Caistor - Civic pride, needy Cats and channelling your inner Cow

Purely by coincidence, our second-ever Lincolnshire walk happened almost eight years to the day after our first trip to Lincolnshire, which was also our first ever Chester walk, from Grantham to Sleaford via Ancaster, back in July 2010.  We have, quite literally, come a long way since then - in terms of the many miles we've walked, from places as far apart as Exeter in the South West of England to Chesterwood, Northumberland in the North East.  

Perhaps more importantly, we've also come quite a way through our respective lives - eight years is a long time to spend on any project and our Walking the Chesters project has now accompanied us through a period spanning almost a decade.  Caistor, Lincs was our 51st Chester, so we've made good progress and we estimate that there are only 15 Chesters left (although we keep finding new ones!), so we should be alright for another two or three years!

We've also come a long way in terms of our organisation and planning of these walks - as we reminisced about the first ever walk, we recognised how unprepared we were back then, to do such a long walk, on one of the hottest days in summer, not even having our usual pub meal at the end, but settling for a hastily consumed Indian take-away and a beer on the train on the way back!

The Journey Up North

Market Place in Caistor, Lincolnshire

Whilst we're certainly more organised these days, I can't say the same for the British Rail network.  The weather has been incredibly hot in recent weeks, including the day we were travelling Up North.  As a result of a delay in finding the train driver, health & safety concerns about overheated carriages and the wrong type of sun (well, that's what it basically boils down to!), our 18:03 service from King's Cross experienced a slight delay (driver's words, not mine) until we finally set off around 19:45.  

Considering the fact that our connecting train from Newark to Market Rasen had departed 10 minutes before we had even left London, we worked out that we might be in for a bit of an adventure in our quest to spend the night in Caistor - in itself a taxi journey from Market Rasen, the nearest big town with a station.  I'd flown into the UK overnight from Canada, so I was feeling quite zen (= jetlagged) whilst I calmly assured Best Aussie Mate (BAM) that all would be okay, before I sought out the train manager, who kindly organised an alternative route, which got us to Lincoln, then a taxi from Lincoln to Market Rasen.

We arrived at The White Hart in Caistor around 23:00 - so time enough for last orders at the bar, which was a blessing, considering it was Friday night and we'd had such a complicated journey.

Caistor to Nettleton Grange (1.4 miles/2.25 kilometres)

Having a stroll around Caistor the following morning, we were surprised to learn that it's quite a pleasant place - lots of beautiful old Georgian buildings and a very strong sense of civic pride.  Indeed, as we were standing on Market Place, an elderly man appeared out of nowhere and handed me a leaflet entitled Walkabout Caistor published by the Caistor Civic Society.  

Holly House, Caistor

This came in very handy, as we plotted an impromptu walking tour down the High Street to Holly House, then up Chapel Street past the Wesleyan School and Church Street, past the Grammar School and the St Peter and St Paul Church.  We then made our way past a very long and beautiful cottage on Fountain Street, before turning down Plough Hill, so we could pick up The Viking Way which would guide us through the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Pink cottage on Fountain Street, Caistor

We've been on The Viking Way once before, when we walked down in Rutland towards Great Casterton and this is a path that links Rutland with Hull - 147 miles in total and a nice contrast to another long distance path we're currently following, The Saxon Shore Way (currently walked as far as Sandwich!)

Sign post on The Viking Way

The path to Nettleton was, not surprisingly, quite nettly, but the weather on that Saturday was a lot cooler than it had been in previous weeks, so it turned out to be an ideal day for walking, with no rain, until we got to the very end of the walk at Market Rasen.

Nettleton Grange to Normanby-le-Wold (3.9 miles/6.3 kilometres)

We met a very friendly, but slightly needy, cat at Nettleton Grange - he seemed too happy to see us and we began to wonder about his life on the stud farm.  It seemed as though he'd had enough of horses and was desperate for contact with another species - even humans would do!  

Nettleton Grange in the Lincolnshire Wolds

You don't hear much about the Lincolnshire Wolds and they're certainly not as touristy (= a good thing) as e.g. the Cotswolds, but I have to say that they really are very beautiful and we had a real sense of adventure making our way from Nettleton Grange up into the Wolds.  

From Nettleton Grange, we walked through four large meadows, each one of which contained a herd of cows.  Ever since reading the Bhagavad Gita earlier this year, I'm trying to detach myself from my 'cow phobia' and be more understanding of cows and their existence, on the planet, but also frequently on my path through life!  I think I'm doing better than before and I even found time to admire the different breeds of cows we saw on this walk - the owners of Nettleton Grange have a really beautiful herd of Viking White cows and I believe the last herd we saw were a herd of the famous Lincoln Red beef cattle.  

Meadow with the White Viking herd

Lincolnshire Wolds

Having said that, given a choice, I would prefer not to go through a field of cows (see my Uttoxeter post from August 2014), especially a tiny field containing two cows and a bull, like the one The Viking Way crosses, just before Normanby-le-Wold.  Whilst BAM marched on through the field with her devil-may-care bravado, I meekly took a detour around the field, before we met up again and continued our walk into the village.  

Curiosity killed the Cow

The road to Normanby-le-Wold

Normanby-le-Wold to Walesby (2.1 miles/3.4 kilometres)

When I say village, I really mean a couple of houses, an impressive haystack and an old Norman church.  You can see a lot of place names in Lincolnshire with the suffix -by, which comes from the Old Norse word for a farmstead or village.  Normanby-le-Wold is definitely more of a farmstead than a village, and was a very peaceful place to have a little rest, which we did, scoffing Caramello Koalas on a bench just opposite St Peter's Church.

St Peter's Church at Normanby-le-Wold

We could see half of Lincolnshire and the distant chimneys of Sheffield, as we made our way along the ridge of the Wold, heading south from Normanby.  Just before Walesby, we came down off the Wolds and made a slight detour into Walesby (a village this time) as far as St Mary's Church, where a wedding was taking place.  

View across the East Midlands

BAM walking to Walesby

Walesby to Market Rasen (4.6 miles/7.4 kilometres)

Rather than walking directly from Walesby to Market Rasen, we did a slight detour down along Moor Road, then over the railway line and into the Middle Rasen plantation.  The plantation was very peaceful and nice place to walk, as we eventually came to a pretty-looking campsite at Walesby Grange, then rejoined the Rasen road, so we could finish our walk at Market Rasen.

The path through Middle Rasen plantation

We didn't find Market Rasen to be as pretty as Caistor and it started raining a little bit, which dampened our mood, so we retreated to the comfort of The Advocate Arms, a lovely 18th century building, where they serve up delicious food, although the portions were a bit on the small side for BAM's liking!

Our destination: Market Rasen

Luckily our journey back to London was a lot less complicated than our journey to Lincolnshire, so we had a successful end to our wonderful 51st walk!

Access for wheelchair users

Typical rough path on the Viking Way

As this walk follows a rough path along the Wolds, most of it was inaccessible for wheelchair users - however, there is a relatively quiet country lane from Nettleton all the way to Walesby (or Claxby, if you take a detour), which could be an alternative accessible route.  The paths through Middle Rasen plantation and Walesby Moor were also accessible.  

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Caerwent - Motorways and Monarchs in Monmouthshire

It's been many months since I've written a Chester blog post - probably the biggest gap I've had since this project began and this is due to the fact that we were prevented from doing a Chester walk in March, because of an unexpected snowfall - although we rescheduled our Caerwent walk and did it in May instead, I've been quite busy since then and, in fact, I've resorted to writing this blog post after a busy day at the office, on a work trip to India - a million miles away from rural Monmouthshire and far removed from the possibility of being snowed in!

Getting to Caerwent was always going to be a challenge, from a logistical point of view, but we managed quite well in the end, catching the 17:30 National Express service from Victoria Coach station, all the way to Chepstow, then jumping in a pre-ordered taxi, to take us the remaining miles to Caerwent itself.

Lodgings and Victuals

We had a really lovely stay in Northgate House BnB which, as the name suggests, is located on the site where the northern gate of Venta Silurum, the Roman settlement which gives Caerwent it's Chester credentials.  Actually, one advantage of Caerwent's relatively obscure location is the fact that the Roman town is rather well-preserved and quite a few sites have been excavated and made for an interesting visit when we arrived, although it was already after 9pm.

The church at Caerwent (sunset)

The light is good in May, so we had enough time to visit the Roman ruins and we even walked along the southern wall of the Roman settlement, which led us, handily enough, to the Coach and Horses Inn, where we settled in for a couple of drinks and a chance to have a proper catch up.

Y Deml Celtaidd-Rufeinig

Caerwent to Caldicot Castle (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)

Starting out bright and early the next morning, we retraced our steps through the Roman town, as far as the Church of St Stephen and St Tathan, then back along the southern wall and south along the Dewstow Road, crossing a bridge at Nedern Brook.  In case you're wondering, St Tathan was a Celtic saint, supposedly the son of an Irish king, who moved to Caerwent and set up the church there.  One thing about walking in Wales is that we're learning the names of saints we'd never heard of before, as they were local figures who, perhaps, didn't make much of an impression on the ecclesiastical world stage.

The Roman Wall in the southern part of Caerwent

After Nedern Brook, we turned left down the rather busy Church Road, in the direction of Caldicot, Caerwent's more ambitious neighbour, opting for a quieter cycle path which follows Sandy Lane under the busy M48, Monmouthshire's prime motorway and into some quiet suburbs on the edge of the town.

The cycle path led us to St Mary's Church in Caldicot, where we passed around the churchyard, then took a small path through the country park to Caldicot castle.  The castle was celebrating some kind of anniversary so, luckily for us, it was free entrance and we went into the castle grounds, where we stopped for some refreshments.  It was one of the first really nice summer days, so it felt good to sit in the castle grounds and drink lemonade, before we set off again in the direction of the Severn.

Caldicot Castle

Caldicot Castle to Sudbrook (1.9 miles/3.1 kilometres)

It was a short walk from Caldicot castle to the Severn, passing under the M4, which is the main motorway between London and South Wales and reaches across the river Severn in an impressive structure called the Second Severn Crossing, or the Prince of Wales bridge.  Most times I've been to Wales, I've travelled by train, which passes through the Severn Tunnel, under the river - so it was interesting to see the other option, which is the huge road bridge linking England and Wales.  We also saw the (old) Severn bridge, later in the day, which links Chepstow to South Gloucestershire.

BAM walking on the Wales Coast path near the Second Severn Crossing

It was the day of the Royal Wedding, so more Duke of Sussex than Prince of Wales and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) was quite excited to get an update, via Australia, on the dress that Meghan Markle had chosen to wear.  We stopped briefly at Sudbrook, an interesting little workers' village that sprang up in the 1870's, in response to engineering work on the Severn Tunnel, which passes under the cliff at this point.

The Prince of Wales bridge over the Severn

One of the locals tried to interest us in a series of chalk arrows, a bit of a Da Vinci code moment, that was completely lost on me, but apparently has some esoteric significance to the villagers of Sudbrook!

Weird chalk arrows at Sudbrook

Sudbrook to Mathern (3.2 miles/5.1 kilometres)

It was a nice walk along the Wales Coast path from Sudbrook to St Tewdric's church in Mathern (queue another obscure Welsh saint!) - there were some interesting rocks on the seafront and great views across the Severn to the lighthouse on Charston Rock.  We had a short break in the shade beside St Tewdric's church, as BAM went online to book a ticket for a music festival called The Mighty Hoopla, which we went to a couple of weekends later.

Lighthouse on Charston Rock

Sitting in the shade at St Tewdric's church in Mathern

Mathern to Thornwell (1.3 miles/2.1 kilometres)

From Mathern we walked past an industrial estate to reach Thornwell, an outer suburb of Chepstow, where I managed to convince BAM to stop at Tesco Express for a much-needed ice-cream!  Thornwell had a strange kind of vibe - someone shouted something unintelligible at us, as they were driving past on Denbigh Drive, then we passed Thornwell Football club, where there was a Royal Wedding party - lots of people getting drunk and wearing plastic Union Jack hats!

It's the oldest part of Chepstow, but not the nicest and we were glad to find that the path led us into a lovely wood, above the railway line and with great views towards the Army barracks at Beachley.

Thornwell to Chepstow Castle (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

It was still quite a walk from Thornwell, over the ridge to Chepstow, past the remains of the city walls, then down past the train station to the town centre and the beautiful Chepstow castle.  I found Chepstow to be a slightly higgledy-piggledy place - medieval in its layout, which made it quite interesting.

Chepstow castle

Strangely, it reminded me a bit of Lifford/Strabane, where I grew up, there's a certain 'border' feeling I got in Chepstow - the river, the Army base, the frontier feeling - it all reminded me of home!  Although we don't have a fantastic castle in Lifford, as they do in Chepstow and I couldn't help but wonder if the castle was built to keep the English out, or to keep the Welsh in!

Cas-Gwent railway station

There's an award-winning pizza restaurant called Stone Rock pizza and we can certainly recommend it, as it was quite lovely sitting in the garden at the back of the restaurant, stuffing ourselves in the early evening sunshine. 

Access for Wheelchair users

Inaccessible path between Sudbrook and Mathern

The first part of the walk from Caerwent to Sudbrook was accessible, although you would need to be careful on the stretch of road between Nedern Brook and Sandy Lane.  The path was inaccessible from Sudbrook to Mathern, but Mathern to Chepstow was mostly on a cycle path and seemed fairly accessible, so this walk could form two distinct stages that would be accessible to wheelchair users. 

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Chichester - Maths, Misogyny and Musicals

I’ve wanted to visit Chichester for a very long time and, indeed, when myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) first conceived our Chester project, back in 2010, it was due a conversation which started with me saying I’d love to visit Chichester and BAM replying that she’d love to visit Winchester.




So, eight years and forty-nine Chesters later(!), we finally found ourselves on the train to a destination that has always felt somehow rather exotic to me.




I think the thing that intrigues me about this little corner of England, is that it's a bit off the beaten track and overshadowed by more glamorous neighbours such as Brighton and Portsmouth.


When you look at the area on a map, with the inlets around Chichester harbour and Hayling Island, it looks like an English equivalent of the Mekong Delta more so than other parts of south-east England’s calm and unbroken coastline.

Map of Chichester harbour

Anyway, Chichester isn’t exactly Saigon and we managed to get there from London in a respectable one hour and forty-five minute train ride.




Lodging and victuals




The weather forecast wasn’t great for the weekend we did this walk (end of January), so we were quite happy to get in out of the dark and rain, as we made our way into Trent’s pub, a convivial spot, where we’d pre-booked a table.




It was a nice place to spend a couple of hours and we were impressed to see so many young people out enjoying a meal with friends, not just getting hideously drunk, as is more usual behaviour on a Friday night.

Stained-glass window in Chichester cathedral

Of late, we’ve become quite attached to our Premier Inn experiences, so no other option seemed viable when we realised there was a Premier Inn in Chichester’s retail park and, as usual, we had a comfortable, cheap-and-cheerful stay.




Quite randomly, we ended up watching a programme about Mughal and Islamic gardens and I was transported briefly to Humayun’s Tomb, one of my favourite places to visit when I go to India.




West Wittering to West Itchenor (3.3 miles/5.3 kilometres)




As usual, we decided to start the walk outside our Chester, so we could have Chichester as our destination rather than our starting-point.  With this in mind, we caught the 53 bus from Chichester to West Wittering (via East Wittering), a 20 minute journey and, surprisingly frequent service, given the cut-backs we’ve seen on local bus services elsewhere in the country.




The Witterings are delightful villages and make me think of retirement homes and old people dithering and wittering away to their hearts' content. It was interesting being there in winter, as it’s more of a summer destination and, whilst the coastline in this part of England is no doubt stunningly beautiful anytime of the year, it was also quite bleak and a little bit forlorn, as the rain came on and we made our way along Roman Landing to the shoreline.

Shoreline near West Wittering

One thing that’s guaranteed at this time of the year is mud and the path from West Wittering to West Itchenor was pretty muddy. We had it mostly to ourselves and were able to lose ourselves in the abstract rumination of the landscape, with birds diving in the distance and the mist carrying our thoughts away, across to Bosham and West Thorney.

BAM walking on muddy path

Actually, the open physical space gave us a good chance to catch up and share our thoughts about the things that are happening in our world, namely the #metoo scandal and the exposure of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of power, amongst other things.




We also ended up talking about gender, the next great revolution that’s changing the way we organise our societies and BAM filled me in on a radio programme she’d heard about Intersectionality and multidimensional oppression.




In exchange for this information, I updated BAM on some reading that I’ve been doing recently on Maths and how multidimensional abstract calculations can have a very practical use for areas like Economic forecasting, regardless of whether the 7th or 77th dimensions actually exist! 

Concrete blocks

We agreed that Maths hadn’t been our favourite subject at school, as we both had negative experiences with our Maths classes and, perhaps, Maths wasn’t taught in a way that made sense or engaged us. As an adult it’s much easier to see the point of abstract thinking.

Cottages at West Itchenor

Before long we reached a pretty harbour at West Itchenor, a part of England BAM is fairly familiar with, as it’s a place she’s been to on a kayaking trip.




West Itchenor to Salterns Lock (2.3 miles/3.7 kilometres)




From West Itchenor it was another couple of miles following the Chichester channel to Salterns Lock, where the path we were following The New Lipchis Way takes a sudden turn inland, to follow the Chichester Ship canal all the way back to Chichester.

Waymarker for the New Lipchis Way

The name Lipchis made me think of the song, Cellblock Tango from the musical, Chicago and I couldn't help humming, Lipchis, pop, six, squish, uh-oh, Cicero, as we trundled along!






Actually, this path was named after the two main towns that it links, Liphook and Chichester - somehow they put these two names together and came up with Lipchis.

Tide times at Itchenor

There are some very expensive-looking properties at Westlands and some very pretty boats in Chichester marina. The rain starting coming on more heavily, as we followed the canal and made our way back inland.


Salterns Lock to Poyntz Bridge (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)


It was another quiet, but muddy walk along the Chichester Ship canal, a well-looked after path with lots of information boards telling us about the history of the canal and the various historical features along the way.


We passed a miserable-looking Swan near Crosbie bridge and a few coots doing their best to find some shelter from the rain.

Muddy path along the Chichester Ship Canal

Poyntz Bridge made me think of the village Poyntzpass in Northern Ireland, where that horrible shooting occurred in 1998, when two best friends, a Catholic and a Protestant, were murdered by Loyalist paramilitaries.


The Poyntz family have their origins in Gloucestershire, where we’ve recently been walking and they seem to have a long history with Ireland, although I’m not quite sure why there is a Poyntz Bridge on the canal near Chichester.

Walking into Chichester

There is a lovely view of the spire of Chichester cathedral from Poyntz Bridge, as it rises above the trees in the distance, almost as though there were no town bustling around underneath it.


Poyntz Bridge to Chichester (1.4 miles/2.25 kilometres)


It’s a short walk from Poyntz Bridge into Chichester and we were lucky enough to get into the train station toilets, so we could change out of our muddy boots and trousers.

Chichester cathedral

Chichester was known as Noviomagus Reginorum in Roman times and, before we left for West Wittering in the morning, we’d had a chance to walk around the Cathedral and the town centre. It seemed like a very pleasant place and somewhere I’d definitely like to return to. Hopefully it won’t take another 8 years to get there next time!


Access for Wheelchair Users


I'm afraid not much of this walk would be accessible to wheelchair users, however, Chichester is a pleasant place to visit and part of the canal walk there seemed accessible - also the road between East and West Wittering was pretty quiet and I'm sure you can gain access to the shoreline just beyond the Roman Landing.  The route was pretty accessible between West Itchenor and Salterns Lock, so I think you could do that part of this walk without too many problems.    

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All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

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