OS Grid 38 (northing) Day 14 - North Cliffe to Beverley Golf Club.

Thursday  8th July  2021. North Cliffe. to Beverley golf club - 10.2 miles

I reproduce the first photo of  North Cliffe church because as we prepared for departure after dropping off the other car at Beverley golf club an elderly Yorkshire gent emerged from the church and we chatted over that wall. He had been tending to the church's welfare for fifty one years and lived across the road.

Once we got him going there was no stopping and he was full of dry Yorkshire "humour", a sort of self made character. BC jokingly suggested we may send him a cheque for the parking - "Aye. And don't forget to sign it" was the reply.

Mr. Churchman told us about Samuel Fox (1815 t0 1887) who allegedly invented the umbrella and made a fortune. He established an estate around North Cliffe with several houses with attractive themed architecture. Fox also founded the church and just survived to see its completion and became the first person to be buried there - see photo below.

 

We had a steep climb from the village on some of the only muddy terrain we encountered in four days. This was the key to our traverse of the Yorkshire Wolds and the rest of the day involved much undulation. We came across a chap with a substantial vehicle repair business set in the middle of nowhere .He tidies up the less glamorous part exchange vehicles that franchised dealers do not want seen around their premises, so he said.

North Newbald wass an attractive archetypal English village with wide open space in the centre. A couple emerged from The Old Church and The Old school now converted to a residence and we chatted. BC is learning: having dropped  something about cafés in the conversation , hey-presto, we were invited to go back into their house for a brew, but time was pressing and we politely declined, but Mick and Gayle please put this one on the score sheet.

Long steady road ascent and descent followed on tarmac over the rolling Yorkshire Wolds but keeping close to our line.There was nowhere to stop for our midday snack for miles and in the end we just sat down in a field opening from the road.  With my two replacement knees it is not easy getting back up from a prone position and I much prefer to find somewhere to sit properly.

At one point The Yorkshire Wolds Way long distance path crossed our road - BC of course has walked this but had no recollection of that location, but I reckon much of that route looks the same as the rest.

BC had commented on the paucity of things to write about and we speculated about the possibility of having a blogger's gift before the end of the day and as it turned out we were so rewarded.

We left the road to enter the massive extent of the Beverley Golf Club. Here we met a party of folk walking and chatted with one of them. He had done a lot of walking and running. He then gave us directions about crossing the course which is all set on access land. There are two windmills marked on the map, one at the centre of the course and one at the clubhouse. We visited the former and saw cows roaming at will around the course. Earlier in the day we had obtained permission to leave our car at the clubhouse. On our arrival we again met the guy we had seen earlier on the course and he turned out to be the president of the club. We were then offered a conducted tour of the windmill including inspection of its clock mechanism and a climb up to the roof with splendid views across to Beverley and their minster. President Brendan was going to be away next day and told us we could leave our car on his private parking spot if we wanted - such things make these trips even more memorable.

Where we chatted to the church Yorkshireman over the wall

Samuel Fox's grave - first one in - pole position

North Newbald. The old schoolhouse and church where we were offered a brew is the sandy coloured building in the centre

Also in North Newbald

The Yorkshire Wolds Way crossing our route. Looks a bit like one of those Hockney East Yorkshire paintings?

Onto the huge Beverley golf course

Windmill one. There is some ancient law that allows cattle to roam at will all over the course and the adjoining roads and stories abound of their wanderings

Zoom to Beverley Minster

Windmill 2. President Brendan in striped shirt, BC beyond

I think this was higher than All Saints church on Day 1 at 40 metres, probably about 50 metres here, so I reckon this was the highest point of our trip.

**************************************************************************

OS Grid 38 (northing) Day 13 - Blackpool to sea

 Update.

The concept of walking a specific OS grid line from coast to coast  arose after Bowland Climber and I had drawn a straight line on the map between our two houses which we walked using two cars on a day walk basis.

We started the project on 12th January 2019 from Blackpool and after 12 day walks got to Foggathorp on 12th January 2020.

Circumstances and Covid put a halt to this project . Up until now we had managed to get so far using two cars travelling from our homes on a daily basis. We now needed four days to finish the walk and decided to have three nights in the Premier Inn north of Hull using that as a central base.

--------------------------------------------

Wednesday  7th July  2021. Foggathorp to North Cliffe (Bluebell pub).  9.2 miles. Day13

I arise at 5:00 am, breakfast and depart at 6:00 am after a minor panic when I miss my iPad but it is found where it should be in my overnight bag.

Sat nav was spot on with two and a half hours to Foggathorp, how do they do that? BC arrived within minutes and off we went to park a car at North Cliffe. BC had identified a car park at the village hall next to the church and we were soon back at Foggathorpe to start our day's walk.

We followed the ex Selby Driffield railway line path (1853, to closure September 1954). The line is now lushly vegetated and hardly noticeable as a monotonous trod as are some that I have walked. We had identified several remains of platforms but little other evidence of its erstwhile existence. Bird song was particularly noticeable including a star performance from a song thrush sat on a telegraph wire.

We met a few dog walkers and had pleasant  conversations. The sun shone almost uncomfortably, but I am not complaining about that; there was plenty of shade from the mature tress lining the route much of the way.

We skirted Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and climbed to the Church of All Saints; at 40 metres that may be the highest elevation during these four days. Here the entrance gate has the merry message above carved in wood: MORS JANUA VITAE:  "Death is the gate to everlasting life" which is hardly cheering whether you are a believer or not.

All churches are locked at the moment due to Covid. There is a huge graveyard here with a section for RAF personnel who died in action during WW 2 when there were many airfields in this area.

Further along the ridge are the remnants of an Observer  Corps post where watchers for enemy aircraft were deployed again in WW2. My father was deaf and so served in the Observer Corps at a post on Otley Chevin in Yorkshire which was manned on a residential shift basis. This one looked to have been much more rudimentary. Even more sinister is an accompanying underground bunker with a cast iron  padlocked lid. Here would have been personnel detailed to report on results of a nuclear attack in the event of that coming to pass during the Cold War in the 1950s.

We descended from the hill amidst crops of wheat on its way ripening. We saw much of wheat and barley crops looking in good heart throughout the four days. We had identified a non public right of way which would save us an unpleasant two and a half kilometres walking on a major road. Our track turned out to run through an extensive pig farm, and we were spoken to by a farm worker on a tractor who suggested we continue, "just keep your heads down" he said. Another four kilometres of  quiet country road was eased with endless good conversation, and we were soon back to our car at North Cliffe.

The Premier Inn was good value with welcoming and cheery staff and a pleasure to get back to each evening on this trip especially having a hot bath facility much to my liking.

Off to our start on the continuation of the railway path

A song thrush in very fine voice - he seems to have a superior pose to go with his outstanding vocal ability

A.bit of tarmac to get us to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor

The biggest climb in four days to Church of All Saints near Holme-on-Spalding-Moor

"Death is the gate to everlasting life" Mm?

All Saints Church

BC looking at the RAF graves at All Saints Church

A touch of pathos came upon me seeing this cuddly toy left under that fine wood carving, Im not sure what message it conveys?

The Observer Corps lookout left and the nuclear bunker right - close-ups below

Looking back to All Saints Church

North Cliffe Lodge - typical architecture of residences on Fox's estate - more of him in next post.

North Cliffe church and village hall

Red buoys show daily sections. Red Cross = Premier Inn

Lancaster Canal - Borwick to Longlands

Thursday 1st July 2021. Lancaster Canal - Borwick to Longlands. 

Thursday walks with Pete have been resumed since Lockdown relaxation but not all recorded here.

A few years ago we walked the whole of the Lancaster Canal together on our day walks but Pete has had rheumatoid arthritis and he is now 86 and walks have become shorter but no less enjoyable, the principle raison d'être being to get together with an old friend.

Today we revisited on what is a short but perhaps the most attractive stretch from Borwick north to Longlands where the canal has been blocked on its way to Kendal in favour of the M6. We did walk on under a bridge that crosses the M6 to rejoin the canal which is still endowed with water but lock gates have been removed and it is no longer practical to navigate.

I am not a cicvil engineer, but when I looked closely at the infrastructure of canal versus M6 I could not see why it had necessitated blocking off the canal, and again, from my layman's viewpoint it doesn't look as though it would be a monumental job to re-connect. I do wonder why it was done at the time, and surely man's ingenuity could have avoided it?

Because of the perfect weather conditions and with early summer's vegetation at its peak the photos have come out well (he says modestly) and worth a click this time to enlarge for the slideshow.

 

********************************************************************

COVID

See post on Facebook from my nephew below. I don't do Facebook so this the best I can do to spread the word. Sean is an accomplished businessman living comfortably in a fashionable east Yorkshire village which I suspect would make many think he was relatively safe, especially having been double-jabbed, but this thing can get anybody.

"Be warned, I have had two AstraZeneca vaccinations and have had a nasty spell of COVID for the last 5 days and still counting. I am concerned that everyone thinks they are invincible once they have been double jabbed. Believe me, you are not and it is not pleasant when you get the virus!!"