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The weather has not been exactly fine lately, all down to the Icelandic volcano I suspect. It was so chilly when I began this walk I was wishing I'd brought gloves!
Hatton and Haseley are adjacent parishes with rather scattered populations about 3 miles or so north-west of Warwick. Hatton is perhaps most famous for the long flight of locks on the Grand Union Canal, which lift it out of the Avon Valley. In the old days of steam, the Castles and Kings of the Great Western Railway would roar and thunder up the steep incline of Hatton Bank, hauling the expresses from London Paddington to Birmingham. A spectacle occasionally recreated by charter steam-hauled specials.
The walk begins in the centre of Hatton and the path is not easy to find as it is not signposted from the road. A small drive leading to a couple of private houses is the route and this stile by a steel gate is where we enter the fields.
We walk towards a small wood along this unploughed baulk, which was probably a hedge once.
Of course it is the bluebell season.
We continue across the firlds to the hamlet of Little Shrewley. The cast iron letterbox in a brick pillar has the cypher VR and is therefore Victorian.
Newland Wood is on the left, containing more bluebells. The red van in front is Royal Mail delivering the post.
Bluebells in Newland Wood.
We leave the lane by this gate in a hedgerow:
After crossing some fields in crop we come to the main Birmingham-Warwick road. Opposite is the Falcon Inn and the path continues across the car park.
The Falcon is the crest of the Throckmorton family of Coughton Court. Clement Throckmorton, bearer to Queen Katherine Parr, and his wife Katherine settled at the Old Manor House, Haseley. They are buried in nearby Haseley church.
After passing the Falcon, Haseley Church is visible across the fields of rape.
Haseley church. The main structure seems to be mainly of the 12th and 13th centuries though a church was recorded here in Domesday (1086).
The tower is 15th century. The Gabled projection on the south of the chancel was built to house the tomb of Clement and Katherine Throckmorton. The south porch, though Norman in style, is modern (Victorian?).
Hatton and Haseley are adjacent parishes with rather scattered populations about 3 miles or so north-west of Warwick. Hatton is perhaps most famous for the long flight of locks on the Grand Union Canal, which lift it out of the Avon Valley. In the old days of steam, the Castles and Kings of the Great Western Railway would roar and thunder up the steep incline of Hatton Bank, hauling the expresses from London Paddington to Birmingham. A spectacle occasionally recreated by charter steam-hauled specials.
The walk begins in the centre of Hatton and the path is not easy to find as it is not signposted from the road. A small drive leading to a couple of private houses is the route and this stile by a steel gate is where we enter the fields.
We walk towards a small wood along this unploughed baulk, which was probably a hedge once.
Of course it is the bluebell season.
We continue across the firlds to the hamlet of Little Shrewley. The cast iron letterbox in a brick pillar has the cypher VR and is therefore Victorian.
Newland Wood is on the left, containing more bluebells. The red van in front is Royal Mail delivering the post.
Bluebells in Newland Wood.
We leave the lane by this gate in a hedgerow:
After crossing some fields in crop we come to the main Birmingham-Warwick road. Opposite is the Falcon Inn and the path continues across the car park.
The Falcon is the crest of the Throckmorton family of Coughton Court. Clement Throckmorton, bearer to Queen Katherine Parr, and his wife Katherine settled at the Old Manor House, Haseley. They are buried in nearby Haseley church.
After passing the Falcon, Haseley Church is visible across the fields of rape.
Haseley church. The main structure seems to be mainly of the 12th and 13th centuries though a church was recorded here in Domesday (1086).
The tower is 15th century. The Gabled projection on the south of the chancel was built to house the tomb of Clement and Katherine Throckmorton. The south porch, though Norman in style, is modern (Victorian?).
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