We did a Leicestershire Round walk today. We had originally planned to walk to Thornton but following our colds and lack of walking we thought we might cut it short at Bagworth. We parked at Nailstone and followed the path to Bagworth. This had been coalmining country and our 25 year old guide book warned us about the spoil heaps and quarrying, but the pits had closed and the land is now reclaimed and planted with trees as part of the new National Forest. We arrived in Bagworth quite quickly but could not see anywhere to stop for lunch so decided to walk on to Thornton on our original planned route. We had lunch in the Bricklayers arms which we had visited a few weeks ago. The same group of old men were in there putting the world to rights and discussing the old railways through Bagworth and the history of the Swannington incline which was quite interesting. We walked on after lunch and lost our way a bit around the Thornton brick works but eventually found the route passing by some fishing lakes. We came out onto the road to Barleston and were stopped by a chap who asked us if we were heading onto the footpath across his land. He had had a run-in with gypsies that morning who had been stealing stuff from his stables. He had had stiches and was still bleeding from the assault. He said he had cameras filming so we might be filmed. He spoke to us for quite a while telling us tales of shooting arrows at night and jogging across his land naked carrying an axe to cut down a tree in the early morning and wondering why the birdwatcher ran off leaving all his equipment behind! We had quite a laugh, I think he was a still shaken from his experiences that morning and wanted someone to talk to. He said if we were back that way in the summer to call in for a glass of wine! We continued across the fields towards Barlestone and along a river bank and then set off on a footpath back to Nailstone.
We were stopped by another local who told us we had missed the footpath and pointed out the correct way. He stood chatting to us for about 15 minutes telling us about all the local walks. We finished off the walk and got back to Nailstone at about 5.30 after 16 km. So much for a shortened walk but it was nice having chatted to so many friendly locals.
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