Kirby Knowle to Felixkirk and Boltby

8.5 miles                            Grey, damp and still

We reached Kirby Knowle from the A19 Knayton turn-off and parked at the side of the road near to St Wilfred's Church.

Today's route from The Walker's Guide to The Hambleton Hills

St Wilfred's Church, Kirby Knowle

Visibility was poor as we set off bearing right towards Upsall Village, which Tom Scott Burns explains is from the old Norse word 'up-salir' meaning 'high dwellings'.  Just before reaching Upsall we turned off the road into fields and followed yellow way-marks and a faint track across the meadows to a beck.  As we crossed the beck we saw a stone clearly engraved 'The Turton Beckstead' embedded in the dry stone wall adjacent to the beck. TSB informs us that in the 1860s some mourners were carrying a body to Kirby Knowle for burial.  The bearers set down the coffin to briefly rest at this spot but on lifting it again it felt much lighter and they discovered that the corpse had disappeared. The empty coffin was buried and the site at Beckstead Wood became known as Lost Corpse End. 

We leave the Upsall Road

A faint track...

Lost Corpse End!

Clive reads the engraved rock...

The Turton Beckstead

We continued to the next field where we saw a sheep in a distressed state.  It had wandered near to a fencepost where loops of barbed wire had been carelessly left .  The sheep had caught itself in the wire and the more it had tried to free itself the more entangled it had become until it was now unable to move, held close to the fencepost.  A couple of years ago we came across a cow in similar circumstances and were unable to do anything but try and find a farmer.  Since then Clive has carried a Leatherman tool in his rucksack, determined never to be caught out again and he swiftly climbed the fence and set to work cutting through the wire, which was round the sheep's neck, body and legs.  She seemed to know he was trying to help and stood still through most of the procedure. Twenty minutes later she was free and dashed off to rejoin the flock.

"Help!"

Well and truly snagged

Clive gets to work with wire cutters

A long job to free it

Cutting the last bit free from its neck

It rejoins the flock and off they go....

The field path exited onto a road and we turned right to enter Felixkirk.  We entered the churchyard and found to our surprise that the church was padlocked. The last time we passed by here we had been able to enter and look around but this time we were restricted to walking round the graveyard where we read the sad epitaph of Hannah Cornforth:

'Twenty years I was a maid

One year I was a wife.

Eighteen hours a mother,

and then departed life.'

Felixkirk

St Felix Church, barred to visitors

Hannah Cornforth's epitaph

Leaving Felixkirk we turned right at the road junction and passed the lodge to Mount St John, once a preceptory in the days of Henry I. We turned right down a lane towards Cinque Cliff House where the path has been diverted by the new owners, through fields around the back of the house.  We came to a gate with a nice wall alongside and this made an ideal resting place while we enjoyed our coffee and scones.  Much refreshed we set off into a lane which led out onto the road where we turned left to walk into Thirlby.  This village has several attractive weathervanes, I wondered if a local blacksmith was responsible.

Weathervanes in Thirlby

We walked through the village eventually coming to a ford where Bob Hunter, who worked with 'Mouseman' Thompson of nearby Kilburn, and whose trademark is a wren, has a workshop.

The Wren Man

Several houses in the village have house place-names bearing the wren motif

Just past the ford we left the village through a gateway into a field where we followed a barely discernible track to Tang Hall, crossing a couple of becks and an unusual stile on the way.

Very greasy wood on this unusual stile

In the end we jumped for it!

We followed the beck to the village of Boltby coming out next to a pack horse bridge at Gurtof Beck where someone had set a couple of mosaic like tiles into the wall.  We waked through the village past the church of All Saints, admiring the colourful Virginia creepers on some house walls.

Gurtof Beck

All Saints Church, Boltby

We turned left at the far end of the village and followed a series of field boundaries which climbed to the right of Ravensthorpe Manor, a modern 'big house'.  We descended into some fields of horses and crossed the elevated ridge of Birk Bank back to Kirby Knowle and our car.

Clive shares his apple

By Ravensthorpe Manor

Across Birk Bank

Back to St Wilfred's!

Kirby Knowle to Felixkirk and Boltby

8.5 miles        Warm and sunny

We drove to Kirby Knowle via the A19 Knayton turn off and parked at the end of the village on the grass verge, opposite the chuch.

 Today's walk from The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills by Tom Scott Burns

St Wilfred's Church, Kirby Knowle

We left the car and walked back along the road for .75 mile until we almost reached Upsall, where we turned left into a meadow and then trekked over fields, through small woods and negotiated two becks, neither of which had a bridge.   The walking was pleasant in the sunshine but the grass was very wet and our trouser cuffs were soon soaked.

 Crossing Turton Beckstead

Our path reached a road on the outskirts of Felixkirk and we decided to have a look at the old church, which was unlocked, very tidy and unusually for a church, felt warm and inviting with sun streaming through the windows.  We looked round the graveyard and the Victorian epitaphs on some of the gravestones made one feel quite sad.

 The Church of St Felix

'Afflictions sore did I bear

Physicians their skill tried

I left my wife and children dear

For God to be their guide'

'Hannah, the lamented wife of David Cornforth'

'20 years I was a maid

1 year I was a wife

18 hours a mother

And then departed life'

We returned to the outskirts of Felixkirk where, after a small unintentional diversion we returned to our route and walked up a narrow road past the lodge to Mount St John.  A few hundred yards later we left the tarmac and followed a farm track towards Cinque Cliff House where a new footpath diversion took us round the house via a meadow.  This field gave us a good view down into the surrounding countryside and we decided it was the perfect spot to have our coffee and scones.  

 Lodge to Mount St John

 The view from our coffee stop

 It was nice to see Hedgehog ladders in all the cattle grids in this area!

Green lane towards Thirlby

We walked along an old green lane which eventually reached the road close to Thirlby, a pretty village where we came to a house called Pear Tree House, next to the river.  This house is owned by the family of Bob Hunter, a cabinet maker who used to work with 'Mouseman' Thompson at Kilburn.  Bob was known as the 'wren man' and marked his furniture with the carving of a wren.  http://www.wrencabinetmakers.com  We looked through the window and could see a small display of furniture for sale.  The door was unlocked so we popped in to admire the handiwork which was unfortunately out of our price range!

 

Pear Tree House, Thirlby

Home of the 'Wren Man'

Thirlby

We crossed the ford in Thirlby and turned left into meadows at Thirlby Farm.  Our track here was barely discernable in the grass and we relied heavily on the yellow right of way markers on the field bounderies.  We passed an old farm called Tang Hall and followed the beck upstream to the village of Boltby.

 The escarpment behind Thirlby

 Following the faint path across meadows

Holy Trinity Church at Boltby

We left Boltby turning left at a small bridge across Gurtof Beck and walked past a field containing a horse and a handsome ram.  Both ran over to see us and each was rewarded with a cough sweet which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

 Clive shares his 'Jerksons Throat and Chest Lozenges' with his new friends

 Lazy dining

We now commenced what should have been the last leg of our walk, back to Kirby Knowle.  As we walked through a field we came across a partridge sitting in our path, which on inspection appeared blind.  Clive examined it and found it had corn in its crop but both eyes were closed.  As we debated whether to dispatch it humanely a 4x4 drove slowly along the track towards us.  It was the farmer who told us that the gamekeeper was up ahead and he would tell him about the bird.  He could decide what to do and whether it could be helped.  We replaced the bird on the path and followed the landrover up towards Westow Conifer plantation.  We were so engrossed in our conversation about the bird that we missed our turn and continued into and up through the plantation until we reached the top edge, looking down onto the village of  Cowesby which is far north of where we should have been.  We realised we had lost our way and after checking the Ordnance Survey map we walked left along the perimeter of the woods and eventually down to arrive at Kirby Knowle and the car, an hour later and a couple of miles further than anticipated.   At least a ten miler for us today but the unseasonal warm sun and fine views made it a pleasure!

 'Blind' Partridge

Is that Cowesby below - where are we?!

 Finally walking back down to Kirby Knowle

NB   An internet search reveals that game birds are susceptible to a disease called Pseudomonas

which causes blindness.  See here.