SIZERGH

 A Hollow Victree  3.5 Miles (or less)

Recallers :- John W, John R, Mike, Anthony, Jim, Danny.

   John W            John R

Mid October and we can't decide if we are looking back to the summer or forward to the winter. The sun says "Summer" but the breeze says "Winter". Well it's Autumn so we shall just have to settle for that !

We left the car park of Sizergh Castle with a bright sun to our backs,   A little too bright for our camera man.

A straight path led us through the fields and away from the castle which can be seen peeping over the trees.

After crossing two fields we initially struggled to open the first gate. A rather complicated "Latch" system had us baffled. Once it had been puzzled out it proved to be a very simple and efficient way to open the gates.

We now left the fields to follow a narrow but rather attractive woodland path,

Just before we emerged from the woodland path we came across a work party mending a stone wall.

They had left their coats and bags in a small grotto like shelter which had a rather gruesome guardian.

From here a brief but unnecessary diversion took us along a different path before rejoining the track we had left. (C'mon leader get a grip)

A few more yards and we came to Holeslack Farm.

We took the path, to the right of this cottage, which rose steeply before levelling out and veering right onto a track leading to the ancient church of St John, Built in 1726 to serve the population of the Lyth Valley.

Here's Danny showing us he has complete mastery of the complicated gate fastenings

St John's church peeping over the drystone wall.

Before exploring the church we spent some time taking in the fantastic views over the LYTH Valley (which we wrongly termed the Lowther Valley ..... "MEA CULPA")   Away to our left the view took us down to the distant sea and to our right the magnificent, horizon filling, Lakeland Fells.

Mike really enjoyed the stainless steel panoramas showing all that was spread out before us.

We had taken flasks , albeit small ones, in the knowledge that seats offering marvellous  views, cried out for coffee break. 

Just look !  Those b****y teenagers and their phones.

The Lyth Valley was once a bog and was drained and kept dry using pumps, There is a move afoot to stop the pumps and return part of the Valley to it's natural, ancient self as a bog again.

And look. Anthony, for whatever reason, had been unable to supply cakes when it had been his birthday week  So here they are now.

Coffee and cake, Wonderful view, comfortable seats, bright sunshine. What more could we ask ?

GOING IN !

You may have noticed that a sign on the churchyard gate told us of a commonwealth grave .We found it and it is pictured below.

The interior of the church was simple though quite impressive particularly the mural beyond the altar .

This portrays angels in female form.  The religious tradition rather favours male angels. In fact only four angels are named in the bible Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer and Abaddon. Hosts of beautiful ladies with wings would appear to be a product of the artist's imagination.  I rather hope my guardian angel is a beautiful. caring nurse like being and not a bearded, sword bearing ruffian no matter how handsome his wings are. But with my luck I'd get Archangel Cruella.

Not visible in the photo but each bench had it's own heater going all the way along, Rather expensive one might think but as the church has limited use perhaps affordable

GOING OUT

Very nice. Now where do we go ?  Back the way we came till we reach a signpost.

A SIGNPOST !

Time to leave the track and take to the fields.

"RUN ENGLAND" ????  Madness takes many forms. I am willing to confess to several but that's taking things a bit too far.😏😒

Look carefully. One of the aforementioned angels appears to have joined the group.

Has John W been through the washer > He seems to have shrunk. Maybe he has "Hobbit" tendencies.

Leaving the track behind we now walked across rather pleasant grassy acres.

Which took  us to.............. A TREE

We have seen this tree on a previous walk.

This is the VIC TREE and it's hollow.

Allow me to explain. On a previous walk Danny, our bold adventurer, wriggled through a "SMALL" hole at the base of the tree and peeped out through a knot hole.

Here he is again.

And he is now peeping from a hole higher up the tree before coming out through the now (several years later) much larger hole.

Not to be outdone our erstwhile colleague VIC thought he might also try  He wriggled in but being less lithe and somewhat older than Danny became stuck. It took us a while to solve this problem but eventually we had to drag him out feet first.  A Great Victree !

The small hole at the base of the tree, has over the intervening  years become somewhat larger and here is Jim inspecting the trees hollow interior.

It now only remained for us to continue our walk, only a short distance, back to the Castle, visit the cafe and drive back down the M6 to home.

Bye till next week

JW