ISE VALLEY VAGABONDS

Wellingborough Permanent Trail BWF App No PT15

 START & FINISH:  The Hind Hotel, 38 Sheep Street, Wellingborough, Northants  NN8 1BY

OS map 152    Grid Ref 892678    Distance 11km

Fee £1.00

Route last updated on 22 December 2007

This route description is valid until 31 December 2008

This walk has been established by members of the Ise Valley Vagabonds Walking Club (BWF Club No 70) and is a qualifying event in the IVV award scheme.  It can be walked at any time.

  From the main entrance of the Hind Hotel, turn right and walk down the hill.  Cross Tithe Barn Road and then turn right into Doddington Road.  After 30 meters, cross the road to go into the car park of the Council Offices and walk towards Swanspool House.  Swanspool House was built in the second half of the eighteenth century and is a fine example of Georgian architecture, with its symmetrical shape and regularly aligned windows.  The house and gardens were gifted to the town by F C Chamberlain Esq. in 1919 and currently accommodate the Borough Council offices.  In front of the house is the Swans Pool where for centuries swans from the nearby swan farm were to be seen enjoying the water.  Just before the house, turn right, through the metal gates into the gardens.  Three paths lead away from this gateway.  Take the middle path and follow it past the IVV tree.  The tree is situated in the long flower bed immediately opposite the first seat on the left.  It is the tree at the right hand end of the flower bed.  The tree is a Ginkgo biloba or maidenhair tree.  It was planted at a ceremony when the IVV held a Presidium meeting in Wellingborough on 24^th March 1985.  The actual planting was carried out by Horst Volkmer who was at that time, the President of the IVV and the then Mayor of Wellingborough, Councillor Robert Fairhurst.  Ginkgo biloba, or maidenhair tree, is renowned worldwide for its medicinal properties. This remarkable tree is known as a 'living fossil', as it is the sole survivor of an ancient group of trees that date back to beyond the time of the dinosaurs. The maidenhair tree remains virtually unchanged today and represents the only living bridge between 'higher' and 'lower' plants (between ferns and conifers) . Trees reach up to 40 metres in height and older individuals tend to have a more spreading appearance with irregular branches. The deeply fissured, brown bark may appear cork-like in older individuals. Male and female trees are separate; male pollen is borne on catkin-like cones amongst the leaves whilst female ovules are more rounded. After fertilisation, yellowish seeds develop with a fleshy outer seed coat that resembles a plum in appearance. The characteristic greenish-yellow leaves are fan-shaped and composed of two or more distinct lobes; the Latin species name biloba refers to this fact. The common name of maidenhair tree pertains to the similarity of the leaves to those of maidenhair ferns (Adiantum spp.). In autumn, the leaves of the Ginkgo tree turn a beautiful golden hue before falling to the ground.  At the T junction by the bowling green, turn right.  At the next junction, turn left keeping the bowling green on the left and then bear right on the path towards the green railings.  At the railings bear left on the path so that the railings are on the right and then keep ahead with the rose beds also on the right. 

Follow this path as it curves round to the right to go out of the gardens.  At the traffic lights, turn right along Croyland Road.  Pass Monks Way on the right and Abbey Road and Priory Road on the left, and soon after turn left onto the cycleway, marked towards Kingsway and Wilby. 

 QUESTION 1.  WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE CYCLEWAY?

 Stay on the cycleway for 900 meters until you come to an underpass.  Leave the cycleway and turn right along the road.  Pass Henshaw Road on the right.  Continue to the traffic lights.  Cross straight over with great care and go ahead.  Take the 3rd turning right into Fourth Avenue and at the end turn left onto Lea Way.  You eventually come to a T junction at Brickhill Road.  Cross straight over the road onto the tarmac path ahead and cross the little bridge with green railings.  At the cycleway turn right.  Follow the cycleway as it runs along the back of the houses until you come to a road.  Turn right for 50 meters until you are opposite a bus stop, then cross the road and continue on the cycleway through Glamis Grove.

QUESTON 2.  ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, THERE IS A NOTICE BOARD ABOUT GLAMIS MEADOW AND WOOD.  THIS LOCAL NATURE RESERVE IS A MIXTURE OF SPECIES, RICH GRASSLAND AND WOODLAND.  WHAT DOES IT ALSO SUPPORT? 

Ignore the left turn by the blocks of garages and stay straight ahead on the cycleway as it bears round to the right and eventually to the road.  At the road turn right.  You may want to cross the road first as there is no pavement on the right hand side.  On reaching Harrowden Road, turn right.  Pass Roche Way, twice and continue up the hill.  Pass the end of Hatton Park Road and Redwell Road, and the end of Elm Street and Hatton Street to the traffic lights.  At the traffic lights, cross with care to Broad Green and go slightly right to walk straight across the green itself to the war memorial.  The War Memorial commemorates those who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.  One of those whose name is listed is Frank Thompson, the last soldier from Wellingborough to die in the Great War, at 10.45am on 11^th November 1918, 15 minutes before the armistice.  Cross the road very carefully towards the Oak House Hotel and continue downhill.

 QUESTION 3.  BESIDE THE DOOR TO THE RAOB CLUB NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PROVINCE, THERE IS A STONE PLAQUE.  WHEN WAS IT LAID?

Keep going downhill into High Street and then Silver Street.  Immediately before the Hind Hotel, turn right into Burystead Place towards the Heritage Centre.  Do not turn left into Tithe Barn Road but keep ahead towards the Tithe Barn.  Documentary evidence exists to prove that the barn existed on or near this site in the mid thirteenth Century, and architectural evidence in the existing barn suggests a date probably from the second half of the fourteenth Century.  Every year, at harvest time, the Abbot and senior monks would oversee the gathering in of crops and fleeces, taxes and tithes – a tax of one-tenth of the produce from the land – then safely store them in the Tithe Barn.  By the early 1970’s the barn had been badly neglected and demolition was considered.  However, in 1972 the remains of the roof were destroyed by fire and considerable damage done to the stone by heat and water.  The Tithe Barn Preservation Society set to work to renovate the building with donations from private individuals, industrial undertakings and local organisations and the assistance of the Borough Council.  The building is currently used as function and meeting rooms serving the community.  Bear to the left on the road to pass in front of Croyland Hall.  Follow the tarmac path through the gap in the hedge and then round to the right towards the raised sensory flower beds depicting the 5 wells of Wellingborough and the cycleway.  At the cycleway turn left and follow it around the office building and through a car park in the direction of The Castle.  Still following the cycleway, cross the road and turn left then immediately right and go to the pelican crossing.  Cross the road and follow the cycleway, still in the direction of The Castle, between the stream and the Veterinary Clinic.

 QUESTION 4.  WHAT DID CASTLE WORKS USED TO BE? 

The building that used to be Castle Works now houses Wellingborough Museum.  In front of The Castle bear right and then turn left along the road.  At the T junction cross straight over Castle Street and go ahead through the green gates into Castle Fields.  Go straight ahead along the cycleway, ignoring the first paths off to the left and right.  Pass the children’s play area on the left and shortly after, there are more paths off to the left and right.  Turn right along the tarmac path to leave the cycleway.  Leave the park and turn left along the road.  At the crossroads by the Crown & Anchor pub, turn right along The Embankment.

 QUESTION 5.  WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE FIRST BUILDING ON THE LEFT?

 At the roundabout turn right to walk along London Road and The Walks.  At the traffic lights, go straight over and continue into the town centre and back to the Hind Hotel.

         We hope you have enjoyed the walk!

The Ise Valley Vagabonds have established other Permanent Trails at Bedford (2), Chester, Daventry, Kempston, Kettering, Kings Lynn, London (2), Marston Moretaine (2),

When completed, this form should be forwarded to
Carol Jones,138 Rushden road, Wymington, Rushden,Northants,NN10 9LE.

Insert Cards can be used instead of having to send your books away by post. they must
be submitted with a normal Record card when claiming an award.
( these cards are accepted by both the AVV and the CVF.)

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