Stonegrave and Caulkleys Bank from Nunnington

7 miles                              Fine and bright

We approached Nunnington on the B1257 from Helmsley and parked in a lay-by opposite Nunnington Hall, next to the river.

Clive is unable to walk at present so I was accompanied/supervised by my wife, Carole.

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

Nunnington Hall

Tom Scott Burns explains that the name Nunnington is derived from the old English personal name Nunna and not from the Saxon nunnery that once stood where the hall now stands.

We crossed the bridge over the river and walked through the village admiring the neat streets, laid out in a grid formation with all the houses decorated in the same dark green and cream paintwork.

The Old School House

Neat streets with houses painted cream and green

Southdown sheep at Nunnington

Leaving the village to follow the River Rye

At the end of the village we followed a footpath sign directing us through a gate and onto a field path running alongside the River Rye.  After about a mile we crossed a small bridge over a tributary and immediately turned left to follow a faint path through fields.

River Rye

Field path alongside the river

We won't cross this one...

Turn left immediately after this bridge

Approaching Low Moor Plantation

We turned left onto the tarmac of High Moor Lane and after a hundred yards or so turned left again at a signpost to return to fields.  After half a mile or so we dropped down to reach the busy Malton road and the village of Stonegrave.

Carole notices that the word Stonegrave is missing from the sign

My hay fever was irritated as we walked through heavy pollinated fields of Rape

This chap came begging to us. If only pigeon fancier Clive was here he would have known what to do!

Turning off High Moor Road into more fields

Reaching the Malton road, Stonegrave Minster ahead

TSB says that Stonegrave is derived from steinn-gryfia meaning a 'stone cleft', and there were important quarries of building stone here in the Middle Ages.

We turned off the busy road and walked past an Elizabethan manor house to reach the tiny and ancient Stonegrave Minster which was mentioned in an eighth century letter from Pope Paul to Eadbert, king of Northumbria.

House in Stonegrave

Elizabethan manor house

We arrive at the minster

The minster was unlocked and we entered to find a magnificent Celtic cross just inside the church. We spent ten minutes wandering around inside the old building before emerging to sit on a bench and enjoy coffee and scones in this peaceful setting.

Inside the minster

Altar window

The Thornton Tomb

Celtic cross

Detail on cross

Finishing our coffee we wandered around the grave yard looking at some of the old stones and reading their inscriptions before returning to cross the Malton road and join a grassy path which veered left from the road to climb Caulkleys Bank.

Another dyslexic stone mason?  Note the 4 in 1846 

Stonegrave Minster

Norman heads at Stonegrave Minster

The name Caulkleys is a corruption of 'Chalk Lands' and in The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills one reads that the terrain here consists mainly of rich deposits of reef limestones and detritus known as Coral Rag, all pointing to the marine origins of this hillside.

Reaching the top of Caulkleys Bank we walked along the grassy ridge and after passing Caulkleys Wood we had fine views in all directions.  TSB says that no less than 22 towns, villages and hamlets and sixteen churches can be seen from the highest point, marked by a trig point.

Caulkleys Bank

Thatched roofs from Caulkleys Bank

We need to follow 'The Avenue'

Approaching the trig point

22 towns and villages....?

All along the ridge we saw cowslips coming into bloom.  It was nice to see such large numbers of this increasingly rare flower.

Cowslips

Walking alongside Scroggy Wood

Cowslips

Eventually our path began to lose height and we reached the houses of the tiny hamlet of West Ness.

I had been telling Carole about the cake stand that Clive and I found here last March and we were delighted to see it was still operating, at West Ness Hall Farm.  Purchases were made and the correct money left in the honesty box.

Arriving at West Hall....

.... and West Ness Hall cake stall

The choice of cakes had been much reduced by the time we left!

Just past a Wesleyan chapel built in 1836, the path leaves the road and rejoins the River Rye.  We walked alongside the peaceful river for about 1.5 miles and reached Mill Farm.  

Sheep at West Ness

Wesleyan Chapel

The phone box is in worse repair than the chapel

Working order?

Rejoining the River Rye

TSB says there has been a mill here since Domesday and the present mill dates from 1875.  Until 1950 the mill race powered a generator providing electricity for Nunnington Hall.

Mill Farm

I decide not to stroke the mill cat

Mill Farm

Mill Race

Continuing alongside the river we reached Nunington Hall, where the screeching of peacocks could be heard. This was owned by Sir Thomas Parr in the sixteenth century so it's possible that Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife, played in the village as a child.

Nunnington Hall from our path

Attractive bronzes in the Hall grounds

Old Alms Houses, now the village hall

Weather vane at Nunnington Hall

We had plenty of time left so decided to visit the church of All Saints and St James, which dates to the 12th century.  The church was unlocked and visitors are welcome.  

All Saints and St James

All Saints and St James

Victorian organ

Altar window

Memorial stones inside the church

Returning to the outside world we spent some time looking at the inscriptions and epitaphs in the graveyard before wandering over the road to the Royal Oak public house where we contemplated our mortality (and discussed today's walk) over a pint of York Brewery's Thumper Ale.

'The lovely bud,so young,so fair, Called hence by early doom, Just came to show how sweet a flower, In paradise should bloom'

'Our flesh will slumber in the ground, Till the last trumpets joyful sound, Then burst the chains with sweet surprise, And in our SAVIOUR'S image rise'

I begin to suspect Carole doesn't share my enthusiasm for Victorian epitaphs

To short walks and long drinks!

This is the most southerly walk in Tom Scott Burn's book, The Walker's Guide to the Hambleton Hills.  Set in the gently rolling Howardian Hills this route would be graded very easy and the going is good underfoot.  As I mentioned last time I am now able to send GPS routes for our walks should anyone request them.