Wansford Station to Nassington and return

We had actually been attracted to the idea of parking near Wansford Station by the fact that we knew it would be closed, as there is lay-by right opposite the station, but not owned by them; we reasoned that no-one else would want to park there. We'd reckoned without the fishermen! We found a parking place just further down the road and we were able to take some photos of trains even through the Railway was closed, then we set off on the path alongside the railway bridge over the River Nene and so back to the route of the Nene Way.

The first mile and a half of the walk was a repeat of that walk in April 2013, but it was very pleasant so not a hardship. The path (not brilliantly signposted to start with) left the river and crossed to the hamlet of Sutton, where we again noticed the pretty houses, including "The Grange", and the little Church. This time it was also noteworthy that there was football practice in progress - that's not something that has been happening during the pandemic. We returned to a riverside path and followed the route to the point where our old OS map still tells us that the Hereward Way parts company with the Nene Way. It doesn't, and didn't even when we walked the Hereward Way 7 years ago, but the advantage is that the "new route" in this area becomes rather more clearly signposted. Both the Hereward Way and the Nene Way continue alongside the river then, after a petrol station up on the A47 to the right and before a pumping station, both routes climb up nearly to the A47. Here the two routes really do part company. On the Hereward Way in 2013 we crossed the road, but today (now on the Nene Way) we took a slip road to the left. This looks as if it was once the road to Wansford and more recently it has been a convenient parking place, but when we were here in 2013 it was closed off because of building works. Today there was a bollard preventing vehicular access. However down towards the bridge which carries the A1 over the river, instead of the path which a misreading of "Exploring the Nene Way" had led me to believe might be squelchy, there was a a brand new tarmacked walking and cycling route leading exactly the way we wanted to go and at the top there was a parking place and picnic area; now how are you meant to get your car there? - perhaps it's just temporarily closed off, though I wouldn't like to promise anything else.

The two carriageways of the A1 actually cross the river on two different bridges and the second of these, for all that it is of concrete construction, was built in the 1920s, is Grade II listed, and is quite attractive. Our route took us up to Peterborough Road in Wansford, right by the A1 junction. However we turned away from the busy main road and into Wansford, with its historic buildings - a world apart. We turned left onto "Old Great North Road" and headed down towards the medieval river crossing, which is Grade I listed(!) and was the only bridge here until the 1920s bridge was completed; now it is only deemed strong enough for pedestrians. We turned right before the bridge, which gave us the opportunity to admire its 10-arch structure as we walked across the flood plain. Although we were still in the Peterborough Unitary Authority we were now in the historical county of Northamptonshire - and the Nene Way signposting improved considerably, both in terms of the presence of the signposts and their attractiveness. From now on, in addition to the very plain Nene Way signs, we had colourful signs with a stylised countryside scene within a capital "N".

Beyond the village we turned left, now signposted with a Nene Valley Railway as well as Nene Way one, and we realised that we were heading towards Yarwell Station, at the western extremity of the railway line. We could see a large number of modern "park homes" in the valley ahead of us, which we discovered to be part of the Yarwell Mill development, I suspect much less busy than it will become because it is not yet fully operational, as well as because of Covid-19. It's not really our sort of place, but the area by the river and away from the park homes was pretty enough, with a lock and a weir and lots of boats - and a family of swans and cygnets being fed from one of the boats completed the picture. Our route wandered around the Yarwell Mill complex a little, crossing the river and passing the old mill which looks set to be the social hub of the development. We left by way of an attractive woodland and emerged by a river which looked too narrow to be the Nene, so we assumed it to be a tributary. We later discovered it to be a strand of the river, which had parted company with the meandering main route about a mile to the south and rejoined it a couple of hundred metres to the east. The two strands were too far separated for me to feel comfortable describing them as "braids", but I've no idea what the right word is for a situation in which a river splits into two then rejoins. I'm not even sure whether these divisions of the River Nene in this area, which occur several times, are artificial or natural; the number of weirs and locks in the area make me suspect the former.

We came to a bridge across the river to our left, which would be our return route to Wansford Station and, not to our surprise, the Nene Valley Railway signs were also pointing that way (as this was still the way to Yarwell Station too). For now though, we continued straight ahead, passing the site of stepping stones across the river, not in use and not even visible now. I think the route used to cross the river for a short distance here but (thankfully) it doesn't do so now; the river looked quite deep and fast flowing. We could see the spire of Nassington Church to our right and eventually we took a path across the fields towards the village. We crossed the main strand of the River Nene and continued to the outskirts of Nassington. The Nene Way turns left here but we turned right and then left to take a look the Church, Prebendal Manor (the oldest house in Northamptonshire) and other attractive houses in the village. It's a pity that the Nene Way doesn't come properly into village, but we stopped for lunch here before setting off back to the car.

As we crossed the River Nene in this direction there were canoeists paddling their way along the river, and there was a swan in the reeds as we left the Nene Way to cross the river. After passing close to Yarwell Station, we were signposted around the edge of a fishing lake, with an electric fence keeping us plebs out. We continued close to the railway then climbed a little to emerge above the entrance to Wansford Tunnel, which would have been an excellent point from which to watch the trains had they been running. We continued to the B471, from which there were excellent views back to Nene Valley in the Yarwell area and beyond. From here we followed roads across the A1 to the outskirts of Stibbington, then left back to Wansford Station.

Following leg