Yorkshire Walks

Heading for Pocklington Canal from the pub in Melbourne

So today we met in Melbourne, a village a few miles south west of Pocklington. We started walking from the pub in Melbourne at map ref. SE 752440 at about 10.45am and headed north along a little track to the Pocklington canal a few hundred metres away.

On the first Saturday in each month I meet up with a group of friends for a good walk. (Well OK, this is the last Saturday in March not the first Saturday in April but we wanted to avoid the Easter weekend

The canal boat marina in Melbourne

The canal boat marina in Melbourne

Pocklington Canal at Melbourne

Opposite the swing bridge we turned right to follow a path across the flat farm land toward a large block of open access woodland called Allerthorpe Common.

We crossed the canal on the swing bridge and turned left to walk along the towpath beside the canal. After about 600m we came to the next swing bridge over the canal.

Pocklington Canal at Melbourne

Heading north from the canal to Allerthorpe Common

Heading north from the canal to Allerthorpe Common

Beef cattle at Thornton Grange

Approaching Allerthorpe Common on the road

At the entrance to the woods we met three men in full camouflage gear each with a tripod holding a camera and very expensive looking telephoto lens. They were birdwatchers but today they were looking for snakes emerging from their hibernation into the spring sunshine, but so far they had had no luck.

After about 2.5km the path took a sharp right turn and brought us out on to a road at map ref. SE 753469. At the road we turned left to walk along it for a few hundred metres to the car park at the entrance to Allerthorpe Common woods.

The entrance to Allerthorpe Common woods
where we met 3 well equipped birdwatchers

The path through Allerthorpe Common woods

Out door pig rearing - on a grand scale(see inset!)

Allerthorpe church under repair

After our break we walked along the village street to the main road (A 1079) opposite the Pocklington Industrial Estate. This is not the prettiest part of the walk as we made our way along the A1079 with noisy traffic whizzing by. We had to endure the traffic for about 1km until we reached the sanctuary of the Pocklington Canal head at map ref. SE 799474.

We followed the path around the southern edge of the woods, through Tank Plantation and on to a track that led us into Allerthorpe village. In the village we stopped at the pub for a drink at the picnic tables on the green in front of the pub. It was a very pleasant break as we watched the rooks nest building in the tops of the trees opposite.

Walking along the A1079 - Yuk!

Lock on the Pocklington canal

Walking the Pocklington canal tow path

Pocklington canal

Two of our group, my sister and her husband, live in Melbourne so we used their home for our traditional coffee shop stop at the end of our walk, and very pleasant it was too - thanks sis! (She sometimes looks at my web site)

From the canal head we simply followed the canal tow path for about 7km back to our starting point in Melbourne. The whole route had been 17km and had taken us five and a half hours to walk including our breaks. It had been a too far for me at present and the last 5km were a bit of a struggle.

Pocklington canal filled with reeds

Coats Bridge lock on the Pocklington canal

Swan(pen) sitting on her nest amongst the reeds

Swan(cob) patrolling the open water near his nest

Entrance to the Bielby branch of the Pocklington canal

The lock at Walbut Bridge on the Pocklington canal
I was well behind everyone else at this stage, but my sister had stayed back to walk with me

The lock at Walbut Bridge on the Pocklington canal

Returning to Melbourne at the end of our walk