THURSDAY 30th SEPTEMER 2021
This was the first of our Winter walks starting with hot drinks and toast. These are normally held on Tuesdays but on this occasion Muriel at the Coal Aston Wesleyan Reform Church couldn’t accommodate us as it was her birthday on the 28th.
Starting out at 10.00am, Graham Gill led a party of nine walkers on a four and a half mile figure of eight route around the upper Moss Valley that took in six named areas of woodland. The first section was on paths parallel to Dyche Lane over to Jordanthorpe, alongside Jordanthorpe Greenway and into the Moss Valley at Coal Pit Wood. Graham showed two streams that come together here to form the start of The Moss and said that it flows eventually all the way to the Humber and out into the North Sea. Carrying on through Long Wood, over three sets of stepping stones and into Cook Spring Wood we followed the river to Dowey Lumb where we stopped for our coffee break.
The rain that had been forecast for the day didn’t really materialise and we only got a very light drizzle in places. Moving on after our break we went through Bridle Road Wood and Newfield Spring Wood and up to Hazlebarrow Farm. On the approach to the farm we saw a Buzzard hunting low over hedgerows and numerous Pied Wagtails feeding in a newly ploughed field. Turning left we walked back over the fields and saw a Jay, a Kestrel hovering and two (late) Swallows feeding before their return to Africa. Re-entering Long Wood we crossed the mid point on the figure of eight, over the Moss for the last time and up through Nor Wood, the last of the six woods. Avoiding a rather muddy looking ploughed field, Graham retraced the first half mile of the walk to take us back to our starting point at the church on Cross Lane. A nice start to our tea and toast walks – our thanks to Muriel and her team.