NM 60+ Walking Group
Muskham Secateurs
Everyone welcome, whatever age or location ...
Click here for Group Info & How To Join 

NM 60+ Walking Group
Muskham Secateurs
Everyone welcome, whatever age or location ...
Click here for Group Info & How To Join 

A meeting just before COVID proposed organising some "no cars involved" walks, either starting in the village or catching a bus from Muskham to somewhere else, and then walking back home, so that we could take as long as we needed to get back. 

The walks would concentrate on our local public footpaths.  The jokey “secateurs” bit in the group name is prompted by the overgrown vegetation on many of these paths, which discourages their use, which in turn means they get more neglected.

As the group name suggests, it is anticipated that 60+ folk are most likely to participate, but all ages are welcome. If you're put off by having to make arrangements in advance (when you don't know what the weather will be like, or what your commitments will be), that's no problem - just turn up on the day if you want to join in. 

The rest of this page lists the group walks, with the Chat Walk first, followed by longer walks done, most recent at the top. Just email jgray.muskham@gmail.com if you want to be on the mailing list for notification of walks.

The Solar Park walk ...

Just now, in November-December 2023, a rather special walk is being laid on for local residents to get a sense of the local impact of the recently publicised Great North Road Solar Park proposal. Starting at the village community hall in North Muskham and following the route shown here.

You can print off the PDF below and do you walk yourself, or contact me at jgray.muskham@gmail.com so I can add your name to the list for the next guided walk. 

SOLAR WALK 231126 Map and Illustrative Photos.pdf

The 'normal' Muskham Chat Walk ~ Every month or so.

This is the walk we do most often - it's a round tour of Muskham Vale, with lots of variety, winding up on the banks of one of the nicest stretches of the Trent anywhere.

The route is flat, with just one stile, and is a mixture of field and roadside walking .. about 10,000 steps .. walked at a pace decided more by the chat than anything else. It's a social walk, not a route march!

I do the walk frequently and now and then, if the weather looks good for the next day and I already know what time I will be setting off, I send out an invitation to NM60+ group members to join me. 

If you're free, and fancy getting out for a bit, just turn up at whatever meeting point/time is in the invitation. If nobody else turns up that's fine, I'll be going anyway.

The  map controls  below  zoom, move and select what to display.

Scroll down to see a carousel of photos from group walks, with notes, map and photos.

Thursday 13th July 2023  - Chat Walk for First Time since NCC Diversion

Click here to see notes, map and photos.

A group of 6 of us followed the recently announced Notts CC diversion of footpaths NM1/BT8, which has been welcomed by North Muskham PC (and me). We were really lucky with the weather, both the day before and the day after it rained heavily, but it was warm and sunny for our walk. Highlighted by this year's well-cleared footpath, and visible from Google Earth, a gravel lens remnant of the Trent's geological past has been revealed, and we spent some time poking about in its exotic stone collection. What a lovely bit of countryside Muskham Vale is!

Thursday 13th July 2023  - Chat Walk for First Time since NCC Diversion

Click here to see notes, map and photos.

A group of 6 of us followed the recently announced Notts CC diversion of footpaths NM1/BT8, which has been welcomed by North Muskham PC (and me). We were really lucky with the weather, both the day before and the day after it rained heavily, but it was warm and sunny for our walk. Highlighted by this year's well-cleared footpath, and visible from Google Earth, a gravel lens remnant of the Trent's geological past has been revealed, and we spent some time poking about in its exotic stone collection. What a lovely bit of countryside Muskham Vale is!

Tuesday 13th September 2022  - Bus to Cromwell, Cromwell-MRCC

Click here to see notes, map and photos.

A group of 5 of us followed the planned 13th September walk, meeting up on the 339 bus that left MRCC/School at 10.05am, and a couple of minutes later from The Grange, and arrived at Cromwell a few minutes after that.  The route (marked blue on map below) was 4.3 miles, with about equal road and off-road walking, a little bit of a climb, giving nice views (dry clear weather) across the Trent valley, with Lincoln Cathedral (and, as one of the group spotted, the huge hangars at Waddington) visible on the skyline. As expected, we needed to do a fair amount of secateuring between arriving at Sunnybrook Farm and the FB footbridge to east of Manor Farm - but if you fancy doing the walk yourself now, you'll find it well cleared!

Thursday 9th June 2022  - A1 Bridge meet, Exploring NCC Proposals

Click here to see notes, map and photos.

On Thursday 9th June 2022 a group of local 60+ residents walked the diversion route Network Rail posted when, in March 2020 and without consultation, they closed the footpath crossing the railway line. The photo below shows the 4 super secateur snappers who walked the A-B-C -D-E sections of the route shown in the accompanying map, and then followed E-G-H-I to get back to Muskham. This restarted the "no car walks" plans made just weeks before the COVID lockdown stopped everything. 



Thursday 28th June 2022  - A1 Bridge meet, Bathley Paths to MRCC

Click here to see notes, map and photos.

Perfect walking weather for the group of 7 locals who followed (at a leisurely pace) the 6km route shown below. I think participants enjoyed the walk, I certainly did, despite my 'incident' when the 'footbridge' turned out to be quite narrow underneath dangerously overgrown vegetation which obscured the 'bridge's' edges. I slipped and went feet first into the dyke up to my chest and just couldn't get out, I had to be pulled out by one of the stronger group members. I made light of it of course, but it was a shock, and if I'd been on my own it could have been serious - later reported by email to countryside.access@nottscc.gov.uk  And, I'm pleased to report, well cleared very promptly (picture immediately below).