Halls of Holmesfield Walk Report / Saturday 12th February 2022
Thanks to Steve Sadley for this report, and to Po Goddard for the photos:
Walk Leader: Steve Sadler / Backmarker: Peter Carr
There are now 8 Historic Halls in the Parish of Holmesfield and this walk visited 6 of the Halls over a distance of 4.7 miles.
So on a cold and windy morning 23 hardy folk set off from the Village Hall Car Park in Holmesfield to the first Hall – Holmesfield which is set back from the main road just along from the church.
After viewing the Hall and restored barns from the old working farm, we retraced our way back to Park Avenue to walk down through Holmesfield Park Wood onto Fanshaw Gate Lane to our second stop – Woodthorpe Hall. Here we were greeted by a wonderful display of snowdrops indicating that Spring was on it’s way! After a brief stop to view the Hall we turned back up the lane to our third visit – Fanshaw Gate Hall.
From here we climbed back up to the main road on a path that took us to Lydgate Cottage before crossing over to a waymarked path leading to Hall number 4 – Horsleygate Hall. We took a short coffee break part way along this path before descending to Horsleygate Lane adjacent to the Hall.
This was the newer of the 2 Halls at Horsleygate and so our next Hall number 5 was – Horsleygate Old Hall further up the lane, together with the adjacent farm buildings and old cottages known as Horsleygate.
Unfortunately by this point it had started to rain as we headed through the Caravan Park back towards Holmesfield. Feeling rather wet and bedraggled, at a junction of footpaths we turned off to visit our final Hall of the walk – Cartledge Hall. From here it was just a short walk along the road back to the car park.
An enjoyable walk despite the rain and some muddy sections, with some added history, leaving the Halls of Unthank and Cowley for another time. A few of us then reconvened at the Moorlands Pub for a Carvery Lunch to finish off the day!
