Balk and Bagby from Sutton Village

 

7 miles                           

We drove into Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe on the A170 from the A19 and parked in the Whitestonecliffe Inn Car Park.  Tom Scott Burns tells us that hikers are welcome to use the inn's car park but sadly, twenty five years later, the pub is no longer open for business. Its large car park remains however and leaving the car there we saw that work is now taking place. A quick chat with the workmen informed us that a complete renovation is taking place of the pub.  Good news for the village, after five years without one they will have a pub again.

 

Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills

 

Building work taking place

 

Rain was in the air and thunder rolling in the distance so we donned wet weather gear.  We walked from the pub and turned right onto the A170 which we followed through the village, spotting several interesting weather vanes. 

 

 

Sutton Hall, now luxury flats

 

We set off walking through the village

This old building slowly deteriorates but someone continues to cut the lawn

 

This is a busy road and traffic whizzed past us as we crossed the bridge over Sutton Beck and turned left off the road and into a track at a footpath sign.

 

Leave the road at the wooden sign

Recently strimmed grass makes a nice footpath

We then walked on past a sewage works and through more fields alongside Sutton Beck, until we emerged beyond a static caravan park at the tiny hamlet of Balk.  

 

Bee hives near Sutton Beck

We cross the beck

.. and approach a caravan park

Thunder crashes and rain pours

Our path has almost disappeared

Narrow footpath into Balk

TSB tells us that Balk originates in the Old English 'balca' or 'bank' and would have applied to the ridge of land between Balk Beck and Hood Beck.

We walked into Balk and admired its three storey mill, now renovated into housing, and opposite it, the old mill buildings which have been taken over by a furniture manufacturer. 

 

Our path reaches tarmac at Balk

The Old Mill buildings at Balk

Alice in Wonderland on a fence in Balk

Mill buildings now home to a furniture manufacturer

We stayed on the road heading west as the storm eased until we reached the larger village of Bagby where we turned left onto a track near new housing just before entering the village.  There is no sign or waymark, the old sign having fallen down.

 

Road walking from Balk to Bagby

 

All that remains of the footpath sign

You can see the old sign next to Clive, 20 yards into the lane

 

Weather vane in Bagby

 

The gravel track leads to fields where we turned right to walk alongside the crops.  As you see from the map above we are now headed south along this track to the village of Thirkleby.  We passed by another caravan park at Pond Wood and the grounds of  Thirkleby Hall before emerging on to the road by the old school house.

The Old School House at Thirkleby, the clock two hours out

We walked through Great Thirkleby and came to the isolated church of All Saints' where, as we sat and enjoyed our coffee and scones, the sun came out and to shine on the righteous.

 

Coffee and scones at All Saints in Thirkleby

Ornate All Saints Church at Thirkleby

 

Our coffee was accompanied by peals of bells and, entering the church after our break, we shouted hello to the bell ringers and looked round the old building. It is bigger than one would expect for the size of the village, with fine stained glass windows picturing St George and St Martin. 

 

"The bells, the bells..."

 

Looking towards the altar

 

 

Leaving the church we walked back to the road then crossed straight over to join a field path leading to a footbridge, then quickly on to the Little Thirkleby Road, where we turned left to walk parallel with the route we had followed into Thirkleby, this time to the right of Thirkleby Beck.  

 

Thirkleby beacon

Hot sheep

Standing room only

The White Horse can be seen from here

Our footpaths are unwalked

Looking down on Thirkleby

 

The next bit of the walk became rather tricky.  We could find no way-mark signs (most unusual!) and field enlargement appears to have swallowed up the footpath described by TSB.  New barbed wire topped fences edge the field and whoever installed them has not left sufficient room for a footpath.  

Sure of our right of way we stayed on the field side of the fence keeping close to it.

 

Hmm, our way mark makes a good target

Cross the field to the bottom gate after which...

.. way marks have disappeared

Careful now! Barbed wire has been added to the gate

Our path along the following few fields has not been walked

We keep to the field margins

We continued across fields until reaching the large farm of Low Osgoodby Grange. 

 

Thorn Hill Farm to our right

Approaching Low Osgoodby Grange Farm

 From Osgoodby Grange we followed the farm's track to the tarmac road where we turned left, heading back towards Balk.  In the distance we could now see Whitestone Cliff.

 

 
Passing Mount Pleasant Farm we re-entered fields for a couple of miles and again found way mark signs to be sparse.  The sun was now out and the day getting hotter.

 

Balk in the distance

The sun gets to Clive

"Have you been putting it round that I'm balmy?"

The last fields

Just before our field path returned us to the tiny village of Balk we turned right and followed the track, now clearly way-marked, across fields until reaching the road at Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.  Here 

we turned right and walked back to the Whitestonecliffe Inn and the car park.

 

 

We decide to walk around the gate

So little used that this gate has been consumed by the hedge and is unusable

... so we climb the fence

Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe appears in the distance

The end of the walk

A short drive took us to back to Bagby where we sat outside The Greyhound and enjoyed our walk de-brief.

 

"To summer walks!"