The National Forest Way, Stage Four

Saturday 13th December 2014

Sence Valley to Ashby de la Zouch

I had planned on doing a stage of the National Forest Way each month, but the demands of work, which had had a detrimental effect on stage three, dictated that I wouldn’t be able to return to the trail until just before Christmas. I had actually attempted to do this stage in November, but poor planning and bad weather had forced me to abandon that walk soon after it had started. Now I parked at the Snibston Country Park, which has been built on a former colliery spoil heap and reclaimed to form woodland with an open, rough grassland area. It was very cold when I started with ice on the roads when I drove in and a deep frost on the ground. I wrapped up snuggly before starting and headed off into the country park climbing to the top of the old spoil heap that is now dubbed Pit Bank. In better weather the views should be good from this vantage point, but the cold ground was creating an inversion with mist covering the low ground. There was nevertheless an eerie atmosphere and one that stayed with me for the rest of the increasingly dull walk.

Descending along a narrowing ridge I came down to a service road and gradually got more and more lost until I eventually got out a map, which I really should have done earlier. When I realised where I was I turned around and eventually found a right-of-way that passes just outside Grange Nature Reserve that took me onto a road not far from the tiny village of Snibston. A dull path through farmer’s fields brought me into Donington le Heath, which I had passed through on the previous stage, but rather than following the route of stage three I now took a footpath that heads towards what I thought was going to be Kelham Bridge Nature Reserve, but actually goes into the National Forest woodland of Kelham Bridge that lies to the north of the reserve. White frost remained on the ground as I passed through the young woodland and over a frosty field to the byway that skirts the edge of Sence Valley Forest Park.

I had been to this country park three months previously when I did stage three of the National Forest Way, but the changing seasons had transformed the park into a winter wonderland with bare trees and dead, frost-laden foliage on the ground. The crisp cold air under clear blue skies had frozen the ground solid, but as I made my along a footpath that follows the western edge of the park I came upon mud that had thawed and was unpleasant to walk along, and eventually forced me to enter the park earlier than I’d planned. Following the wide, clear path down to the large Horseshoe Lake I circled around it while taking in the wintry views across the lake where various wildfowl were congregated on the partially frozen lake. I made my way around the lake and up the steep path to the car park where Christmas trees were being sold by the National Forest company.

The upper car park is where stage four of the National Forest Way begins so it was at this point that I once again descended onto the byway and this time turned left to follow the byway onto Heather Lane. A short walk along the road brought me to another footpath that soon led me to the Woodland
Trust’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood. This covers an extensive area where over 300,000 trees have been planted to mark the 2012 Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, however that was only two year and a half years before I did this walk and the actual planting hadn’t started until November 2012, and continued through into 2014. Consequently the recently planted trees were still very small, so the whole thing didn’t really look like a wood yet. However, it was fascinating to see that all the trails through the wood had already been laid out complete with direction posts. This looks like it’s eventually going to be a great woodland, but not for a very long time, which is a problem with all the new woods that have been planted as part of the National Forest, even those planted more than fifteen years ago.

At the other end of the Jubilee Wood I reached the tiny village of Normanton le Heath, but from there the trail deteriorates as I crossed field after field with nothing of interest until I reached Red Burrow Lane. On the other side of the road is some sort of community wood, but I can find no information about it, however I do remember it as being so attractive that I veered off-course through it down to the Gilwiskaw Brook. Eventually I realised that I was not on the trail so I took a path back onto the right route that took me into the picturesque village of Packington. From there the National Forest Way heads over the busy A42 and enters the bustling market town of Ashby de la Zouch. With carols being played loudly on Market Street I caught a bus out of Ashby and back over the A42 to the village of Coleorton, which is where I had done my aborted walk the month before. Footpaths are astonishingly dense in this area and I had an enjoyable little wander around Coleorton Moor retracing my brief steps of the month before as I tried to find my way through the maze of footpaths.

To be honest I can hardly remember the end of this walk as I had lost all interest even though the surroundings were quite picturesque. Looking at a map I must have passed Limby Hall on my way to Cuckoo Gap Wood, which I think was a good, well-established wood that should have left more of an impression on me than it did. Somehow I got over the railway line and the main A511 road and through what is marked as a wood on the map, but all I seem to remember is a dreary, typical urban park. Long before I was back at Snibston Park I had decided that I wouldn’t continue doing the National Forest Way until the winter was over. While the frost had held at the beginning of the day, this walk had held some interest for me, but after I left Sence Valley Park I wasn’t enjoying the walk. By the end I just wanted it to end even though I was passing through what in the Spring must be a lovely woodland, but in the winter and with the mood that I was in I thought it was just dull and muddy.