The Coffin Walk - Part 03
w/e 20 May 2012
All this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490

The majority of this walk apart from the start and finish at Breaston is through open countryside along designated footpaths, bridleways and quiet country lanes. There is however a short section that passes through a housing estate on the southern edge of Draycott and that is where we begin Part 03. Immediately on entering Draycott we reach Derwent Street on the corner of which is the Methodist Church. This is in the form of two buildings the one on the left bearing a stone plaque with the words "Primitive Methodist Chapel Built A.D. 1865" whilst a stone on the other shows the date 1897. Joined by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1966 the buildings now form the Draycott Methodist Church. A left turn into Derwent Street takes us along the whole length of the cul-de-sac to the far end where a footpath leads off to the right.

It is then a case of wending our way through the housing estate for something under half a mile. The footpath from Derwent Street leads into the housing estate.

The second turning along the path just before Queen's Court leads through to Cleveland Avenue and then onto Lime Grove (left). A jitty between the houses on the corner of Lime Grove takes us to a stile and back into the open countryside where a well worn path crosses straight through the crop to a small wooded area. After all the wet weather I had expected this field to be quite muddy and was surprised at how firm and dry the path was. Even through the trees (right) the conditions underfoot were dry.

The exit from the wood is over a bridge taking care not to slip into the brook below (which a lady did on a previous Autumn Footprints walk) and over the stile.

With Bankfield Farm now on the right the path heads for a clump of willows crossing two fields separated by a wooden fence. A gate in the fence warns of horses in the second field but these showed no interest in us at all.

To be honest we paid no attention to the horses as we were more concerned about getting in the way of a tractor that was manoeuvring and pushing a large log to the side of the field.

Climbing over another stile we continued across two more fields keeping the hedgerow on the left hand side and soon arrived at the end of Nooning Lane.

On reaching Nooning Lane the route is to the right but over to the left we are again close to the River Derwent that we left on the far side of Draycott. The meandering river covers two or three times the distance we have walked but it's here that we turned our backs on it again to head in the opposite direction. As well as the signs and notices visible here, there are several more for Angling Clubs that show that fishing is a popular pastime along the banks of the Derwent.

Following our walk across the field paths the rest of the route in this third part of the Coffin Walk is along the tarmac of Nooning Lane.

Nooning Lane continues to the main road passing only the solitary Melbourne House and a barn on the right and the access to a sewage works on the left. Shortly before the main road (right) the lane is bridged over the same railway line (left) we crossed near Breaston. From the main road the route turns right and that is where Part 04 will begin to pass north of Draycott on the way back to Breaston. Back to Part 02 Forward to Part 04

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