Southey Wood and Castor Hanglands

Led by me, with Gordon. Sussed out a few possible variations. Pleasant, warm not hot, a lot of woodland walking, some heathland, some road walking. Coffee at Granary/ Farm Shop. 8.6 miles total. Some mud in Castor Hanglands, but not bad. Saw and heard green woodpecker.



We parked at the entrance to Southey Wood, and walked along Langley Bush road north-east to the corner where the plaque, erected in , tells of the history of Langley Bush. John Clare wrote a poem about Langley Bush.










Langley Bush Road bends to the left and continues north to the junction with Stamford Road. We turned left and walked along until it becomes Marholm Road. Shortly before the village of Ufford we took a bridleway to the left, which led us into Southey Woods. The path turns left and there is a barrier to stop vehicles entering.The main track thorugh the wood is easy to follow as it goes east, then turns right, left and right once more before continuing pretty well south, past a picnic area to the main entrance.



We stopped at the car for a break 0 a little early as we hadn't yet covered four miles.



Next we took the bridleway opposite the Southey Woods car park. This goes south, past a farm building and a stretch of woodland, underneath a line of electricity pylons, then past a small church on the left. This is part of the tiny settlement of Upton.

The church of St John the Baptist, Upton.

Shortly after this we turned left and walked past a field with a stone artefact.

Is this a sundial? See link about Upton.

Next we walked along the edge of Manor Farm's yard.

Perhaps not a way-marker? It'd be a good one.

The path continues across a couple of fields, more or less south-east, then turns slightly left (east) along the edge of fields.

What? Why? We saw a similar arrangement with a bench.

In less than half a mile we met a north-south path, which crossed our route. We turned left to head north into Castor Hanglands Nature Reserve. Once again the path was easy to follow - there is plenty of insect life, and the woodland stays quite damp. The reserve is interesting and contains heathland as well as woodland - in parts it is almost a mini-New Forest area.

Not quite New Forest ponies

At the northern end of the reserve it is possible to take a path directly to Southey Woods, to the left. We carried on, and just as we turned right along the northern edge, we noted a permissive path for customers of the farm shop. On this occasion we took the longer route, coming out at the road (between Ailsworth and Helpston). A couple of miles of road walking took us past the farm shop, then we turned left onto Langley Bush Road and retraced our steps to Southey Woods car park.





At one point we heard the loud call of a green woodpecker and saw it disappear into the woods.