Lyveden New Bield and Oundle

Lyveden New Bield

Ever since we visited the extraordinary Rushden Triangular Lodge almost two years ago, we have wanted to see Lyveden New Bield, also the work of Sir Thomas Tresham. Tresham was a devout Roman Catholic who lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Catholicism was repressed in that era and Tresham was imprisoned for twelve years on account of his faith. Rushen gave coded expression to his beliefs and Lyveden, also built as a Lodge, was in the same mould.

The house you see today is not so much ruined as incomplete: work started in 1595, but Tresham died in 1605, deeply in debt, before it could be completed. The builders, who could see they weren't going to be paid, simply downed tools and left - and who could blame them. It is remarkable that the house survived.

Rather like Rushden, the house is laden with symbolism, with shield-like panels in sets of three (symbolising the holy Trinity) forming a frieze at ground level and a continuous frieze of seven repeated symbols, each representing aspects of the life of Christ above the first floor windows. The excellent audio guide also mentioned the number five as well (symbolising grace) and the five windows in each bay may be an example.

The house is perfectly symmetrical and is shaped liked a Greek cross, with curving bays at the end of each arm. The cross shape is easier to infer from this photo taken on an angle.

You enter through a servants passage (bottom left in the photo) and arrive in the basement which housed kitchens and other service functions. Looking up it was a surprise to see that the upper floors contained Renaissance doorways - but perhaps Catholics looked to southern Europe more than Protestants did.

It was possible to climb to one of the first floor windows and enjoy the view over the relatively flat Northamptonshire country side. The filed has apparently been sown by the National Trust as a flower meadow, and the mown bits will presumably be paths.

We walked from the house to explore the pleasure gardens starting with this attractive spiral hill surrounded on three sides by a moat.

A path led towards the old Manor House, owned by the National Trust but not open for visiting. You could just glimpse it through a hedge. It looked like the sort of building that might have inspired Charles Rennie Mackintosh: especially the rectangular windows, placed irregularly.

We walked around the edge of the orchard and reached another section of moat, with the house frame between the trees.

After this we simply retraced our steps to the car park and headed off to Oundle for lunch in the Talbot Inn. Oundle is a charming stone town, not quite as imposing as Stamford, but full of character. We parked near Paine's Almshouses (early 17th century) in West St, admiring the obelisks and pinnacles over the entrance door.

At the end of West St, a left turn into New Street brought us to the imposing Talbot Inn, with the buildings of Oundle School beyond.

Up on the right is a further part of the school, looking like an Oxbridge College, which was no doubt the model.

Conditions: bright but quite cold at times.

Distance: maybe a mile and a half - one of the shortest walks I have blogged.

Rating: four stars. Fascinating. It would have been good to have had time to explore Oundle more fully.

Peterborough

The Cathedral

I had to go to Peterborough in a hurry to get my Passport renewed, but I turned it into an opportunity to have a good wander round the city. I had always wanted to see the cathedral, but I wasn't too sure what else to expect. I am writing this without my usual copy of Pevsner at my side, so this may be more sketchy than usual.

I parked in Market Street near the Passport Office, possibly not the conventional departure point for a city walk, and headed towards the centre to be immediately confronted with the red and yellow brick neo-romanesque former County Court, now a club.

Across the road (City Road) was a red brick building (Peterscourt) which is now an "eco centre". It almost looks, from the line of chimneys, that could once have been almshouses, but in fact was built in 1856-64 by Sir G G Scott as a teacher training college for men, a role it continued to have until 1938.

At the crossroads with Broadway and Long Causeway, I carried on into Westgate, where a bit of prior research had identified the former Wortley's Almshouses of 1837, now a pub. The Hon Edward Wortley was the MP for Peterborough.

Retracing my steps to the crossroads, I turned left down the pedestrianised Long Causeway to arrive in Cathedral Square. I turned right to face the wonderful Guildhall, built in 1669-71 by John Lovin. Cathedral Square was known as the Market Place until 1963 and the arcaded section was originally used for butter and poultry markets.

Over to the left was this fine shop front which bears the date 1911.

To the right another set of former almshouses can be found: Miss Pears's Almshouses of 1903 on the site of the old House of Correction.

Behind the Guildhall stands the church of St John. It was built in 1407, but heavily restored by John Loughborough Pearson in the 1880s. Pearson removed galleries above the aisles and replaced most of the aisle windows. Later additions include a rood screen in the 20th century.

Turning back towards the entrance to Cathedral Square you find the Great Gate, the entrance to the cathedral precincts, facing the Guildhall. I decided to save the Cathedral until last however and continued along Bridge St.

On the left is the massive red brick Town Hall which dates from 1933. It appears that there are currently controversial plans to relocate Council staff and let out the accommodation. It is mildly curious that the building is called the Town Hall, when Peterborough has been a city since 1541.

I continued down Bridge St to the River Nene and turned left, passing the Old Custom House of 1790, to find my way to the fantastic art deco 1930s Lido which I had seen by chance on my way in.

From here I returned to the Cathedral precincts, checking out a third set of almshouses (seemingly unnamed) on the left, now a Solicitors.

The Cathedral facade (at the head of this post) is unique in its three great arches and dates from 1237 in Early English Gothic. Most of the rest of the building is Norman: construction started in 1118. You enter the nave facing a wonderful 13th century font. This view shows the great arches of the nave and the magnificent painted ceiling. It is the original ceiling which was completed between 1230 and 1250. It is the only one in Britain and one of only four in the whole of Europe. It has been over-painted twice, once in 1745, then in 1834, but still retains the character and style of the original. (Credit to Wikipedia for this.)

The vaulting over the crossing is extremely impressive as well.

For me, the great surprise was to find fan vaulting in the so-called New Building, constructed as a sort of ambulatory around the east end of the cathedral in 1496 and 1508. It is thought that the architect was John Wastell, who was responsible for the magnificent fan vaulting in King's College Chapel in Cambridge.

Conditions: pretty grey, but not too cold.

Distance: a couple of miles.

Rating: four and a half stars.

Henley to Petworth (Serpent Trail 5)

The Duke of Cumberland pub, Henley

We return to the Serpent Trail with Viv and Giles for the first time since June last year, some previous planned returns having had to be cancelled. We set off from the excellent Duke of Cumberland pub at Henley and are soon deep in dark pine woods. The lack of views is one of the weaknesses of the Serpent Trail. Eventually, we pass a house and there is a bit of open view across its back garden.

At Leggatt Hill, things suddenly open up: an area of Birch wood has been cleared and there are great view south towards the South Downs, with lovely native bluebells in the foreground.

We head downhill and skirt the edge of a field of cows to reach a road. Soon we are in sunny light woodland - it seems so welcoming!

This gives way to an even lighter copse of Silver Birch with primroses and bluebells at the wayside. We see a Peacock butterfly.

We emerge out of this into an area of open fields, the first on the Trail so far, and pass an extravagant barn conversion. Soon there a view back towards our old friend Black Down, with a splendid oak tree offering some foreground interest.

Then it is back into the woods at Upperton Common. There are many dense areas of beautiful Bluebells to the side of the muddy track

Eventually, this track begins to climb quite steeply and suddenly we emerge at Upperton Folly on the north-western corner of Petworth Park.

We follow the walls through the village of Upperton and into Tillington. Legend has it that All Hallows church was designed by the great painter J M W Turner, who famously painted at Petworth House. The tower with its Scots Crown was built in 1807, but parts are Norman.

We intended to divert from the official route and go through the Park but somehow missed our entry and found ourselves carrying on beside the walls to go in through the New Lodges entrance. After passing the Upper Pond we headed towards the house. It was a castle of the Percy family, but was rebuilt in 1688-96. This is the west front which, according to Pevsner, was once crowned by a dome. Unusually, the architect is unknown.

Petworth is now owned by the National Trust and although it is easy to wander into the Park, to get out through the reception building you have to show your membership card (there is a subway for non-members).

You come out by the church of St Mary with its unusual brick tower on a stone base. The base is medieval, but the tower was added in 1827.

Just round the corner is Somerset Hospital, almshouses founded in 1746 by converting an early 16th century house.

That was the end of the walk and we repaired to the Cumberland Arms for a late afternoon refreshing glass of shandy.

Conditions: warm and sunny.

Distance: 7.8 miles. Distance now covered 31.9 miles.

Map: Explorer 133 (Haslemere and Petersfield).

Rating: four stars.

Maiden Newton to Hooke (Wessex Ridgeway [Dorset] 6)

St Mary's church, Maiden Newton

Much greyer and cooler than yesterday, but we resume the Wessex Ridgeway at Maiden Newton, walking towards the centre of the town and turning right to pass St Mary's church, of Norman origin. The door is said to be the second oldest in the country, after one in Westminster Abbey.You emerge around the back of the church alongside the banks of the river Frome. We could see a few Marsh Marigolds and shoots of yellow flag iris.

You follow the river to reach Chilfrome, where we enjoyed this thatched cottage with matching thatched loggia.

We headed uphill out of Chilfrome to join a long straight road called Higher Drove. Right at the start, it was clear that this overlooked a curving valley, but the hedgerow prevented any further views in that direction.

After a while we stopped to look back to the right where there was an excellent view of Cattistock with its high church tower. Pevsner describes it as the "masterpiece among [Victorian] Dorset churches". It was the work of George Gilbert Scott junior, son of the great Sir George.

At the end of the road we passed an alpaca farm, as you do nowadays, and turned left for a short way along the A356. A right turn took us to Lower Kingcome, but only after we had missed a diagonal path and emerged too far left along a hillside, looking towards the oddly named Toller Porcorum.

The excellent English place names website at Nottingham University explains that Toller was the old name for the river Hooke and porcorum is Latin for "of the pigs" - it was once know for its herds of pigs.

As we approached Lower Kingcome there was a great view of the rather mysterious (well, to me) masts of the BBC TV transmitting station at Rampisham Down.

We didn't go into the village, but immediately turned right into a road and then ahead into a climbing sunken lane. The sides were prettily covered with bluebells and primroses.

 From a field on the right we were studied by these fine long horned sheep.

We then passed through Kingcombe Coppice. At the top a lane, a winding path at the bottom of a shallow valley ...

 ... and a field path led us to Hooke. We walked down the hill to the church - the only place in this sprawling village where we could park. The church (dedicated to St Giles) is mainly Victorian.

Conditions: Grey and cool.

Distance: 6.0 miles.

Maps: Explorer 117 (Cerne Abbas & Bere Regis).

Rating: Three and a half stars. 

Up Cerne to Maiden Newton (Wessex Ridgeway [Dorset] 5)

Up Cerne

A beautiful day to continue with the Wessex Ridgeway in Dorset. We begin by walking away from the hamlet of Up Cerne by following a narrow road up the valley, with a stream on the right.

After about half a mile the path turns left and I fancifully tried for a picture of a candyfloss tree.

At a copse the signs direct you to turn left again. This doesn't quite tally with the map, but is in fact a sensible option. A right and a left bring you to a long ridge leading away to the south from Gore Hill. All the views are across the valley to the west (right): the distant ridge carries the A37 and was once a Roman Road. This is Eastcombe Bottom.

Further along you have Combe Bottom.

This exhilarating straight section continues for about 2.5 miles. Just before crossing a road to the oddly named Higher City Farm, there is a great view up the valley towards Up Sydling.

You turn right at the farm and follow field paths to then begin the descent to Sydling St Nicholas. We had a very nice circular walk here in June 2012.

You cross the main street - the stump on the left is all that remains of the town cross - and walk up the lane that leads to the church.

This leads to a rutted muddy track which curves around eventually bring you to a point above the church where it can be glimpsed through the trees.

A steady, but not too steep, climb brings you towards the top of the worrying named Break Heart Hill. This is the view looking back.

At the very top you cross the Dorchester to Yeovil road (A37) and walk along a hedged farm track. I was thrilled here to see in quick succession my first Orange Tip, Small White and Green-veined White butterflies of the year.

This track continues and then descends to Maiden Newton, where we ended this stage near to the station.

Conditions: A lovely sunny day, with temperatures reaching 13 or 14 degrees.

Distance: 7.5 miles.

Maps: Explorer 117 (Cerne Abbas & Bere Regis).

Rating: Four stars.