For our 4 mile walk this month, with Bob as the leader, we parked at Timber Lane car park on the Five Pits Trail to walk over numerous fields to Pilsley and return.
We passed a big building completely full of piles of pallets and nearby an old, wooden, butter churn. We spotted various empty bird feeders in dirty condition, obviously unused and uncared for. We strode over a stile and into a meadow of long grasses and tall weeds then continued across a field towards a line of pylons. In the next area the corn had been harvested, so we tramped over stubbly shoots before entering another field, but this time with waving corn, not yet ready for gathering in. When strolling through a farm yard, where bales of straw were stored ready for the winter, we came across a small enclosure with two little calves standing near the barbed wire fence.
According to their ear tags, one was called Holly and the other Ivy. Perhaps they were born last Christmas.
On a gravel path, we walked towards Lower Pilsley, crossed the road and through a gate and onto a public footpath, bordered by bramble bushes, hawthorn and nettles and everything looking very dry. On the left hand side was a field with four bee hives and a white dovecote stood in the pasture on the other side.
At the main road we turned at a children’s playground and walked between a pair of stone pillars at Parkhouse Farm and down a narrow path through a new estate. There were five, very big detached houses all with double garages, only one of which was empty, and we stopped to inspect an unusual structure in the middle of the back lawn which we thought was probably a septic tank.
At this point, grassland appeared beneath our boots and led us uphill where we stopped to watch a family of cows and calves together with a bull, all contentedly grazing beside the stile. We were glad that we didn’t need to climb over.
At Hallgate Farm an artist had been busy as there was a bottle green tank and two pink pigs and bunches of flowers had been painted on it. We arrived on a quiet road with a few houses, one having a Union Flag flying and further on an old, stone barn with a new, red roof. Eventually, we were back on the Five Pits Trail and into the cars for our journey home after an enjoyable walk on a cloudy and humid day.
It is not possible for the October walk to go ahead, but we will all gather at the church gates on Sunday 3rd November at 12pm as usual. New members will be very welcome.
Evelyn Lowe