Smeeton Walk

I have to thank Martin for helping me to reconnoitre the route for this walk. I had a plan in mind that took us along the canal and through fields to Smeeton Westerby. The best place to join the canal seemed to be at Cranes Lock. This meant a walk through the village up to Leicester Road and then over a couple of fields, across Kibworth Road and over two more fields to reach the canal. However, Mr. Farmer decided he’d plough up a third of the penultimate field making it very difficult to traverse. It seemed to us that the rest of the field would suffer a similar fate before the walk date.

Plan A included the white footbridge (68) as a destination and off we set along the towpath. I lost the bridge! Rather, I forgot how far along the canal it was! Luckily Martin’s memory was better than mine and we thought it best to leave the canal just before the aqueduct and head for Smeeton.

We wandered past the “magical door” and through more fields before heading back to the canal by the white footbridge (68). As we made our way across one of the fields, a notice informed us that there were cows, calves and a bull in the field. The notice didn’t lie! We immediately thought that this field was a no-no for some of our walkers. It was beginning to look like this walk was fated!

So a rethink was called for. “Let’s go via Wistow and maybe Newton Harcourt”, we said a couple of days later. We checked it out and that was fine. “Where do we get off the canal?”, we said. The footpath from the bridge (72) on Saddington Road has too many stiles and could be quite squishy in places, so that was out. “At the aqueduct?” seemed the obvious choice, but that meant the walk was getting too long! We finally hit on a compromise by leaving out Newton Harcourt.

The route was now sorted – from Fleckney over the fields and footpath to Wistow, down to the canal, leave the canal at the aqueduct, over to the “magical door”, and the King’s Head as the pub-stop, and then back to Fleckney. A quick call to the King’s Head to confirm the opening time and we were all set. “Three o’clock” I was told. “Sugar”, says I. Well, something like that! With reports that our local was having equipment issues, and the Queen’s Head in Saddington was closed, we needed to find another pub to refresh ourselves at. Dave suggested the Railway in Kibworth and so, although it made the walk a little longer than intended, the scene was set.

The day came for the walk, and so did the rain. We had no option but to cancel. The weather then changed and it seemed we may have been able to complete the walk after all. However, the ground would have been very wet and muddy in places. We decided to hold the walk on the following Sunday instead. Initial weather reports indicated no rain and the possibility of some bright periods. 

The day arrived and yay, it was dry and warm. It was nice to see so many people waiting in the car park. Once Eden had been around us all for a love, thirteen of us set off on the walk. Pat joined us on Colman Road to bring the total to fourteen and calm any of us may suffer from triskaidekaphobia.

The walk started well and the weather got warmer. The fields from Garner Way to the crosspaths by Fox Covert were pretty dry and the muddy bits along the track to Leicester Road were easily passable. The footpath down to Wistow Rural Centre the other side of Leicester Road is now fenced off so that both the animals and pedestrians are safer. We turned right and headed along Kibworth Road until we reached the entrance to St. Wistan’s Church. By walking through the church grounds, the building can be admired and a couple of stiles missed out. Once we reached the canal at Ivy Bridge (78) many of us were suffering from leaky skins. I thought that being next to water would cool us a little. Wrong! The towpath was in direct sunlight. Still, it was much, much better than being rained on. 

We stopped for a rest at Cranes Lock and again at Kibworth Top Lock. We decided to have a spot of lunch here and parted company with those of us who only wanted to do the “short” walk.

After lunch and some chatting with the boaters, we continued along the canal and through the field that is the diversion for the ruined towpath that nobody seems to want to get repaired. Anyway, over Saddington Tunnel and on towards the aqueduct where we left the canal by way of a recently updated and rather awkward stile. There were some cattle in this field but they were far enough away and seemingly disinterested to not worry the walkers.

Into Smeeton Westerby we went, through an alleyway and then the allotments. We then ventured on the footpath that took us to the “magical door”. It is such an unusual door that you can’t help but stop and take notice (and pictures) of it.

Continuing on through a couple of fields I was able to point out where the calves, cows and bull were. There was nothing to worry about though as there was plenty of distance and a few hedges between us and them! Eventually we came to Debdale Lane and turned up it. The footpath leading off from the lane was somewhat overgrown – another job for the Ainsdale Bushwhackers?

We chose to ignore the footpath and followed the lane into Smeeton Westerby and instantly saw that The King’s Head was actually OPEN! It turned out that this was the first day of the new opening hours. This presented us with another problem as two of our team were waiting in The Railway Inn at Kibworth, after leaving us at the lunch stop. After a quick phone call to explain the situation we headed into the pub for a well-earned rest and a few beers. 

We decided to return to Fleckney via Mill Lane, a stroll that most of us had done many times, thus finishing off an excellent, 10 mile walk.