Harringworth to Gretton on a circuit

We'd known, when we left the Jurassic Way a fortnight ago, that today would be our first opportunity to return to it,  because we'd gone down to Wiltshire to see our daughter and her family last weekend. What we hadn't known was that Richard's mother would pass away soon after we got to Wiltshire; she was 99 and didn't have a great quality of life, but it was still a shock; we'd begun to think she'd live for ever.  We need to get all the funeral arrangements in place before I head off to the Isle of Wight for my niece's wedding next weekend, so the last week has been incredibly busy and we're expecting the next week to be likewise.  An additional complication is that our house needs to be rewired, so we'll be moving out of it for a fortnight immediately after the funeral on 7th April. So, our decision to go out walking today might seem a bit odd, but it was quite deliberate, to provide us with a break, a slice of normality and some exercise. I'm hoping to manage some walking when I'm on the Isle of Wight, but we know that we won't get the opportunity to go out walking together again until at least Easter, more than a month away.

We'd seen that we could walk a circuit including Harringworth and Gretton, by parking in the parking/picnic area (actually just a layby with two rather tatty picnic benches) marked on the OS map at SP906954, walking back along the road to Harringworth then following the Jurassic Way to Gretton, and back to the car along the road. The weather forecast had indicated a low but definite possibility of rain up to about 11 am, then very low probability thereafter. However, we hadn't expected the heavy showers that we drove through (though there was a stunning rainbow) and in particular we had not expected the heavy shower of hail just as we reached our parking place. Fortunately, after we'd waited in the car for 5-10 minutes, the hail had stopped, the sun had come out, and the various apps indicated that the probability of rain had diminished. The cloud built up occasionally while we were out walking, but there was no precipitation.

The road we followed to Harringworth was slightly busier than ideal for walking along, but not ridiculously so, and for most of the way there was a good grass verge to use when cars came past. Initially, there were good views over the Welland Valley, with Seaton  Church up on the hill on the other side and the entire length (more than a kilometre) of the Welland Viaduct could be seen linking the higher ground we were on to the higher ground on the Seaton side.  The road we were on descended and came closer to the railway, and on the left, we noticed a little memorial stone. The information board explained that the stone was placed here by the grieving vicar of Harringworth, following the death of his wife,  Fanny Maria Blaydes, in an accident here on 21st August 1884. Fanny had been returning from a visit to Gretton with friends, when the horse drawing their carriage took fright, Fanny was thrown from the carriage and died instantly but her friends escaped without injury.

A short tunnel brought us to the other side of the railway line,  with a former station now up to our right, then our road curved round to the right to pass back under the railway by way of one of the arches towards the southern end of the viaduct. We stopped admire and photograph the amazing structure from all angles. From here, the Sun was behind us as we photographed the viaduct, so less of a problem than when we'd passed under the viaduct further to the north and so been trying to take photographs to the south. We continued into Harringworth and took a short diversion so as to go inside St John the Baptist Church, which we had just admired from outside last time we were here.  I'm pleased we did this;  I don't know much about church architecture but it was a wider building than I'd expected, with (unusually for a village church - I think!), a vault over on the far side, apparently built by Moses Tryon who died in 1656 and used as as a burial place for members of the Tryon family until 1833. I was also impressed by the large stone font (12th Century apparently).

We continued our walk through Harringworth, rejoining the Jurassic Way by Harringworth Manor Stables. I was just thinking that there were fewer horses about than last time we were here (perhaps it was the weather or perhaps we were just earlier) when I friendly woman came walking towards us leading a heavy horse. We said hello and continued out of the village, The path veered away from the road and led up to the hamlet of Shotley. In the grounds of the final house, a robotic lawn mower was trunding backwards and forwards and nolsy crows were  gathering in a tree. Beyond, a stile led into us into field with sheep and lambs and the path continued alonside this field as it climbed and climbed, with lovely views opening up behind us to Shotley, Harringworth, the viaduct, and beyond. At the top of the hill we continued across more open land, crossing a road and eventually approaching Harringworth Lodge.

We passed a couple of dog walkers as the path wiggled to avoid the buildings then we reached the end of a delightful lake. It felt as if we were on a country estate of some sort, but it took me some time to work out that we were (again, I think!) on land owned by the Bulwick Estates, "home of the  Tryon and Conant families since 1619"; that's the Tryon family I mentioned in the context of the vault in Harringworth Church...Whatever,  the lake in front of Harringworth Lodge is a lovely peaceful place. We passed another dog-walker whose two dogs had just been swimming in the lake. The dog-walker looked a bit muddy, so I wondered what was ahead of us, but I needn't have worried. We turned right along a track that ran parallel to the lake (now to our right), with the woodland of Wood Coppice and Household Coppice to our left. At the far end of Household Coppice a felled tree-trunk provided a very suitable picnic place.

After following the track for another kilometre or so, we took a path across a field to the right. This was the bit that I'd thought would be muddy, but it wasn't and although the exact route wasn't always exactly clear, we had no difficulty finding our way to the outskirts of Gretton. We went to cross the road; Richard crossed but I dithered and nearly got run over by a car which was going far too fast and the driver appeared to speed up rather than slowing down when he saw me - and then he had the audacity to glare at me. Those  of you who know me can probably imagine my reaction. However, I survived, and from that point Gretton got better. We passed a delightful little "Pocket Park" and noticed that there was place to park alongside it; that will do nicely for next time.  In the centre of the village, the route of the Jurassic Way turned left, but we continued slightly further to visit the delightful Church. The east window is distinctly wonky, presumably because of the age of the building.

It was only a short walk back from Gretton to the car, and from here we drove on to Kirby Hall. The Hall is only a couple of miles from where we had lunch and it wasn't a long drive, but the route took us past the Rockingham Speedway,  which can only really be described as a monstrosity.  However, Kirby Hall, a partially ruined Elizabethan manor house now in the ownership of English Heritage, was delightful. 

Following leg