West Hallam Walk No. 3 - Part 01
w/e 06 July 2014
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
The third of the three short walks around West Hallam
described in a "Family Walks" leaflet is a little over
two and a half miles in length, the first half of which is mainly
on a long distance footpath linking Ashbourne and Ilkeston called
the Centenary Way. The return to the village is also along paths
through fields but on a different and less well used route.
The walk begins at The Dales shopping area car park in the village
centre, turns left to pass through The Village and follows St
Wilfrid's Road as far as the white cottage a little way down
the hill.
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All the walks in the leaflet have one or more questions aimed
at younger members of the family. Walk No. 3 has only one which
asks for the name the track we followed by the side of the white
cottage and advises that the answer can be found by referring
to the map in the leaflet.
(The map can be seen in the leaflet that can be downloaded
from the Family Walks Index page and the answer is also revealed
in the text at the end of the walk.)
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The track continues gently downhill until it reaches a gate and
stile at its lowest point where climbing over the stile also
took us over this small water course or, as identified on OS
maps, a drain.
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The Centenary Way then continues over three fields and keeping
the hedge-line on the left we headed for St Mary's Church in
Ilkeston which is directly in front on the horizon. The summer
growth of the grass has obscured much of the path but having
walked this way several times before in both directions, we were
quite sure of the way unlike the return route as we shall see
later. In fact there is already a page on this site from when
we walked along the Centenary Way to West Hallam way back in
May 2002 (link).
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If there were any uncertainty about the route of the path the
positions of the gates and stiles were always there to confirm
its position. The first three fields were empty of livestock
but the fourth was being grazed by sheep.
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The sheep totally ignored us apart from this one who gave us
a quizzical look before returning to its grass munching activity.
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All through the fields there had been many small dark purple
or brown butterflies or moths flitting about. I'm no lepidopterist
so I'm not positive about their species but we did spot one solitary
Comma on a fence post in the field of sheep. Note the strands
of wool caught on the barbed wire fence.
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About two thirds of the way into the sheep field we crossed over
this sturdy looking stile and turned right.
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Climbing another stile in the corner of the field we continued
towards High Lane East (still at West Hallam) this time with
the hedge-line on the right passing a water trough on the way.
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We reached High Lane East by climbing over yet another stile
and walking down the drive to the building which the name plate
on the wall identified quite appropriately at Butterfly Cottage.
At the road we turned right again towards Ilkeston leaving the
Centenary Way and will pick up the route from there in Part 02.
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