Wednesday 7th July. 9.5 miles.

   It was January 2020 when Sir Hugh and I were last over in East Yorkshire, walking our straight line coast to coast. (My comment on that post may explain the naming of our line) No progress has been made since then, for obvious reasons. But today we are back, with four days walking to reach the sea.

   Foggathorpe feels familiar as we pick up the old Market Weighton to Bubwith rail line which is now a pedestrian and cycle route conveniently coinciding with our 438 latitude line. As a railway line goes, this is quite pleasant, with verdant vegetation and a succession of locals with a variety of dogs. We even meet a horse rider trotting along.

 

 

   We leave the line at the Old Holme station, where the last lady we met lives on the old station house.

 

A minor road is used to bypass the main road through the village, this brings us out  exactly opposite the lane we need to take to reach All Saints Church. It is set on the top of the only hill, 45 m, in the area. We approach through a wonderful flower meadow. It is an ideal spot to find a bench, enjoy the view and have some lunch. The church is Medieval, with some parts dating from the C13th. The limestone stonework is elaborate on the C15th tower, and in parts the softer sandstones show a lot of wear. It is closed, so we wander around the very extensive graveyard. There are several war graves of English and Australian airmen, nearby there used to be an RAF airbase used in the second world war.

  Close by the church on the hill in a field of wheat is the remains of a Royal Observer Corps post from the second world war, this is of interest to Sir Hugh as his father was a member of the Corps. There is not much left to see. There is also evidence of a locked underground bunker which was used during the Cold War years as a nuclear monitoring post.

   A good public footpath ran straight through the crops and linked up at the bottom of the hill with a farm track, which we planned to use to avoid busy road walking. We were aware of possible trespass, and when the first farm vehicle approached we were asked if we had “lost the footpath”. Explaining our route, we were given the go ahead but “to keep our heads down when passing the big house”, this we did. We were walking through an enormous pig farm with muddy pigs everywhere and little tin huts for them to sleep in.

   Our plan works, and soon we are on a quiet road heading east to North Cliff where our car was parked. I suspect we will have to follow many of these lanes to stay close to our line. It looks like we are walking through an estate whose properties have similar architectural features. Our car is parked by the North Cliffe Village Hall next to an old church. 

 

 

Black clouds appear and thunder reverberates all around us, but we survive without a soaking, although the muggy conditions are unpleasant.

Time to go and find our hotel north of Hull, we may struggle to find much of interest to write about on this walk.

*****