The Ivanhoe Way, section one

Saturday 6th August 2016

At this time of the year I don’t have any walking holidays to describe so I have to go back and look at the day-walks that I did last year in or near Leicestershire, my home county. I had been gradually working my way around the long distance trail of the Ivanhoe Way and on the previous section I had reached the village of Shackerstone, which is the official start of the trail. I had actually started my circuit in Dimminsdale Nature Reserve at the start of section four, so I was now more than half way around the trail. After parking in the car park for the Battlefield Line Railway I set off through the village of Shackerstone and onto the towpath that runs beside the Ashby de la Zouch Canal. There was a dense covering of trees on this section of the canal that made it rather dark and brooding, but I didn’t stay long on the canal as I came off at Hill’s Bridge and passing through the overgrown remains of a disused railway line I came onto a quiet country lane. I was accompanied by this lane with the purple flowers of willowherb that are a sure sign of summer, and a ubiquitous flower at that time of the year.

Just after passing Shackerstone Fields Farm I left the road and crossed a dew-soaked, grassy field that prompted me to put on my waterproof socks before continuing beside wheat fields, through Green Lane Coverts and into the village of Snarestone. Ragwort and rosebay willowherb decorated the edges of these fields while a dense plague of flies harassed me near Beanfield Farm until I could reach the safety of the trees in Green Land Coverts. These treats and irritations were a distant memory once I reached Snarestone as beyond this village the Ivanhoe Way follows the edge of a busy road until I eventually came off and started following a track that goes around a brick works. While on one side of the path is the brick works with a tall, ugly wire fence separating them, on the other is a narrow woodland screen that has been allowed to go wild resulting in a lovely display of plants that made for an enjoyable walk despite half of the view being industrial. All too soon I was in the village of Measham where a short walk through a housing estate brought me to the former Measham railway station that is now the Measham Museum.

This is the end of section one of the Ivanhoe Way, which hadn’t really taken me very long, and since the museum was closed for lunch I turned around and headed back towards Shackerstone along the course of the old railway line. This became very overgrown with lovely, dense vegetation covered with loads of summer flowers that made for an attractive area to walk through back towards the brick works. There was a loud buzzing of insects in this tall vegetation that shows the benefit of not being so meticulous about cutting back overgrown plants. Insects will love you for leaving weeds to grow tall in the height of summer and I loved walking through these dense plants to the accompanying buzz. The course of the old railway line disappears into the brick works so I was forced to retrace my steps of an hour earlier around the edge, but this time I was trying to find a path off the Ivanhoe Way that couldn’t be seen. The map indicates several paths that veer off the Ivanhoe Way, but despite going up and down the path several times I couldn’t find any way off the main path through the tangled screen of bramble.

In the end I came off the path near the south-eastern corner of the brick works on a short track that took me back onto the road that I had walked beside earlier in the day. A short walk north along this road brought me to the point where the path that I had been looking for crosses the road and turning right I followed this path east. On the other side of a field I came upon an area warning of military vehicles and where red flags were flying despite there being no sign of a military zone on my map. A sign revealed that this is not real, but something called Tank Mania for gullible tourists. I had no interest is this mania and followed the path on an interesting route along the length of a wide hedge that eventually brought me up to a delightful hay meadow that was full of many wonderful wild flowers. This could simply be an abandoned field, but that didn’t spoil my enthusiasm for a field that was filled with dock and ragwort and where a clear path takes a meandering course through the field. I was deeply enamoured with this field and felt disappointed when I came to the end of the field at a road.

On the other side of Gilwiskaw Brook I found a sign marking a construction site for the Ashby Canal. Since there is a footpath marked on my map at this point, and it wasn’t too difficult to go around the gate, even though there wasn’t any sign of a right-of-way, I headed along the course of the old canal up a stony track. I think the footpath that I had been trying to follow since leaving Measham is on the course of the old canal and there is a plan to restore it following the mine collapses that had closed it many years ago. The restoration works soon emerged and I had the weird experience of walking along the bed of a dry canal until I came to the mound of earth that blocks the current northern end of the canal. From there I walked along the towpath on this newly restored section of the canal until the surroundings finally merged into the long established canal. For the rest of the walk I simply followed the canal all the way back to Shackerstone in the wonderfully warm and sunny weather. The Ivanhoe Way was very boring mainly because it passes through fields which I don’t find particularly fun walking through, but the return was more interesting as I tried to trace the route of the old Ashby Canal and then it was very relaxing as I strolled along the easy canal towpath.

The return trip was soon blocked, however, by the 249 yard Snarestone Tunnel where there is no path for me to follow so I had to climb up to the village and find my way back down onto the canal, which wasn’t immediately obvious. Eventually I found the route through the beer garden for the Globe Inn that led me back down to the canal. When I eventually reached Shackerstone I took a trip along the preserved railway than runs along the old line to Shenton right next to Bosworth Battlefield. Rather than being pulled by a steam train on this day the service was being run by an old D.M.U. that reminded me of my childhood just as a steam train reminds my father of his childhood. The main benefit of this walk was the weather that was pleasantly warm and sunny, which produces good views, even over the flat Leicestershire countryside, and makes for an uplifting walk.