The Lumb and Handley Woods

Another week with just the 3 of us and we decided another local walk. It was still quite dark when we set off and one of the neighbours has a brilliantly lit up Christmas tree in his front garden. This time we walked down Plains Lane to the Ashbourne Rd, crossed the road and headed up past the ford over the Black Brook and carried on up the lane towards Hazelwood. We passed by Lumb Grange then joined the road from Hazelwood to Shottlegate. We crossed over the A517 and set off towards Whitehouse Farm then across to Handley Woods. We did a small detour to look for the remains of a very old cottage which was called Keepers Cottage, i assume it was once the game keepers in years gone by. From there we followed the stream all the way back to Plains lane. There was one surprise in the woods and it was a 6 foot lizard just resting by the stream. Who put it there and why, that's the million dollar question.

This weeks route just short of 5 miles

Barry's Christmas Tree in Plains Lane.

Ike taking a sip of Geoff's water

The name at the top of the building says The Shanty 1900

Old stone style, The bottom of the right hand one has a height marker on it.

A nice mackerel sky

Geoff bringing up the rear.

An old VR letter box at Shottlegate

Low lying mist in the valleys 

Had a very moooving experience with these cows.

Nice muddy section to get through

Looks like an old quarry

Gate into Handley Woods.

The remains of the Keepers Cottage.

It looked like a croc on the side of the stream

Turned out to be a 6 foot long lizard.

Geoff

Old farm machinery

Some delicate fungi on a moss covered wall

 We set off in the dark and there was a touch of frost about, just 3 degrees showing on the car temp gauge. It was another pleasant walk and we even bumped into Elizabeth the lady we met last week.
See you next week
Happy Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2017
Jim

A wander around Shottle

Apologies for missing last week, i was busy attending a photo exhibition of my local camera club over the whole week end. Only 3 of us this week so we decided a local walk would be good so we set off on foot from Plains Lane just after 07:30 it was still quite dark walking up the lane. We were heading towards the hamlet of Shottle and by the time we got further up the track the sky was glowing before the sun came up. We stuck to the farm tracks and country lanes and it was a steady incline until we reached the highest point in Shottle, a climb of 450 feet. We had some nice views on our journey and met several people which is unusual. The first person we talked to was a young lady called Isabel on a horse and it turns out she used to live in our road when she was a child. The next person we met was a lady taking her dog for a walk who turned out to be a friend of Geoff's wife, Elizabeth told us she walks up to 10 miles a day.  the next time we chatted was to 3 young guys on mountain bikes and they were all from Belper. I know one of their dad's a fellow photographer and they used to live in the next road down from me. Talk about a small world. Well we ended up on Longwalls Lane and that's where we stopped for our breakfast. From there it was only about 3/4 mile back to Plains Lane. We chatted to a chap out walking his dog then straight back to base.

This weeks route around Shottle

Pre dawn

Geoff zapping the  sunrise

The sun just above the horizon

Couldn't resist this reflection

Lovely old stone trough

Beautiful sunrise

St. Lawrence Church Shottle

Shottle

Former Baptist Church 1882

Old School House

Geoff & Ike at Shottle crossroads

Isabel 

Pheasant on a wall 

Elizabeth

Brilliant nameplate

Ike

Geoff chatting to one of the Belper bikers

Looking towards Handly Woods from Long Walls Lane

Geoff

This chap just came wizzing down the track

Looks like Geoff is doing some divining 

Ike heading down Longwalls Lane

Whats left of the farm where Samuel Slater is said to have worked and lived, in the grounds of Hollywood House

 This was another nice little walk, just short of 5 miles and a bit of an ascent just 450 feet from the lowest point on Plains Lane to just above Shottle. Nice to get out and stretch my legs after missing last week trip.
See you next week