Page 13 - Phonebox Magazine September 2012

Rambling again: Hanslope once more; – the Hanslope “Grove” Jubilee walk.
Hanslope is situated approximately midway between the B526 from Gayhurst and the A508 from Grafton Regis.
A circular clockwise walk from Hanslope, with two options to extend the walk.Duration: circa 2.5 to 3.5 miles about 1.5 to 2.5 hours, a gentle walk through fields, no stiles, the option to visit the murder site involves a little road walking but this is along a quiet road. There are pubs in Hanslope for refreshments.
Firstly a credit for this walk must go to Dan and Rachel Lalor who in 2002 published a booklet of four Jubilee walks to celebrate the Queens Golden Jubilee, so now ten years on it seems appropriate to again celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with a further one of these walks, the booklet can now be downloaded from the Hanslope web site for additional reference.
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There may well be cattle in some pastures if you are able to complete the last stage of the walk, so please keep dogs on a short lead at these points, please close all the gates and take litter home.
1_The walk starts in Market Square, Hanslope (beware of buses turning when parking and
leaving your car), leave the square and walk towards Gold Street (and Tomkins the butchers) and turn right, cross the road and then turn left in to Newport Road and then cross over to walk on the right hand side until you reach a footpath sign in to the field, head diagonally left across the field about parallel with the overhead cables some distance on your right, this will take you to a hedge with local allotments the other side.
2_Turn right here and follow the boundary of the field and through a gap in the hedge, continue on ignoring a sign post to the left across a ditch, the trail bears right and then through another gap in a hedge, again keep to the left towards a large dead tree in the left hand corner of the field. Turn right here with the “Grove” woodlands on your left to a “T” junction of paths*.
3_If at this stage you wish to visit the site of the murder of Squire Watts on July 21st 1912, turn left keeping the “Grove” on your left to the road, turn right here and in five minutes just opposite the entrance to Hanslope Park on the right hand side just off the road you can see the plaque within the small woodland. Retrace your steps back in to the field and follow the more right hand path with the “Grove” on your right back to point*.
4_Continue along with the hedge on your left, turn left at the end towards the farm buildings, just before these there is a gap in the hedge on the right across a small bridge over a ditch. Head to
wards the church spire and go through a gap in the hedge that will put you on to the road**, turn right and walk along Park Road back in to the village cross over to the left and then left in to Market Square, this is mostly along pavements.
**Sadly it would seem that since the original walk was written, the ground around the last three stiles has sunk badly where the cattle like to stand, and with the recent prolonged heavy rains (we did this walk on the 21st July when the church spire was open) they have become virtually impassable without Wellington boots, as there was a large and quite deep area of water and cow poo slurry to both sides of the stiles, especially the final one before the field across to the church and a couple of the stiles are quite wobbly and in need of repair, which is a shame as there are great views of the church from here and this extends the walk by another half mile or so, regrettably although we were wearing walking boots we had to turn back from here.
***The second optional section of the walk involves crossing over the road to a foot path sign and through a gap in the hedge by a disused kissing gate, and then heading along a track at the right hand edge of the field keeping the hedge on your right, in the far right hand corner turn right through a gap in the hedge and over a small bridge and stile. Keep to the left hand edge of three fields crossing three stiles in the top left hand corner in each case, after the last stile head diagonally to the right towards a kissing gate that takes you on a path around the church grave yard to the front gate and then left in to Church End and back to Market Square.
During the course of the walk you may find white or yellow circular discs with the Hanslope Spire and a no. 3 fixed to fences etc, the spire is usually pointing in the direction of travel for your guidance (the no. 3 is the original number of the walk in the 2002 booklet).
We hope that you enjoyed this interesting walk, there are quite a lot of historical events to be found, you can read about the murder of Squire Edward Watts on 21st July 1912 and the suicide of his murderer and the events that followed on the MK heritage web site www.mkheritage.co.uk/hdhs/frametragedy.html or you can take an interactive tour of Hanslope on www.mkheritage.co.uk/hdhs/villageTrail/framesettrail.html additionally the village has it’s own website on www.hanslope.org.uk
The idea behind these occasional walks is to encourage us to visit our neighbouring villages and to enjoy their surrounding countryside, the different season can greatly effect the scenery, with delightful flowers in the meadows and woodlands in spring time, and crisp clear frosty days in winter can often increase the distance you can see as well as blow away those winter cobwebs.
Reversing the walks can also give different views that you might miss in one direction and add another walk to your repertoire.
The walks can be traced using the Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps No.s 207/208/192 which contain a wealth of information for planning walks within the Phonebox catchment area.
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Phonebox Magazine 13