Walesby to Barnetby le Wold
Walked by Sally and Richard, Tuesday 21st October 2014.
About 16 miles (8 hours including stops), 15 miles progress on Viking Way.
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
The weather forecast implied that it would rain heavily in the night and then be very windy, with squally showers (the after effects of Hurricane Gonzalo apparently). It was raining heavily as we made our way from our room to the Gun Room for a (delicious) breakfast, so we weren't over optimistic. We put our waterproofs on as we left The Old Stables, and we needed the jackets as protection from the wind whilst the overtrousers were helpful in protecting us from damp undergrowth and in reducing the amount of mud that reached our ordinary trousers. However, it only actually rained once all day, and we had another glorious walk. We did however use three different maps today, including two sides of one of them, so the route in its entirety was rather difficult to visualise beforehand.
The Old Stables is on the route of the Viking Way and we soon turned off the road to the north, with good views back to the Ramblers' Church on the hill on the far side of Walesby. We soon started to climb up a lovely green hill which took us to Normanby le Wold; the village is high in the wolds, close to the edge of the scarp slope at Hillcrest, but we continued to climb past a radar station which is close to the trig point which marks 'Wolds Top' at 168 metres.
At Acre House we turned right, then we took a deligthtful path through a green valley, complete with grazing sheep. The path led down to Nettleton Beck, with grazing cattle from time to time - and mud! It rained slightly, but it was still a lovely walk. We passed through a little wood, with the remains of chalk quarrying, then re-emerged into the open valley with more cows and mud. We reached Nettleton Grange, then Nettleton, then we cut across fields towards Caister.
The slippiest path of the whole day was the tarmacked but mossy ascent to the Caister by-pass; thankfully the descent on the opposite site of the road was not so steep. We cut through modern housing and found an excellent cafe for lunch in a converted church, now the Caister Arts and Heritage Centre. After lunch we looked around Caister (the official route of the Viking Way misses the Church and the view across the Ancholme Valley, which seems a shame) and stopped at the co-op for provisions for the rest of our holiday.
Swapping from Explorer Sheet 282 (Lincolnshire Wolds North, which had irritated me because of its picture of windsurfers on the cover) to 284 (Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham, which I had bought second-hand because we only needed it for a couple of miles), we climbed out of Caister, then descended to Hundon Manor, with views ahead of us to Grasby on the scarp slope to the north-west. We continued to meander our way across fields and emerged at the busy A1084 at the hamlet of Clixby. We crossed the road then noticed a curious little church (actually just part of the original) so crossed back to look inside.
We crossed the road again and followed to drive to Clixby Manor Farm. We swapped map again, now to Sheet 281 (Ancholme Valley), though the route around the farm was still not obvious. They were harvesting corn, which added to the confusion (though the harvesting machine was extremely interesting). We found the right path and continued along it to Grasby. We walked through the village stopping at a bench to remove a stone from my walking boot.
From Grasby the path followed the scarp edge above Owmby then on through Searby and Somerby. It was attractive walking, with ancient churches, autumnal colours and views all the way back to the radar station near Normanby le Wold. Somerby has a particularly attractive little church, a vineyard (yes, in Lincolnshire! - and it appears to be prizewinning) and a monument (built in 1770 to celebrate 29 years of marriage of Edward & Ann Weston of Somerby Hall).
We crossed the A1084 again and walked through Bigby, stopping at the second bench we reached in order to turn the map and to eat biscuits (our attempt to sit down at the first bench we encountered led to a spate of barking from a dog in an adjacent house). On the way out of Bigby, a Viking Way signpost tried to send us the wrong way, but it didn't confuse us for long. We walked across the fen to Barnetby-le-Wold, watching ploughing in the distance.
We chose to walk through Barnetby-le-Wold rather than following the Viking Way route to the west of the village, to enable us to size up our evening meal options, but we didn't see anywhere suitable. We left the Viking Way at Barnetby Station and followed a drove for half a mile or so to Rookery Farm, wondering what sort of place we would find in such a remote location. The answer was an excellent B&B, to which we were warmly welcomed by Elaine Lennox and shown to a lovely family room. In the evening we walked back to the Whistle and Flute by the station; they initially said they had no tables, but then relented and gave us a table provided we were out by 8pm. No problem! The Whistle and Flute also almost lost our custom because their website mentions 'fine dining'; actually it is a fairly ordinary (if very popular) pub at which we had a fairly ordinary pub meal, but given that we were wearing walking boots this was just fine!