{"id":191,"date":"2009-07-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=91"},"modified":"2011-01-24T22:30:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T22:30:39","slug":"import91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=191","title":{"rendered":"Aubourn and Bassingham, Lincolnshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk;\nvar walkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=700,width=800,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script>First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('Aubourn.gpx');\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709409990_186427ab0e.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709409990_186427ab0e_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709410892_5e8e147194.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709410892_5e8e147194_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709412432_190e420959.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709412432_190e420959_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709414740_9cff3816f2.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709414740_9cff3816f2_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709416396_2c671a2174.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709416396_2c671a2174_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709419042_77a4639886.jpg\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/images-global\/3709419042_77a4639886_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=191\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">&lsquo;Lincolnshire?&rsquo; say friends who&rsquo;ve never been there. &lsquo;Flat as a pancake; just boring.&rsquo; More fool them. The westernmost corner of the county along the River Witham is wonderful for rambling, threaded by immaculately maintained and waymarked footpaths. There&rsquo;s a subtle dip and roll to the landscape. Medieval sites, village with vigorous community lives; woods, ponds, moats, green lanes; west Lincolnshire has it all. Nonetheless, you rarely see another soul about the fields. What a pleasure it is to have such an undiscovered piece of walking country to oneself, especially on a drowsy afternoon after a pint and a sandwich in the flower-bedecked Royal Oak at Aubourn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">In a thistly field beyond the village, Jane and I found the Anglo-Saxon manor site of Hall Close, all lumps and bumps of grassed-over earthwork, half-dried moats and masonry. In a thicket by the river, broken fragments of wall and dragonfly-haunted pools showed where a monastic settlement once throve among its fishponds. Up the bank stood a 15<sup>th<\/sup>-century dovecote of creamy oolitic stone with nesting holes for 500 birds &#8211; last remnant of Haddington Hall, seat of the ancient Meres family.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">On the far side of a quiet green lane we went on across pastures heavy with meadowsweet, over pungent beanfields, through the slumbrous hamlet of Thurlby where mulberries and horse chestnuts half-smothered the houses. As we crossed the River Witham and came into Bassingham, the tower of St Michael &amp; All Angels was striking three over a fantastic collection of gargoyles grinning and gurning from the church eaves. Did Walt Disney, on a visit to his ancestral village of Norton Disney a few miles away, come here taking notes? Certainly more than one of the Bassingham grotesques put us in mind of Mickey Mouse&rsquo;s cock-eyed pup Pluto.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">Bassingham was primping its herbaceous borders for Open Gardens Weekend. Schoolchildren queued up politely in Green&rsquo;s Stores to buy sherbet lemons. Walking back along the well-kept field paths to Aubourn, watching swans on the river and listening to yellowhammers issuing their eternal requests for &lsquo;A-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-<em>cheese!<\/em>&rsquo;, Jane and I began to wonder if we had slipped through a crack in the space-time continuum and wandered into some improbable land of lost content.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm; page-break-before: always\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><u>Start &amp; finish<\/u>: Royal Oak PH, Aubourn LN5 9DT (OS ref SK 925628)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><u>Getting there<\/u>: A1 to Newark, A46 towards Lincoln; right through Haddington to Aubourn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><u>Walk<\/u> (6 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 272): From Royal Oak, left; in 70 yd, left (fingerpost) up path. Through kissing gate at end; left; follow yellow arrows (y.a.) to road (918628). Right across bridge; in 100 yd, left over footbridge. Follow y.a. across 3 fields, then Hall Close historic site, to cross green lane (912626). Continue same line for &frac12; a mile to road (907622); left into Thurlby. Beyond bend, left (&lsquo;Bassingham&rsquo;) along pavement. 200 yd past cottages, left (907609) across field; cross road (908605), and on across fields. Opposite Bassingham church, left (906598) across river to road (909598). Right to church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">Return up road; left at war memorial (&lsquo;Thurlby, Lincoln&rsquo;); left by Green&rsquo;s Stores. Just past Five Bells PH, left (912602) down Water Lane. In 100 yd, right (fingerpost) down path and on through fields. Cross road (910605); on past Witham Farm, following y.a. for 1 &frac14; miles to weir (913625). Right to end of green lane (916623); left along road; immediately left (fingerpost) across 2 fields to road (919626). Right to clock tower; left into Aubourn.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">NB &ndash; Online map, more walks: <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"\/\">www.christophersomerville.co.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><u>Lunch<\/u>: Royal Oak, Aubourn (01522-788291; <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.royaloakaubourn.co.uk\/\">www.royaloakaubourn.co.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><u>More info<\/u>: Lincoln TIC (01522-873213)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\"><font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.visitlincolnshire.com\/\">www.visitlincolnshire.com<\/a><\/u><\/font>; <font color=\"#0000ff\"><u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/\">www.ramblers.org.uk<\/a><\/u><\/font><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm\" class=\"western\" align=\"justify\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The westernmost corner of Lincolnshire along the River Witham is wonderful for rambling, threaded by immaculately maintained and waymarked footpaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}