On a sultry evening in the middle of the August heatwave, an enthusiastic
ensemble of about 50 turned out for Quorn’s Summer ’03
parish walk.
From the White Hart, local footpath warden Laurence Coe led the chattering
crowd along Tom Long’s Meadow, across the fields to Woodthorpe
and then, with some directional divergence, across the new Epinal
Way extension, where the footpaths were not yet waymarked. Fear not,
though, for the county council’s intrepid Public Rights of
Way Officer has visited Quorn from Melton Mowbray and is on the case!
The mozzies were beginning to bite as, from the Bull in the Hollow,
the now languid line lolloped north-eastwards towards the canal,
but then turned east along the rarely used, but eerily attractive
K31 to Flesh Hovel Lane. All the county’s footpaths have numbers
and these are used by Quorn’s footpath wardens to report problems
to the team in Melton.
The walk’s next turn, left across the
fields of New Hayes Farm, brought not only a few minor problems to
be reported (nettle-bound stiles and signs obscured by the undergrowth),
but also a pugnacious pig, a lugubrious llama and a shuffle of strangely-clad
sheep to divert the wandering walkers.
At Barrow, a few part-timers took the short-cut home, while the more
serious devotees set foot on foreign (i.e. Barrovian) territory to
seek refreshment at The Navigation. Darkness had fallen before our
heroes stumbled – I mean, marched briskly – back to Quorn.
The next parish walk will be in the Winter and will again be widely
advertised in advance.
Watch this space for more walking news…
