Witham-on-the-Hill – Carlby – Essendine & Return
Distance: 6 miles / 10 km
Going: Easy going, but may be very muddy in places (particularly the ploughed/crop fields) during wet weather. Well-marked, with yellow arrows and footpath signs.
Start: Witham on the Hill village green beside St Andrew’s Church
If you are lucky, in the right season you will see banks of cowslips, deer in the woods, birds of prey, flocks of long-tailed tits in the tall trees near the railway line and lots of other wildlife – if you keep your eyes open! Oh, and some noisy trains……..
1. Leave the village green turning left and head up the main road past the church following the road around the corner to the right. Just as the road bends left, cross over and take the gravel track between the houses (Elm Avenue) following the signed footpath. The track has a high hedge on one side and a wall on the other. At the end of the track go through the metal gate and follow the path straight across the grass field to the stile. Continue on the footpath across a crop field to a small bridge. Cross the next field. Keep to the right- hand edge of the wood. Follow the farm track, keeping the wood on your left and field on the right. At the end of the wood keep right along the hedge, then across the field, following the way marker, to a small bridge made from sandbags. Follow the sign across a field, up a slight rise through the markers, and along the tractor tracks.
Follow marker along field edge, keeping hedge on left and field on right, over the bridge, across the farm track and follow the path along the hedge on the left and field on right.
2. At the corner of the field the footpath turns 90 degrees to the right (it can be very muddy here!). Follow the hedge for a short distance then turn left towards the houses. Walk along the end of the back gardens. At the end turn left along a brick wall, through a narrow passageway between houses. Cross the road into Church Street, Carlby. Where the road bends round to the left, turn right into a narrow gap between houses, bordered by high wooden fences. Turn left at the end and walk downhill, through a narrow green lane, bordered on both sides by hedges.
3. At the bottom, cross the bridge over the river, and follow the left of 2 footpaths, diagonally up the hill towards the farm, heading for the gap in the hedge (you will return to this bridge from the path on your right). Follow the markers between the house and the barn, through the gate, onto the road, and turn left into Manor Farm Lane, Essendine. Walk to the end of the lane and then turn right on to Essendine village green. Turn right onto the tarmac path and right again onto a narrow footpath between the houses just after a yellow sand bin keeping the garden with a particularly large tree on your right. At the end of this path, cross the road and follow the signed path through the houses, which comes out alongside a fenced farm field. Go through the metal gate and across the field towards the wood.
4. Enter the wood and turn left at the farm track and follow the track downhill towards the railway line. Close to the railway turn right and follow the hedge around the field and then along the riverbank, passing 2 owl boxes back to the bridge at Point 3. Turn right after the bridge through a kissing gate and follow the track around and left up towards the church. Go through the graveyard exiting at the pedestrian gate. Turn left back onto the other end of Church Street.
Continue around Church Street and retrace your way back along the footpaths to Witham on the Hill.