Knotting to Dungee Wood

Today we walked steadily to the south-west across the bottom right-hand corner of OS Explorer Sheet 224: Corby, Kettering & Wellingborough. For most of the route we were walking along the Northamptonshire/ Bedfordshire border on a byway which we had expected to be muddy (especially given torrential rain the day before) - and it was! However both ends of the walk were through attractive rolling countryside; in between we passed right by the Santa Pod Raceway, which was distinctly unattractive, if interesting. Our starting point was Knotting (parking by the Church at TL003635), a few kilometres to the south-east of Rushden, whilst the end point was about a kilometre off the map, at a convenient lay-by by Dungee Wood (SP932596), a couple of kilometres to the east of Bozeat. Thus the short walk took us from an area which I don't know at all well to one which feels (and is!) much closer to Milton Keynes.

I'd been singing in Newport Pagnell Singers' annual Christmas concert in Sherington the evening before and we had spent the night at the Milton Keynes South Premier Inn, hopefully for the last time as I hope to move into my flat in Simpson early in the New Year. The morning was, as forecast, dry (and, when the sun rose, sunny), though more rain was forecast for later, so we headed out on the walk as soon as we were ready. We left Richard's car at the Dungee Wood end because we hadn't been sure how big the parking space here would be, but it actually looked to be a good space, not too muddy and with room for a number of cars. We then drove on to Knotting in my car and we were walking soon after 9.30am.

After a short walk along the road we took a path along a field edge and then across the field to some trees and eventually to West Wood. We had a pleasant chat by phone with our daughter, but we weren't paying proper attention to route finding and took a route along the edge of the wood towards the A6 too far to the south. We quickly realised our mistake and retraced our steps; hey ho, it's a nice wood! We continued past some large tanks then turned left, now crossing the A6 at the correct place, right on the county boundary.

The byway (now known as Forty Foot Lane) continued past a wind turbine and crossed a railway tunnel and then another railway line (which is apparently in the process of electrification) in a cutting. This is Sharnbrook Summit. We passed Great Hayes Wood and reached Santa Pod. There wasn't a great deal going on, but our route (which skirted just to the north of the raceway) took us alongside and then across what we imagine to be substantial car parks when the place is open. A walker coming the other way provided some reassurance that we'd got the correct route.

We reached Airfield Farm, whose name presumably indicates that Santa Pod is located on a former airfield, now with an assortment of outbuildings, vehicles and barking dogs. However there were also nice winter views across the open countryside to three more wind turbines. Eventually we reached a barrier with a "no motor vehicles between October and April" sign, though the route that the motor bikes use to the right of the barrier was very clear...

For the reminder of the walk we were again on a wooded byway, with attractive views across the fields. We soon reached Dungee Road, close to the place where we had parked the car. Then the fun really began...Richard's parking place was perhaps not quite as good as it had appeared, as when he drove forward the car's nearside front wheel sank suddenly into deep mud, and in a front-wheel drive car we were well and truly stuck. After some abortive attempts to get the car out of the mud by ourselves, we were beginning to panic, when first one car then three more stopped to help. With one car pulling us from the rear and three men pushing we were soon out, with no damage apart from one rather muddy Richard and car!