Hallaton, Alexton, Belton, Loddington, Tugby
by John B
This is the big one! 14.2 miles over three peaks and a bunch of stiles.
For this walk, we would normally park along Eastgate (///butter.codes.lifeboats) or near the now defunct Fox Inn (///ramble.likening.marathon). Whichever we choose on the day, we head northwards out of Hallaton along East Norton Road until the junction with Allexton Road. Here it’s over a stile and onto the Macmillan Way / Leicestershire Round. We head past Fearn Farm, Allexton Lodge, Allexton Park, and through Manor Farm to arrive at Allexton itself.
Exiting the hamlet, we head across the A47, carefully, and over to Littleworth Lane or New Road – depending on which way we came. Either way, it’s on to the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Belton-in-Rutland. After a quick wander around the village, we head out along the Leicester Round (College Farm Lane) until we run out of tarmac near Bluestones Farm. We continue along the “Round” for a short distance before hanging a left towards Park Wood Farm along a bridleway.
We leave the horse track to take a footpath (and six stiles) leading to Belton Road. A right turn here will take us into Loddington and past Loddington Hall. This is good, as this is the way we want to go. Direction-wise, it’s southwest. A few stiles, a permissive path, and a regular footpath later, we find ourselves squeezing past Hardy’s Gunsel and Big Gunsel and heading towards Gunsells Farm. Interestingly, in convict and tramp slang, a gunsel was a young homosexual male, especially one who was the companion of an older man. It is generally taken to derive from the Yiddish gendzel, a little goose, or from the German Gänslein, a gosling. Make of that what you will!
With luck, we’ll find ourselves crossing the A47 and entering Tugby. The Fox and Hounds lives here. Just saying! At least one of us will be thirsty by now!
We leave Tugby via Hallaton Road, which doubles as the Midshires Way. At the crossroads with Crackbottle Road (don’t you just love these names?), we head straight over onto a track that takes us down to Keythorpe Hall Farm. At the fork in the track, we leave the Midshires and take the left bridleway up hill and down dale and across fields and lastly a few stiles before reaching our destination.
TuesDay Walks
These walks are longer than average and range from 8 to 13 miles.
Walks starting from the car park will be at the earlier time of 9:00 a.m.
Information about trips by Bus will be posted on the website and the WhatsApp group.
Provisionally, walks are planned for alternate Tuesdays.
This list will be updated from time to time.
9th June - Welford by Kathy
23rd June - Hallaton by John
7th July - T.B.A.
21st July - Youlgreave, Derbyshire by John
4th August - Kinder Scout, Derbyshire by John
18th August - Cranoe by John
1st September - T.B.A.
15th September - Twyford by John
29th September - T.B.A.