Market for a walk

MARKET Weighton has an historic claim to England's tallest man. As we took the York Road out of town on a chilly morning, we hoped for a brisk Wolds leg stretcher.

The first of many a white acorn symbol sent us striding along the Wolds Way, 'Londesborough Park 2 miles' read the sign, we shot past hedge and ditch over the flats of Weighton Clay Fields.

At Towthorpe Grange we found we had just missed Snowdrop Sunday. And next door, at the next field, we had missed the last inhabitants of Towthorpe in the Thistles by 400 years. The site of the abandoned medieval village has thistles, a hollow tree and ground shapes.

We followed a stream and heard geese. A fingerpost bore an admirable red warning sign, a new one on me, it read: "East Riding of Yorkshire Council - Criminal Damage Act 1971 - It is an offence to tamper with this sign...£1,000 fine...6 months imprisonment..."

Iron rails and fancy cascades, a big gateway, and we were on the drive of Londesborough Park, where once there was a fabulous house and 600 deer. Here, between two spring-fed lakes, we had our sandwiches and watched a dozen acrobatic long-tailed tits spin in the branches. Coots swam, flashing their white bills; the geese grazed on grassy ridge and furrow.

Later, at a proper though untidy picnic site, there was the question on a board: "How many power stations can you see?" Answer - zero. Our views west were hazy.

Roman road and wide tracks took us by swooping chalky fields to the village of Goodmanham, which was once the centre of pagan Woden worship in the north of England.

While venerating an iron milepost we were persuaded by a couple of local ladies to try the pub. It is walker friendly. The publican holds the key to the church. He will pull you a Randy Monk, from a pump displaying said monk with a Playboy mag in his hymnal. The beer is sweet.

Next up was a wooded valley, then came a peek at the padlocked Rifle Butts quarry and its white and roofed-over chalk face; it's a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve.

Finally we switched from the Wolds Way to a route commemorating York's railway king, namely the Hudson Way, a mile and a half of track bed, a Linear Nature Reserve of the Yorkshire Naturalist Trust. A raptor flew high; water flowed clear from Saint Helen's Well, which maybe from Saint Ellen who was the Celtic Goddess of the Ways. There were mossy nests in the thorn bushes.

On the edge of town, in the tin can and take-away trash zone, there were also three dead rabbits hanging in thorn bushes. And in town, pubs galore and the Outdoor Shop.

Fact file:

Distance: Seven miles.

Time: Four hours.

General location: The Wolds.

Start: Town centre.

Right of way: The route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: Saturday February, 21 2004.

Road route: A1079 from York, A163 from Selby.

Car parking: Free car parks in town centre.

Lavatories: Londesborough Road.

Refreshments: Inns and caf.

Tourist and public transport information: Beverley TIC 01482 867430.

Map: Based on OS Explorer 294 Market Weighton and Yorkshire Wolds Central.

Terrain: Farmland and parkland.

Points of interest: From Holy Wells by Cuming Walters 1898 -"to St Helen, the guardian saint of a well in Yorkshire, pieces of cloth are most acceptable offerings'.

Difficulty: Sound paths, well signed. Gentle slopes.

Dogs: Suitable.

Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Directions:

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point. Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. From centre of town, York Road out. Snickelgate on right (signed Londesborough Park) across field, footbridge to field-edge paths. Cross main road to drive, through farmyard, right-hand of two fieldgates (due to be replaced with lighter one) to grassy track, snickel gate, by stream.

2. Left to road, 100 yards, park entrance on right, track.

3. At tracks junction, right fork (signed Goodmanham) downhill, 100 yards, fieldgate, right fork. Footbridge between lakes, stile and path at 11 o'clock uphill.

4. Right to main track. At right-hand bend fork left to track with hedge to right (small waymarked post).

5. Cross main road, 50 yards of tarmac (picnic area), fork left to track (signed), sharp left-hand bend (fingerpost), track curves sharp right downhill (stream on right), under railway bridge, 100 yards, left fork, road into Goodmanham.

6. Left in village, uphill, first road on right.

7. Path on right at 5-way fingerpost to disused railway track (Steps to St Helen's Well). Fork left as path nears end at houses (signed Town Centre).

Click here to view a map of the walk

Updated: 08:42 Saturday, February 28, 2004