Tockwith

9:00am Saturday 10th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Tockwith's swallows flitted between the lines of town-style old red brick homes that make the linear village. Cromwell this and Marston that reminded of the history. We idled off along a track, a yellowhammer posed, fluffy clouds gave five minutes sun then a few hundred yards of shade, in denial of the forecast hail. The area is easy on the eye with the local style of hedge high and with a ditch, the first of thorn and fruit. Beyond, the fields were slashed yellow with rape flowers, further, the slivers of moors and dales.

There's a shortage of visible church spires on the floodplain. The centre of York is eight miles due east. But there is a farm and a half, announced by a powerful sign of a bull and a letter F framed in one concrete drainpipe nestled on another to beam the message down the track. The farm has a rookery and a very swish cattle shed, it's for sale, including nearby Skewkirk Hall, yours for a few million.

And then there was the River Nidd, gentle in a bend. A few miles down river it joins the Ouse. Sleepy it isn't always - witness the erosion of the steep banks, the flood debris lines, willows felled to speed the flow and the structurally useless balsam sprayed.

Then after a mile or so it got hotter and sleepier, an owl flew stretches of the river in languid style but still it stirred the rooks. Big black bumblebees circulated and swans hid.

There are a few houses, of the hall and mansion sort, but the most interesting building is the mill with its tier of balconies. Near here, for centuries, was a pedestrian bridge but it was removed 40 years ago and there's been a row about it since. A replacement has long been constructed; installation is still in the offing.

Often when walking a river, certainly one as good as this, it is eyes to the water all the time. But we looked the other way almost as much, over lovely little fields squeezed in the curve, looked after under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, one especially pretty of dandelions and tussocked grass, another damp with different colours. There's talk of otters, voles and barbell.

We left the river by a path under oaks and by hedge of thorn and rose. A ditch was full of lords and ladies and the narrow pastures old. Now the spire of Tockwith's church was off at an angle but we came in at the middle at the old malt kiln, and then, adjacent, at the Spotted Ox, supped a sunshine orange juice.

As a postscript, driving back on the minor road between Tockwith and Long Marston is the tall obelisk in celebration of the Battle of Marston Moor when in 1644 Cromwell beat Prince Rupert.

Fact file

Distance: Five miles.

General Location: Near York.

Start: Tockwith.

Right of Way: Public.

Map: OS Explorer 298.

Dogs: Legal.

Date walked: May 2008.

Road Route: Via Long Marston.

Car Parking: Roadside in Tockwith.

Lavatories: None.

Refreshments: The Spotted Ox and the Boot And Shoe.

Tourist and public transport information: 01937 582151.

Terrain: Floodplain.

Points of interest: Pipe Hall, Tockwith. Tockwith and District Show, August 2, 2008.

Difficulty: Quite easy.

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.

Directions

When in doubt look at the map. Check your position at each point.

Keep straight on unless otherwise directed.

1. East through village, road on left (signed Kendal Lane, bridleway fingerpost across road), pass houses then stay on track.

2. Right-hand bend, left-hand bend and track becomes metalled drive. Into farmyard and track to right of farmhouse, 50 yards, stile/fieldgate (waymark).

3. Immediately stile on left (waymark), 50 yards and left to riverside path, footbridge (waymark). Half a dozen stiles interspersed with two stiles/fieldgates, lastly a snickelgate.

4. Leave riverside at snickelgate on left (three arrows waymark), cross field by line of trees then angle one o'clock to snickelgate in hedge (waymark), turn right to cross field, snickelgate/fieldgate (waymark) to hedged track, 150 yards.

5. Left to track near farm.

6. At T-junction (three-way fingerpost) left on metalled farm road, 100 yards, path on right (fingerpost) to fieldedge path with hedge to left, right at field corner, 100 yards, footbridge on left (waymarked post), fieldedge then path by joinery building.