Oxen Park and Three Foot Oak

 Wednesday 30th July 2025

Driving from the east there is no direct approach to the start of this walk at Oxen Park. Whatever route one chooses narrow twisty lanes prevail.This an area of isolated farms, cul-de-sac roads, old bridleways and terrain only suitable for sheep farming, and as such, rewarding for walking. The fringes of the Lake District are still rarely visited and provide excellent peaceful and interesting day walks, but be prepared for rarely walked overgrown footpaths, a challenge to the connoisseur devotees of country exploration. 

As I plotted this route on the OS 1:25 map I noticed the intriguing location named Three Foot Oak, a must for further investigation, but more of that later.

I was able to park near  the defunct telephone box in Oxen Park. My first error of judgment from my plotting arose from extending the walk to make it into a respectable five miles.  I had opted to walk north up the road to take a track from which a footpath doubled back to take me almost back to Oxen Park to join my main route from there for my circuit. That footpath branching back was indistinct, overgrown with nettles and lush deep wet foliage, but that's all part of the fun?

Steady climbing on a good path followed all the way to the farm at Abbot Park. That is now established as an attractive looking camp site. There was a smart, purpose built toilet and shower block which appeared to be open to anybody passing by which could be a bonus to any walkers who may have need.

Climbing continued through varied pleasant pastures, woods and streams to arrive at my high point of Stock Farm situated at the end of one of those cul-de-sac roads. I continued now on a  more level old bridleway permitted for vehicles, but only practical for the 4WD drive variety. 

I was now approaching Three Foot Oak. I had searched the Internet but only found a site that listed a six figure OS Grid reference, that is to within a one meter square! I have since measured the distance on the map from the track and it is about 50 meters. If there had been anything to see I would have seen it. The terrain was moorland in nature and unlikely to support significant tree growth, and it descended steeply through impenetrable reeds and huge tussocks. There was no way I was going to venture even for that modest fifty meters.  So much for this mystery. Several hundred meters away I could see a prominent tree which may, or may  not have been an oak, but its location bore no relation to the grid reference. If anybody can find out more please, please let me know.

The undulating track continued, now with that on-top-of-the world feeling and all was joy. I could even see Morecambe Bay away in the distance to the south. Since Stock Farm I was passed by one lone mountain biker, and later by a party of three others, but thankfully no 4WDs

I had been looking for somewhere to stop for my coffee and sandwich, always a problem. At Ickenthwaite, just a farm and holiday cottages, there was a bench outside an unoccupied cottage. There  I lingered and took in in the ambience of this attractive area before completing the last mile or so back to Oxen Park.

Leaving the road for the track. A footpath branched off taking me nearly back to Oxen Park

The overgrown path doubling back nearly to Oxen Park, and below

There were sections of steep uphill through head high bracken

Approaching Abbot Park farm. Camp site, and toilet apparently available to passers by - see below

Click to enlarge, quite interesting

Toilets and showers at Abboot Park farm

Now on the bridleway after Stock Farm

Zoom to Morecambe Bay

Three Foot Oak location is fifty yards steeply down this rough terrain. The distant tree right of centre is zoomed to below but its location is nowhere near the grid reference I had  found

lunch stop. Ickenthwaite

Clockwise from Oxen Park

Tom Jones

Monday 21st July 2025

I have just read (for the second time), Henry Fielding's Tom Jones for my reading group.

In myWordsworth Classics edition  there is a fifteen page introduction written byDoreen Roberts, Rutherford College. University of Kent at Canterbury.

Here is a typical example of some of the worst writing which appears in similar vein throughout the whole piece. I am tempted to use the word "unintelligible" but that means impossible to understand, and to be reluctantly charitable it may be possible to make some sense of this academic self indulgence but not by me. 

Even at the basic level of writing clear English, this extract is inexcusably all one sentence.

Winton, north of Kirkby Stephen

 Friday 18th July 2025

With my breathlessness affliction walking is now reduced to around five miles. I always take a sandwich and a flask of coffee which usually involves a stop for twenty minutes or so, and including that in the calculation my average speed is coming out at around 1 mph. I''m not bothered about that because at eighty-five I am thankful that even with my problem I am walking further than the majority of folk at this age, and speed is not relevant to enjoyment of the outdoors, rather the slower one goes the more one haas the opportunity to take in the surroundings.

Having said all that I have now, dare I say "inflicted"  on myself, a new means of slowing my pace even more:

The Merlin Bird Recognition App on my iPhone.

With one press of the button you set this device to record birdsong from the surrounding area. Other features provide more detail and means of keeping a record of particular birds identified.  So now I often  find myself stopping on my walks to do a recording. Whilst I believe the app is  sensitive and good at its job I am finding that surprisingly few birds are recorded even in deep countryside where one would expect more. I'm not sure if this is down to a decline in bird populations, or do birds sing more at certain times of day? The rarest recording so far was on my recent walk from Garsdale Station when a Reed Bunting was recorded (but not seen.)

This five mile circuit from Winton involved an initial three kms. of road walking and then varied fields and lanes.You will see a tractor photo below and I chatted the the farmer. I couldn't identify the  make because this monster was so covered in  mud and muck but I was told it was a Valtra, and when I asked permission for the photo he apologised saying he would have washed it if he'd known it was going to be photographed. My later research found that it comes from Finland. Perhaps Alan R will enlighten us a little more?

Towards the end of the walk footpaths avoided the A685 but only after a couple of hundred yards from the road a gate lead into a field. There at thirty yards stood a large white bull with a harem of lady cows just behind. Normally I walk through cow herds without much problem, but here I didn't feel like taking the risk. I backed off and had nearly a mile of dodging traffic on the busy A685 to get back to the finish at Winton.

Leaving Winton. My car is under the big tree

On the way out of Winton

3km. of road walking from Winton but quiet and peaceful

The road obscured the view to the Eden Valley and the hills beyond but a few yards beyond this gate that view opened out, see next photo.
A good bit of recycling here with the tyre

Possibly Mell Fell and Murton Pike

Valtra tractor. Made in Finland.

Leaving the 3km. of road walking

This path was a thistlefest

The public footpath went through this gate, no evidence of recent use

Path went across here, but no path evident on the ground

A feeble trickle was filling the plastic box

"Are you looking st me?"

Belah Bridge. Now bypassed by a modern version on the A685

Start/finish at Winton, anti-clockwise.
The red dots show my diversion down the A685 to avoid bull in field

North from Garsdale Station

Wednesday 9th July 2025 

For a long time mow I have suffered from far too frequent typos. Unfortunetly I am only a two finger typist which doesn't help. I have just switched off all typing correction except "Check spelling while typing."

This walk was again in Garsdale and adjacent to the Thwaites Bridge walk on my last post. I parked on the road that leads up to Garsdale Station.

Straying from my normal format I will just add captions to the photos and add some other text at the end.

Looking back to the main road from  the station. road 

This was just outside the passenger door of my car.

Strange name. Search for "Mudlocks" revealed a brand of gaiters and a children's play facility

After a couple of hundred yards I left the road for reed and tussocky sheep pasture

Not much of a path but fairly easy going. I met a farmer checking her sheep. She told me I was on the wrong path. I took notice and ended up with a bit of wandering which can be seen on the map below

Garsdale railway viaduct. The railway exerts a strong presence in upper Garsdale

Looking back sat Garsdale station

The sun came out suddenly and highlighted these newly shorn sheep

My route went to the railway houses then climbed the fell to the left. I had difficulty finding the path for a while. I have indicated those wanderings on the map below It was all fairly hard going

Having topped out I was now descending on Wainwright's Pennine Journey LDP as far as East House. From there I followed old tracks from one isolated and deserted farm to another.

"Fea Fow" - my photo

File:Fea Fow, Grisedale.jpg

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17 Nov 2024 — This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact ...

I think it is now a holiday home. Nobody there today. The public footpath skirted round but I nipped in  through the gate feeling just a little guilty and used the picnic bench for its allocated purpose

"Flust"  - see OS map. Search reveals many different references too numerous to list here but none that would relate to the naming of a remote farmhouse. 

Flust appears to be a used facility for the farmer but I don't think as a residence. It all smacks of bygone farming and a hard life. 

Descent from Flust and my walkout by Grisedale Beck

"Reachey" this and the next. A superbly converted farm residence well in sympathy with the locality

.

Grisedale Back at the approach to Reachey

Grisedale Beck just before it crosses the road to become Clough River flowing off down Garsdale

A lot of this walk had been hard going especially involving 904 feet of ascent. On arrival back at the car I was satisfied and had enjoyed, but felt quite tired.

Have you had that feeling when driving home after a hard cay that time seems to be expanding and that the anticipated hot bath and the like are becoming evermore distant? After leaving the M6 at Jct. 36 the road had just been surfaced with that cop-out method of just chucking down loose gravel. It was like driving through a thick fog and one was conscious of the car being covered in a layer of nasty dust which would need cleaning at the soonest opportunity. At Crooklands the road to Milnthorpe was closed. I had to turn round and go back AGAIN through the dust cloud to Jct. 36 and a three mile detour to get back to Milnthorpe. Unavoidable shopping had me stop at Booth;s supermarket, and then at the garden centre to restock with seed for the starving birds  - was I ever going to get home?

Well I did and because of the tiredness and obstructions on the journey the hot bath was even more appreciated.