The Short Walking Group

Leader:  John Howlett - ShortWalk@ashbyu3a.co.uk - phone 01530 461774

The leader will be at the meeting place whatever the weather and only cancel the walk in consultation with those who turn up on the day. All dogs must be kept under control at all times. Walking boots or strong shoes are recommended. Be prepared for bad weather by taking warm WATERPROOF clothing. Leaders act in a voluntary capacity. All ramblers walk at their own risk. The walk will be about 2 or 3 miles and not include any stiles.

Friday 19th July. Meet at Mount St Bernard Abbey for a walk LE67 5UL

A glorious summer's day tempted 13 walkers to assemble in Mt St Bernard's carpark. We strolled out along a broad, slowly rising track, to the southwest until we came to a field boundary at the highest point of our walk, and then turned northwest along the ridge, stopping to take in the superb views out over the Abbey and beyond. Mercifully, as the sun was getting quite strong, our way was mostly pleasantly shaded. Now the path beside the field became narrow so we had to go in single file along into the shade of the woods, dropping down to the edge of the fields stretching away to the Abbey to our right, now mostly on or above our level. The path became more and more overgrown as we came to the remains of the Abbey Grange Farm, marked on the early 20th century maps, but now almost totally vanished but for a long narrow outbuilding buried in undergrowth. Behind us we could hear activity in the Midland Quarries quarry, where work continues to extract rock from what had been Peldar Tor but is now a very large hole in the ground. Interestingly, the quarry is an enormous extension of the original Peldar Tor Quarry, sited where the offices of the MQP are now. The path onwards was so overgrown in places, despite clear evidence of regular traffic, that we had to beat back nettles and brambles for quite a way. Eventually we emerged from the shade of the woodlands onto open fields where we stopped for a drink. Here the path we had been following and which we now were walking beside, was revealed as a substantial roadway for, presumably, transporting goods from the Grange farm to Oaks Road, where there is a wide gate buried in overgrowth. On this stretch the ,'roadway' was fully populated with bushes and trees and quite impassable. Here, when we were nearly arrived at Oaks Road, the footpath joins one coming down from Ratchett Hill behind us, and we turned northeast to leave the field at Oaks Road. We walked along the road for a couple of hundred yards to a path leading fairly steeply up towards the Abbey, but fortunately reasonably clear of undergrowth, despite being a little rough underfoot. As we emerged onto open fields at the top we encountered the only stile on the route, which the walkers all managed to scale, althoug needing a little help in one or two cases From there it was a short stroll back to the cars. We managed 1.75 miles in around 1 hour and 20 minutes. A very pleasant summers' walk, rounded off with very welcome coffee and cakes in the Library of the St Joseph's Tea Rooms, attended to by mine host himself.

Photos by John D and Margaret

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