Fleckney, Arnesby, Peatling Magna, Shearsby

John led us from Fleckney car park (///loses.always.huts), along Main Street up to the point where the road name becomes Arnesby Road – at the house named Hounds End. Just here, on the right through a large gate, is a bridleway often used by the Weekday Walkers. It is usually a solid pathway with some quite lovely views.

Shortly after the track bears left to join Arnesby Road is a footpath heading directly towards Arnesby. This is the footpath of choice. However, another track around this field may be a better option, especially after a spot of rainfall. At the last field before Arnesby, the footpath should go diagonally across but there is little or no sign that it does. The recently constructed wide track continues just past the entrance to Hall Farm and many walkers, with or without dogs, choose this route. However, when we tackled this walk, the farmer had put in a nice wide pathway about halfway up the gentle slope. Let’s hope it remains there!

Once we reached Arnesby Road we carefully crossed the always-busy A5199 and hopped over a stile. This footpath took us towards the heart of Arnesby where we hung a right and a left to head to the infamous Shearsby windmill, a grade Il listed building constructed by J. Hurst in 1815.

We took the footpath to the side of the playing fields and then over two lovely stiles to cross the entrance to the mill. The footpath we were now on led us to Peatling Magna. There were a few stiles along the way. For some reason, the initial route wandered off to The Cock Inn before doubling back to head past All Saints Church. Perhaps the plan was to have a lunch/coffee/beer stop at one of these locations before moving on?!?

After this brief (?) stop, we picked up the footpath heading southeast to Shearsby. As you can see from the little red flags on the map, there were three more stiles along this section of the walk.

When we reached Shearsby, we finished the rest of our lunch in the park near The Chandler’s Arms. It would have been rude not to visit the local hostelry after walking all this way! The Chandler’s Arms is a busy little pub that usually serves a variety of local ales. Although it is primarily a “drinker’s pub”, The Chandler’s is kept busy serving good food.

The final section of the walk was along the Leicestershire Round. This led us past Rowley Fields Farm and onward to Fleckney Road. Stalwarts continued along the Round before doubling back along the footpath to the west of the village. Non-stalwarts headed along Arnesby Road and Main Street to get to The Golden Shield a little sooner!