Sunday, September 3, 2017

Fitzwilliam, Ackworth Moor Top, Hessle, High Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Thorpe Audlin, Old Thorpe Audlin, Upton, Hampole, and Skellow.

It's only eighteen minutes on the train to Fitzwilliam, the least attractive place from where I've started a walk...but quite handy for reaching other, much prettier areas.

I left Fitzwilliam as quickly as I could, heading out to the north. After passing a small industrial estate I soon reached some quite nice countryside on the way to Ackworth Moor Top. I just clipped the western edge of the village, entering the Brackenhill area, before continuing on towards the hamlet of Hessle and then the path across the fields to High Ackworth. The first part of this section of the walk was my favourite bit; the short walk down Constitution Hill was delightful. This was just after I'd taken this close-up photograph of a bird which didn't seem to be startled by me at all - maybe it wasn't feeling very well.



The church at High Ackworth would look a lot nicer in the sunshine, but these are my best photographs, given the cloudy conditions.







I ate my sandwiches on a seat next to the village green and then walked along the main road for a few minutes until I reached the road that leads down to Low Ackworth. There are a lot of large, old, expensive houses in High Ackworth, this isn't the case in Low Ackworth...it's a lot more down market.

I couldn't find the path that goes directly across the fields to Badsworth and so went straight on to Thorpe Audlin instead. Badsworth is a pretty village with an old church and I had planned to take some photographs of the church - it will look even prettier in the sunshine on another day sometime though.

I walked down the lane towards Old Thorpe Audlin - which isn't even marked on the map. It's quite an expensive area with some nice houses. About a mile further on there's a small airstrip with a grass runway.







There were only modern houses to see as I passed the eastern extremities of Upton before continuing southwards towards Hampole. In one area the footpath was totally overgrown with nettles and despite my wearing heavy cotton walking trousers I still got stung a few times - it seemed that I was the only person to have walked there this summer. A few yards further on the path was deliberately blocked, but the fence had already been broken down.

Just before reaching Hampole I had to cross the busy Doncaster to Leeds railway line.


At Hampole the footpath passes through people's gardens - fortunately it is well signposted.

The final section of the walk was along the road to the A1 dual carriageway, the Great North Road. There's a foot bridge to make the crossing safe and easy and at the other side there was a bus stop - a bus back to Doncaster was due in ten minutes and so I decided to finish the walk here.


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