To Willoughby-on-the-Wolds from Kegworth Shallow Flood Lock

We hadn't done any walking on the Midshires Way since before Christmas and we were keen to return to it, but we didn't have high expectations for the walks we were planning for either today or tomorrow. The OS map shows rather a lot of road walking and the guidebook paints an even worse picture, appearing to favour the road option over an alternative (mapped) route on a footpath in at least one section (between Wysall and Willoughby). The guidebook also uses language like "From Willoughby the MSW skirts an increasingly industrial landscape" and "Much of the route is along busy roads". We were in an area we didn't know at all, and had no reason to be optimistic. However, by all sorts of measure, today's walk was better than we'd expected, even if this meant that we didn't follow the route of the Midshires Way quite as described or as shown on the map. It was a lovely sunny spring day, with a fresh breeze. The ground was still a bit muddy in places, and there was still some surface water lying following heaving rain and flooding of the River Soar, but this didn't present any real difficulties.

Richard was travelling from Norfolk and I was coming from Milton Keynes. Our journeys were very different; mine was distinctly boring - up the M1 and the A46 to within a mile of the destination - while Richard's route, already more complicated than mine, also required him to follow minor roads around a couple of diversions. We'd decided to meet at the car park near the Bowls Club in Willoughby-on-the-Wolds (SK642264) where we parked last time we were here, and then we drove on together and parked the second car in the car park marked on the OS map (SK495273) near the Flood Lock across the River Soar from Kegworth. The car park is quite small and it was quite busy, with a group of people preparing to set off on a canoeing trip, but there was (just!) room for Richard's car.

As we'd driven towards Kegworth, we'd had good views of the Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station, one of just three remaining coal-fired power stations in the country, and we were now just a couple of miles to the south of it. The power station remained in sight for most of the walk. Our decision to meet in Willoughby meant we were walking this leg "backwards" i.e. from north to south, though for this particular leg, the direction of the Midshires Way is more east to west, which meant we were mostly walking from west to east. Today's walk was entirely within Nottinghamshire and, with the exception of short distances at the end and beginning of adjacent legs, it was our only day on the Midshires Way in that county. We set off walking around 10.40, initially heading back along the road we'd driven along. We crossed the railway and continued to the north of Sutton Bonnington, where there is a University of Nottingham campus, home to their vet school and School of Biosciences. The campus was to our right and the Centre for Diary Science Innovation was to our left.

The road climbed through increasingly attractive rolling countryside; this is the Nottinghamshire Wolds. At the Star Inn, which describes itself as being in West Leake but not in the centre of the village, there was a choice of route, both marked as the Midshires Way. We turned left at the pub, down an attractive lane which took us across the Kingston Brook, then right into the village. It's a pretty place with an unusual church. Even better, at the end of Main Street, where the road turned to the right, we continued straight ahead on a track which climbed over Fox Hill, with superb views in all directions (shown at the top of the page and next to the paragraph below). We turned right at Crow Hill Wood. There is planning permission in for a solar farm here; likely to be pretty profitable if the high fuel prices continue.

We passed the Rushcliffe Golf Course clubhouse on the left and Rushcliffe Lodge on the right and, with amazing timing, there was a bench on the right so we stopped for lunch. The landscape was majestic, with views down the hill, but East Leake, in the valley at the bottom, doesn't appear terribly attractive - it's a large village with lots of modern houses and, to our left, there was a gypsum works (indeed the head office of British Gypsum is here). The route shown on the map takes roads through the housing estates, heading south and then east, before turning to the north again on a track. Richard spotted from the map that we could instead turn left just before the gypsum works and follow the road that we would join later on. That would cut off the loop through East Leake but the road looked quite busy and had we gone that way we would have missed a mile or so of off-roading walking, so we decided to stick with the route as shown.

The walk though East Leake was not terribly exciting, but it was OK. We cut through 1960s(?) housing and then turned left past a newish school and leisure centre and a new housing development. Building sites and new estates can be problematic when routes of paths disappear, but on this occasion we were able to just continue straight ahead in the direction shown on the map, heading back towards open countryside. Just past the site of the new housing development we turned left onto a wide track heading north. It was OK, if not terribly exciting. A short distance up the track we noticed a footpath heading across the fields to our right (I think it is signposted "To Bunny"); an inspection of the map showed that there is a route all the way through to the road we'd be on if we followed the Midshires Way up the track then right along the road (Bunny is further on which gave further confirmation that we should be able to get through); an inspection of the path on the ground showed that the footpath appeared well-walked. Taking the footpath would eliminate a mile of road walking, so it was a no-brainer to go this way rather than following the marked route of the Midshires Way. The path took us uphill across fields, emerged on "Ash Lane", then took a path on the other side behind some houses (it was a bit boggy here) and across to New Wood before descending towards Bunny, with stunning views. We reached the road we'd have been on had we taken the official route and turned right onto it. It was busier than is ideal, thus confirming that our decision to take the footpath from East Leake had been sensible. It would strongly encourage others to follow suit.

We reached the A60. There is a choice of route shown on the map from this point, but here we had planned to do our own thing! (as opposed to the previous section where we almost stumbled across the alternative route). The route shown in the guidebook follows the verge of the A60 to the south for about a kilometre, but we didn't fancy that at all, so we headed a short distance along the A60 to the north, on the second option shown on the map. After crossing the main road we found ourselves on a minor road. The map shows this option as continuing to Wysall Road then turning right and following the road all the way to Wysall. Too much road walking! We didn't fancy that either, so we had another couple of options up our sleeve. The first of these turned right on a marked path past a mine and this footpath had a signpost, so off we went. A sign at the entrance to the track to the mine announced that this is a gypsum mine, actually the Silver Seal Entrance to the Marblaegis Mine, which is apparently one of the UK's major sources of gypsum, used in plaster and plasterboard. The mine had been due to close in 2025 but it now has permission to continue to 2042. As we climbed, we passed above the actual mine entrance, and shortly afterwards we reached the delightful Old Wood.

At this point we rejoined the route shown in the guidebook, though there was a distinct paucity of Midshires Way signs all day. We did however encounter Notts Wolds Way signs. The Notts Wolds Way is a newish 26-mile route, which will apparently be shown on the OS Map in the future, but it isn't yet. However, on the basis of what we saw for the rest of today's walk, it is well signposted and passes through beautiful countryside. We followed along the path through Old Wood, then turned right and climbed through the wood to the top of the slope, before following paths across agricultural fields to Wysall. Wysall is a pretty village and we stopped at a well-placed bench amongst the daffodils for a snack before continuing on to photograph the area around the church.

The guidebook encourages you to follow roads from Wysall to Willoughby-on-the-Wolds but there is a perfectly decent path also marked as "Midshires Way" on the OS Map so we followed that. After crossing some more fields, this crosses a stream then follows close to the Kingston Brook all the way to Willoughby, so I thought it might be rather wet and muddy underfoot, but this was certainly not a major problem today. We reached Willoughby and walked through the village on Main Street; this is shown on the OS map as the route used by the Cross Britain Way while the Midshires Way follows Back Lane - but we knew that Back Lane to be the busier road, used by cars by-passing the village. It's a long village but we were soon back at the car, ready for our drive back to Kegworth to rescue the second car and then on to the Derby East Premier Inn where we were spending the night. The approach to the Premier Inn was confusing so I ended up having to go round a loop twice, but when we got there we discovered that we were in an enormous and very comfortable disabled room (allocated because we'd been late booking).

Following leg