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GLW2101 : Heversham
Head In Lockdown
Wednesday
6th January 2021
This was actually a BOOTboys
lockdown walk, BB2101
: Where's The Point?,
but as that report only dealt with trigpoints and the
view therefrom, the remainder deserves its own write up.
Start point was the A6 entrance
to Levens Park where hand sanitizer had thoughtfully been provided beside the
stile.
Here we chanced upon Mick & Mary. I knew they were taking part in
the BOOTboys
event
but Mick had rightly
been very guarded about their destination (as I was about ours) and it was a
surprise to see them. Clearly
they had the same objective but fortunately they were going clockwise; we were
headed anti-clockwise.
We watched them disappear up
what, in his report, Mick called Grievegate Lane. There is an interesting milestone
at its start and now that I look at the photo of its plaque I can see why Mick
chose that name. It is the Grievegate Milestone.
This gave directions from Levens Bridge, up the
lane which joins the Heversham Head Road which led via
Deepthwaite to the original main road at Crooklands.
The
surviving lettering indicates Kirkby for Kirkby Lonsdale
and part of a date, possibly 1757. It once showed
routes and distances to Milnthorpe and Kendal but they
are now eroded.
We strolled up through Leasgill
then Heversham where, above a water trough and a pump. we saw another plaque,
this one concerning St Mary's Well.
Apparently
the well provided a public water supply for a thousand
years, from the time of the Dark Age monastery of "Hefreshame"
until piped water arrived in 1908. It is called St Mary's
Well thanks to Ivo de Taillebois' grant of "Eureshalm"
to St Mary's Abbey at York, circa 1094.
Contamination
from the Old School privies allegedly caused "typhoid
to break out amongst the infants" so the school
was moved to Leasgill.
We
rounded the church then passed through the graveyard
with some spooky old tombs before turning up the hill.
The views from the Millenium thingy (I don't
know what to call it) were good. Tide
out, snow on the hills and a clear day.
If
you want to know more about the "thingy",
it has appeared in several previous reports, most recently
on GLW2006.
Having looked again at that report, I see the "thingy"
is called a Diarama. No wonder I couldn't remember!
Continuing on to the top, whom
should we see but Mick and Mary at the trig point.
We said a well distanced hello and set off
over the hill where in the distance we could see the Scout Hill trig point (a
future target).....
.....then up the road to Mabbin Hall.
This where the track previously mentioned emerges onto tarmac. It is a nice old cart
track with fine views,
well worth revisiting.
Near
its end is a strange footpath sign to the Slack.
Thai path is marked on the map but not the Slack.
Don't know what that is.
We didn't see Mick & Mary
again. Or anybody else for that matter. And that, Mr Gove, is why we travelled a
whole five miles for our walk. Had we
stayed even more local we would have encountered far more people. Here rests the case for the defence.
Don,
Wednesday 6th January 2021
PS
Sorry about photo quality. I had left my camera
behind to travel light so had to use my phone.
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