Great Easton to East Carlton and return

We’d reached the stage on the Jurassic Way where the starting point for each of our remaining walks was closer to our flat in Milton Keynes than our house in Norfolk, so it would be sensible to continue our progress on this path when we were in Milton Keynes. I'd been there plenty during the week, in the final run up to my retirement at the end of July, but we were trying to spend most of most weekends in Norfolk, where we were redecorating the whole house following its rewiring in April. We were certainly planning to be in Norfolk this weekend. Hmmm. As a compromise, we’d initially planned to walk this leg on Friday, when I was on my way between our two residences, but we’d realised that Richard would still have to drive from Norfolk and return there, and my usual journey from Milton Keynes would be extended by rather a lot - so it wouldn't really help at all. And I had a piece of work to do by the end of Friday. We abandoned that idea! We then considered all sorts of (slightly) nearer walks for today, but in the end decided that this was the one we wanted to do, whether it was sensible or not!

We'd spotted somewhere  suitable for parking place to the east of Great Easton, at SP852928, last time we were here. We had a straightforward journey and set off walking at 9.35am. Today we turned left at The Sun pub,  and headed up through the village. There was lots of thatch, with some interesting filials; my attention was drawn to a relatively newly thatched cottage, then Richard saw that it has a cat filial while the cottage next door bears a dog (shown above). Someone has a sense of humour. We turned left onto a footpath which climbed gently out of the village, across a ridge and furrow landscape and then a field of sheep.

After a section on a rather overgrown (nettly!) path we reached a path across a crop field, and so to the road between Bringhurst and Cottingham. We turned right on to the road, back to Bringhurst. It's a lovely place, with a pretty church, a 17th Century Manor House and some thatched cottages - one with an owl filial. Perhaps there is a local thatcher who specialises in these lovely creatures? The onward route led over two rather difficult-to-negotiate stiles and then steeply downhill onto a very clear path across the field. Great Easton and Bringhurst are both in Leicestershire, but part-way across the field, a little footbridge over a stream led us back into Northamptonshire.

We crossed a disused railway and, shortly afterwards, turned onto a track.  This is marked as "Occupation Road" on the OS map, and on the 2015 copyright paper copy we had with us, it is shown as a minor road. It's certainly not a road any more. In her 2023 copyright "Jurassic Way" book, Julia Thorley describes Occupation Road as "a rather unpleasant gravel path with some nasty holes and signs of fly-tipping". None of that was the case now either, it was actually a rather nice hedge-lined track. We could occasionally see traffic ahead of us, and just before we emerged onto what really was a road, we passed a barrier (which perhaps explains the lack of fly-tipping) and two parked cars.

The road ahead leads directly to the village of Middleton, but we weren't going that way, instead going on a fairly lengthy detour around the larger village of Cottingham, which Middleton runs into to the east. To get to the centre of Cottingham, Julia Thorley says "you will need to dive into a gap in the hedge on your left for a brief but unpleasant walk past the water treatment works...". We did indeed go through a gap in the hedge, and there was indeed a sewage works to our right, but the path we were on wasn't at all unpleasant - the works were well hidden by a hedge and there was no smell. We were having more luck that Julia Thorley and her husband!  We continued around the village. eventually reaching High Street (which was rather busy, perhaps because there is an obvious route along here to the A427) and turning right onto Church Street.

We encountered a couple of potential route-finding issues in the next little section. Firstly, at the end of Church Lane, we didn't realise that you need to climb up the steps (which give every impression of just heading to the churchyard) before turning right to continue along the path.  I had extreme difficulty photographing the Church from here, especially since I didn't want to go into the churchyard because the entrance was extremely close to the entrance to the church, where a service was taking place. Our second route-finding issue was along the end of the narrow path we were now on: a dog walker was approaching  through a stile or gate ahead of us, so we initially assumed that our route was the way he had come, onto a field. The correct route, as we - thankfully - realised pretty quickly, turns right before the stile/gate and meanders its way around and downhill into Middleton.

We turned right onto another road that might serve as a cut-through from the A627. This one, "The Hill", even has a road number (the B670), but this morning it seemed less busy than High Street had been.  We took a path on the left that led away from Middleton, with good views across the rolling countryside to our right.  On our left, we soon reached East Carlton Country Park, our destination for today, but it is a big place and we weren't sure which of the paths uphill through the trees we should take (answer: it probably doesn't matter!). We took a route that emerged past "The Dragon"  (a sculpture)  and  East Carlton Hall. From here we could see the stable block (which houses shops and a café) and the car park - and headed to the café for a cup of coffee,

East Cartlon Hall was built in 1870 in the style of a French chateau,  on the site of previous manor houses. Early in the 20th Century, large deposits of iron ore were found in the vicinity, and Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd ,  steel manufacturers from Glasgow, set up a steel works in nearby Corby, then a small village. They purchased the Hall and its grounds, building 59 houses to house senior staff and converting the hall into a hostel for unmarried staff. Steel manufacture continued in Corby until 1979, and East Carlton and its remaining grounds were later acquired by Corby Borough Council. The Hall is now apparently privately owned, but it makes an impressive backdrop to the country park. Given the history, and proximity to Corby, it is fitting that there are various artefacts connected with the Corby Steelworks in the park. There is also a children's playground, which was busy - as to be expected on a fine summer Sunday.

After drinking our coffee we went to look at East Carlton Church. Again the architecture was impressive - apparently it was built in the decorated gothic style - and in visiting the church we discovered the vehicular entrance to the country park (which is opposite East Carlton Church, not at the other end of the park where Google Maps shows it). We returned to East Carlton Country Park and explored it a little, and ate our picnic lunch sitting on one of the many benches scattered around the park. Then we headed back towards Great Easton, though from Middleton we took a much more direct route, simply heading down Ashley Road to the point where we had left Occupation Road, near the sewage works.

I remembered that somewhere to the north of Middleton and Cottenham, Julia Thorley's book mentions looking to the left (when coming in the opposite direction) for a "final view of Rockingham Castle", but I couldn't remember exactly where she said to do this. I was too lazy to get the book out of Richard's rucksack, so we started looking from Occupation Road and we did indeed soon catch a glimpse of the castle among the trees on the ridge to our right. We saw the castle again from several points, with the best view at this time of year, with the trees in full leaf, probably being from the path across the crop field on the approach to Bringhurst. The rest of the walk back to Great Easton and the drive home were both straightforward.