakerley Road at Harringworth Manor Stables. I think the field we were crossing must belong to the stables (there had clearly been horses grazing here) and,  on this Saturday morning, the village seemed a horsey place. As we reached the road a couple of horse riders passed us, and on the other side of the village, we passed a group of adults leading ponies on which children were riding.

We turned right at Wakerley Road, leaving the Jurassic Way, which turns left along the road. We passed the attractive Market Cross then turned right onto Seaton Road towards the Church. We stopped for a quick look, though photography was difficult because of the position of trees in the churchyard. I pointed out what I called gargoles, but Richard thought I might have the name wrong. He was right; what we were looking at are called "grotesques" (gargoles have a function - directing water away from the building - while grotesques are purely ornamental). Leaving all of that behind, we left the village, continuing towards the viaduct, and crossed back over the River Welland. The county border was not exactly on the line of the river here, but it wasn't long before we were back in Rutland!

After passing the group of riders mentioned earlier, we reached the Welland Viaduct, a most impressive structure,  apparently the UK's longest viaduct across a valley. It was constructed in 1870 on a train line between Oakham and Kettering, via Corby. Thanks to the Beeching cuts, passenger trains on the line were discontinued, though freight continued, but now two trains a day operate; a good news story. From the viaduct, we climbed up, past what is obviously a former station (on the dismantled railway line we were following earlier, not the line over the viaduct). The railway lines round here are complicated! 

We continued to climb, with stunning views back to the viaduct (though it was difficult to photograph because of the direction of the Sun). We eventually reached the turning to Seaton, which is where the Rutland Round crosses. Before following the Rutland Round to the east, we went a little way to the west, into the village. There was a conveniently placed bench, and after going a little further, past the "George and Dragon" (which looks like a possible place to stay) and on to All Hallows Church, we returned to the bench and had our lunch there.  A group of walkers came past, having also started from Barrowden (and we suspect having followed the route of the Rutland Round along which we would return to Barrowden). We discussed the mud!

The first stretch on the Rutland Round was easy walking, on a minor road that maintained its height and also maintained the good views to the Welland Viaduct, though the direction of the Sun still made photography difficult. Eventually,  to the north of the Viaduct, where the railway was in a tunnel beneath us, the road curved round to the right and descended, before climbing again.  It's an attractive little section. However, the route of the Rutland Round left the road before the first bend, and from here our route lay across the fields to Morcott. We guessed almost straight away that it was going to be muddy, because there was mud on the top of the stile we crossed as we left the road, presumably from the boots of the walking group who had passed us as we ate our lunch. This mud quickly transferred itself to our hands! The section immediately after the stile was particularly slippery, as the path descended.

The route took us through a tunnel under yet another section of disused railway line, and a man with a dog was waiting at the far side of the tunnel for us to pass, which meant we couldn't photograph the tunnel. The man, who  told us he lived in Morcott, explained that he was waiting for us to pass because he too wanted to take a photograph. So he'll have got his picture in the end, but we didn't! We continued across the fields,  getting closer to the traffic and a petrol station on the A43 ahead. Eventually, we reached, and crossed,  the A43, taking the minor road towards Morcott on the far side. The Rutland Round almost immediately took a path across a field to the right, thus omitting the centre of Morcott. We wanted to do justice to Morcott, so we instead continued along the road to the village centre and then turned right. It's a pretty village, though the church looks to have had bits added at different times. We stopped at a seat in the churchyard to eat a piece of fruit.

The road we were following through the village led to an A-road and we were initially confused to discover that we weren't back at the A43. We had instead reached the A6121, which had parted company with the A43 just slightly to the south to head towards Stamford. We crossed the A6121 then took a charming path across farmland and then through an attractive wooded section to reach the A43 eventually.  We crossed and almost immediately turned into Morcott Road, with Morcott Windmill on the right-hand side.  We'd first noticed the windmill, from the outward leg of our walk this morning, but then it had just been peeking over the top of a ridge. Now, the direction of the Sun and the surrounding vegetation made the windmill just about impossible to photograph.

Morcott Road took us all the way back to Barrowden and, from the village pond, we turned off the route to visit St Peter's Church.  The open, ground-floor bell-ringing chamber confirmed the presence in the tower of the six bells we'd heard last weekend, and orders of service lying around the church offered an explanation for why they'd been ringing -  there had been a wedding. From the Churchyard we watched the antics of the lambs in the field beyond, and we got our best view of the distinctive disused iron-ore kilns near the disused railway line.