Frequent and heavy rainstorms have understandably rather curtailed the activities of many of the group in July. Nevertheless 20 bags of litter have been collected by some of the most ardent members. One such member who takes his dog for a walk often also takes his litter picking equipment with him thus proverbially killing two birds with one stone, and recently two members collected 7 bags of rubbish in one outing, two instances which are very commendable indeed.
Should anyone wish to join our litter picking group please contact me as per the interest group details at the end of the newsletter.
Our July walk started from Epperstone, where we were scrutinized by several people in the pub car park when we arrived, who we then established were another walking group on a similar route.
Our walk took us uphill from the village, with the high point being conveniently next to Hollybeck garden centre, where we stopped for coffee in the café, rather than our usual flasks.
On the return there were good views over towards Epperstone, Oxton and Calverton, shown in the photo, but also of gathering dark clouds. We agreed that we were all about to get very wet, but in the event, the rain only lasted for a few minutes. We rounded off a very pleasant walk in the Cross Keys pub afterwards.
Many thanks to Gill Hunt and Mark Thornley for planning this walk. Our next walk on Monday 21st August walk will be at Dale Abbey.
In July we did something a little different and it was our shortest walk to date- 1.5 miles.
It was in fact a ‘walk and talk’ based on the heritage of Wellow village. We met in the Wellow Church Schoolroom .This was built in 1854 in response to Queen Victoria’s Education Act of 1842. It now houses the village heritage centre.
Before the walk Denis a heritage consultant gave a short talk and slideshow about the village which set the scene for the walk.
Our walk guide, Heather, together with Denis led us around the various points of interest and historic buildings including her own home Cuckstool Cottage. At one time there were 11 farms and 5 pubs and 6 shops and was known as the thirsty village.
A centrepiece in Wellow is the magnificent maypole dating from 1835. The current pole is 20m high and was erected in 2011.Maypole Day with dancing is celebrated on Spring Bank Holiday Monday.
After the village tour we returned to the schoolhouse for part 2 of the talk about things we had just seen. In traditional u3a fashion we ended with tea and biscuits.
Before leaving we thanked Heather and Denis who is secretary to the Wellow Heritage & Tourism Group for their time and expertise. This visit is free and is suitable for other of our Interest Groups (e.g. History, GOD.Grumpies). If you are interested contact me for details. David Rose
Our next walk is on Thursday September 21st – no walk in August
