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Wittering and Thornhaugh Circular – Cecils and Russells, Harriers and Saxons
4 miles, 5 miles if including Thornhaugh church
Gentle rolling countryside, no stiles, some rugged walking underfoot because of tree roots. Some stretches along very quiet, straight roads.
Toilets - most reliable (when open) are the Phoenix pub or Coffee Stop in Wittering village, but buy a drink if you do go to them! Thornhaugh church has a loo but I can’t guarantee if it’s always accessible. It always has been when I’ve been in Thornhaugh.
This walk is very much a borderlands walk! Wittering and Thornhaugh are two villages that, as part of the Soke of Peterborough, were originally in Northamptonshire, transferred successively to Huntingdonshire, then Cambridgeshire, and now are in the Unitary Authority of the City of Peterborough.
They lie in the rolling limestone countryside that extends through north-east Northamptonshire as far as Ufford and Barnack, where the Fens start. The north end of Wittering, near to Stamford, is on the watershed between the Rivers Nene and the Welland.
They were also historically divided between two great families of the English nobility – Wittering was (and still largely is) part of the Burghley estates belonging to the Cecil family, who rose under Elizabeth I and ended up as Marquesses of Exeter. Thornhaugh belonged until the 20th century to the Russells, who became the Dukes of Bedford. In 1904 the village was sold to Earl Fitzwilliam, of the third great local landowning family.
But they are united in being, for safe travelling purposes, effectively on an island. Each village has one road out to the A47, and one road out to the A1. They are cut off together, bounded on two sides by these major roads and to the north and west by RAF Wittering.
These days the air base is used mostly for training. But every now and then if you’re lucky you might see something more exciting in the skies above.
But let’s start...
Park up by the pavement along the wall on the “church” side of Church Road. Postcode is PE8 6DZ.
001 Wittering Churchard is a solemn place. There are the fallen from the RAF in World War 2, as well as many service people who mostly served at RAF Wittering at one time or another.
Henry Boswell, “King of the Gypsies”, is apparently buried somewhere in the churchyard. He was a friend of the Northamptonshire peasant poet, John Clare.
The church is normally locked (we’re working on it...) but if you contact the Parish Adminstrator before visiting we’ll do our best to get you in. It’s well worth it. Which other church has an Anglo-Saxon arch (maybe the best in the country) and the nose cone off a Harrier Jump Jet missile launcher?
001A In autumn there was a lovely cloud of blue – and white – harebells. At other times of the year you may find snowdrops, and primroses.
001B The lych gate you entered by is dedicated to Group Captain John Woodroffe, Station Commander at Wittering. He died in a flying accident in Florida in 1957.
002 Go out through the lych gate and down Hall Lane, opposite
002A part way down Hall Lane on the right is the Old Rectory. Vicars don’t get houses this size anymore – they can’t afford the staff.
003 You reach a point where a public footpath is signed through a gate off to the right. But the wide metal gate on your left is also a footpath. Turn left and go through (or round) the gate.
004 Follow the track along, as the countryside to your righ and left starts to open out.
005 The road to your right goes down to the sewage works. Bear left!
006 The next road to your right also goes down to the sewage works! Bear left onto the smaller footpath.
007 Over to the right, towards modern Northamptonshire, you can see rolling countryside and normally a fair number of horses.
007A You also start to notice different local wild flowers and plants. In the autumn, the ivy is in flower – a valuable late-season source of nectar and later the berries feed the birds.
007B White campion
007C On these limestone ridges, the alkali-loving wild clematis, “Old Man’s Beard” thrives it. Seen best in autumn and winter, with its wispy seed heads.
008 Follow the footpath left through the gate into the field.
009 and now round to the right, along the edge of the field.
009A Plenty of cow parsley around, also known as “keck”.
009B And creeping thistle
010 This is where we start the circular part of the walk. The footpath divides. Follow the right hand path through the gate and into the woods.
010A But on the way look out for the hogweed! This is the small member of the family that includes keck and the Giant Hogweed. Potentially slightly irritant but not like its deadly giant relative.
011 And into the woods, heading downhill. Careful, it’s a bit bumpy. You are walking down the edge here of West Wood.
011A And there’s Horsetail. And incredibly old Genus – the modern species emerged during the Jurassic period. As did the stone around here, although of course in the Jurassic the stone was at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea.
012 Over the brook and into Thornhaugh parish.
012A The brook is one of a group flowing from the area around Wittering to the Nene. It is a clear, limestone stream. As you cross the brook, to the left is a clearing which is fenced off. The fence supports quite some plants.
012B More Old Man’s Beard.
012C and Dog rose
012D Hops
012E Some fungi
012F Deadly nightshade (belladonna) – deadly by name and by nature. Do not eat!
012G Ferns are very common in these woods.
013 Carry on through the woods
013A Nettle-leaved bellflower
013B Hemp Agrimony – on its slender six foot high plant
013C And chestunuts!
013D – The local limestone often comes in quite narrow slabs. The dry stone walls round here are not always maintained too well, but carry some nice mosses!
014 – On past the totally unnecessary kissing gate
015 – Now through the hedge tunnel out towards the road
015A passing this sad little car.
016 Continue on and out to the road. I get the feeling in the snow that if it weren’t for all the cars around, this would feel like Narnia.
017 Follow the footpath left when you come out – do not branch off to the right and the road. Through the gate is a broad track through an avenue of lime trees, with a chicken farm (not free range) on the left, and field on the right. Welcome to modern farming.
017A Quite a remarkable signpost. Anyone for Polaris?
018 The chicken farm takes its biosecurity seriously. In this kind of establishment, any kind of disease outbreak would be disastrous.
018A Fairy Ink Caps, I reckon.
018B Lichens on the wall.
019 Out through the gate the other side, and onto the one main road through Thornhaugh. On your left the former gatehouse of Thornhaugh Hall.
020 You can’t see the Hall from the road, but the gardens are lovely.
021 The road has mature deciduous trees to the left, and hedgerow to the right. Up ahead the start of what 10 miles away are the famous big Fen skies.
021B Ivy Flowers
022C A surprise (for me) outbreak of Sand amongst the limestone.
022D Ash keys
022E Crab apples
023 Follow the road into the village, up to the little green with the village sign.
024 The information board will tell you all about the village and the sign. The chap on the sign is William Russell, First Baron Russell of Thornhaugh, ancestor of the modern Dukes of Bedford.
025 To shorten the walk, take the left turn at the junction just past the sign. But why would you do that when you’ve got treasure just a little further along the road?
026 If you keep on for a few hundred yards, you reach the second little gem of a church of this walk – St Andrew’s, Thornhaugh. Thornhaugh is in the same parish as Wansford, and was for a long time the parent church. These days Wansford is definitely a more lively place.
027 Inside St Andrew’s you will find a loo. But of more historical interest – what a lovely church! There is a squint (a hole in the wall to see the high altar from the side chapel). There is also the amazing tomb of William Russell. And look out for the sad memorials in the chancel to the wife and daughter of a former rector, drowned in a boating accident on the Nene.
028 As you walk back to the road from St Andrew’s notice the gravestone of the Bodger family on the right of the church path. Let’s hope they weren’t a family of builders. Turn right up the road (called Russell Hill) back to where you came.
029 This time, right at the junction.
030 Through the gate...
031 Along the track with the trees on your right.
032 The landowner has gone to a lot of trouble to say turn right at the gap in the trees, and stay on the track. So I’d do so...
033 The trees are to your left now. Ahead you can see the traffic jams on the A1
033A Stinking Iris
034 Turn left through the gate into the field.
035 Through the gate, keep to the right hand side of the field.
036 Keep the brook on your right.
037 Carry on round the field on teh path
037A Oak trees with acorns
037B The dark luscious berries of sloes. Again, don’t go eating them raw.
038 When you reach the bridge, right turnover it.
038A Snowberry
039 You’re back in the wood now. The path is clear (and fenced on both sides). If you’re lucky you’ll see deer. In the spring, bluebells.
040 When you get to this pointless stile, turn left. I know the bridge looks tempting. But going that way will dump you by the side of the A1.
040A – Just to be double clear – turn left!
041 Carry on along the path
041A How many times has this lime been coppiced?!
042 The field edge, path and woods here are on sand and I’m starting to feel like I’m back on the heaths of North Northampton here.
042 The path swings to the right. You go through the kissing gate and then left to stay on the footpath.
042A Introducing the miracle of the plant that eats itself – Shaggy Ink Caps. They start like this - but they exude a kind of soup of enzymes (the “ink”) which eats the plant and releases the spores from its body.
042B This one has started to melt away
042C And these two are almost completely gone!
043 We’re back to the gate where we turned right into the woods an hour ago. So this time bear right, retracing your path.
044 Back on the track
045 You’ve been through this gate before, going the other way
046 and now off onto the narrow path agaon
047 Through another gate
048 You join the main track up from the sewage works.
049 Through the last gate – that metal one, remember? If it’s closed you walk round it.
050 Turn right to walk up the hill back to Wittering
051 I was lucky to see some local craftspeople at work (it was a very windy day so they were very brave!) but the local buildings are well worth a look!
052 And back to All Saints.
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