LIFETIME of WALKS by DEREK HARWOOD

We drove to Bubbenhall and parked Ann's car in old school lay-by on the A445. We drove to Wolston village where we parked my car in St Margarets Avenue to start the walk. We turned left down Main Street to the old post office and war memorial, where we turned right down the lane towards the school. Just before the school we turned left down an alley by a housing estate, following 'The Centenary Way', 'Shakespeare's Avon Way' beside 'A Coventry Way'. Nest-building crows were very noisy. We soon entered the trees passing an old shaped branch looking like an arm, on a well worn dog walkers track by the houses. The track split many times making the correct way very difficult. We wandered around looking for the best track which corresponded to the map. We were amazed how many clumps of snowdrops there were throughout the woodland, with carpets of white blobs in places. We crossed the field by the new wire fence of the horses field to the lane leading to Wolston Fields Farm. There we missed the signpost to cross the open field towards Ryton on Dunmore, but retraced tracks on the lane from a frozen pond to continue on the correct route passing the very smelly sewage works. The fields close to the River Avon were extremely stony in places. A sign by the A45 road explained that there were proposals to extract gravel from the area. We climbed the hill away from the river, St Leonard's Church could easily be seen on the skyline towards Ryton on Dunsmore. We came to the A45 main road from a narrow strip of grass between two very well ploughed fields. We turned right along a good path to Ryton, we looked at the church and crossed the main road using the subway which had recently been painted (August 2011) in bright colours depicting the local community and animals. Most interesting. We passed the local shops, war memorial and Blacksmiths Arms to a park with its very curvy footpaths. We stopped for a short while at a park bench for refreshments before continuing through the estate to a footpath between the local school and the high wired fence of the old Ryton car plant. We turned left at the end of the high fence down a wide track between two high fences. The new buildings which replaced the old plant buildings were clearly visible. We crossed the A423 road by Ryton Lodge. We crossed a field of black sheep and mole hills to skirt the local ponds and cross a horse field, where we had to tread carefully to avoid the small piles of horse manure. We turned left along a hedgerow, then a good open track to Bubbenhall. Ann laughed as we approached a field where a huge flock of birds took to the air. The field had a large number of elaborate scarecrows scattered around. We entered Bubbenhall passing the playing field and village hall, taking careful note of our exact position to divert from the Way to the alleyway back to the car parked in the lay-by. A council lorry almost blocked the entrance of the lay-by. We had to turn the car around to leave the lay-by. It had been another very good walk along the 'Way' with Ann, although very chilly in the wind.

Location Map: - www.streetmap.co.uk
Finish at Wolston, Finish at Bubbenhall

Hazards: None.