25/05/24 - Geocaching at RAF Desborough and the Good Beer Guide Pubs of Market Harborough

Pots and (half) Pints

A 44 Mystery Cache trail on the Northamptonshire/Leicestershire borders. The plan is that you solve a puzzle to reveal the actual co-ordinates and it provides "GeoArt" on the map. I could show today's example but I made such a poor job of finding tubes taped to branches in woodland that I have more gaps than a hillbilly's smile.

Geocaching Success!

I had no idea what to expect of the terrain and it was certainly odder than I could have planned. A 7 mile circuit of the former RAF Desborough Airfield. The concrete strips are the runways. What I thought to be agricultural buildings are huge aircraft hangars. Best part of four hours in the field and above is my only photo.

Thinking of how I can improve the blog, I head to Market Harborough. I can investigate the Civil War History, look for lunch and get a couple of Good Beer Guide Ticks.

The most significant event associated with Market Harborough during the Civil War was its proximity to the Battle of Naseby, fought on June 14, 1645. This battle was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell. Market Harborough served as a Royalist headquarters before the battle.

• King Charles I and his troops stayed in Market Harborough before marching out to meet the Parliamentarian forces. The King's decision-making and the Royalist army's preparations were based here.
• Following the Royalist defeat at Naseby, Market Harborough saw the retreat of the Royalist forces. The Parliamentarians captured several key figures and royal possessions in the aftermath, including the King's personal correspondence, which was later published to undermine Royalist support.

Onto the pubs.... and you cannot find a better "does what it says on the tin" place than The Beerhouse.

A Hive of Activity

Gaining access is slightly odd, walking through the white door below the "Optimum You, Yoga and Wellness" sign. This gives me just the right amount of quip ammunition to get the response "we offer a different type of wellness".

Boom - I pitch them up, they bat them back.

A bigger than average micro bar, with outside seating that popular I need to lift a photo from TripAdvisor. The wellness on offer is a huge collection of cask and keg. A chalkboard that requires a damn good staring. I ignore some of the more exotic Tartarus double digit stouts and settle on a Round Corner. 

Naturally, the reply is "which Round Corner?"

The sort of place you need a damn good session in to work your way through the wares.

Onwards, and lunch is needed. The Good Beer Guide Pub App - which I will not be able to re-install when I get a new phone - states that The Admiral Nelson has food available.

A classic back street boozer, I am slightly suspicious but still hope for cobs. You'd definitely get cobs in this sort of place in the West Midlands.

Back Street Boozer

Half a Bass - in such good condition I was googling Premier Inn - and mini cheddars.

A lunch fit for a (defeated) King.

Walk Details

Distance - 8.5 Miles

Geocaches - 44

First Cache

14/01/17 - Millennium Way Stage 44 and Grand Finale

Distance - 8.25 Miles
Geocaches - 0
Walk Inspiration
Pub - George and Dragon, Chacombe, Everards Tiger
Surprisingly, the official route of the final stage of the Millennium Way doesn't finish at a pub.

After 3.5 years, 44 monthly trips out, 268 Miles, 244 Geocaches and Mrs Mappiman muscling in on the glory, we need somewhere suitable to celebrate the final leg of this epic walk.

The George and Dragon at Chacombe will more than suffice and we make this our starting point for the day.

George and Dragon, Chacombe

The walking is typically Northamptonshire - easy, flat, agricultural.  We head North on the Jurassic Way.  The weather is the only thing that can threaten our good spirits.  After a week of promising glorious sunshine, we are left with sleet.  There are few complaints until we pick up a lane near Upper Wardington and the smell hits us.

My fair weather walking partner finally loses it and mutters "what am I doing out in this weather, walking next to a pile of cow sh*te"?

Its a fair question - but when you have booked a Super Saver Advance No Refund Premier Inn so that you can celebrate in the fleshpots of Banbury, there can be no going back.

Jurassic Way - Agricultural Northamptonshire

Entertaining Women Mappiman Style - 2 Degree walking next to a mountain of cow sh*te

We are making great progress.  The lack of gradient and geocaches mean we can just plod on with the miles.  Northamptonshire doesn't really do hills.  There's one gentle climb on this walk.  And they have named it "The Hill" on the OS Map.  No need for greater descriptions.

View from the Hill

The church spire of Middleton Cheney marks the end of the Millennium Way and we can see it in the distance.  Plod our way across sheep fields until we hit the village.  Pretty little place, but we fail to find a cafe and the pub is on the opposite side to where we need to be.

Packed lunch is taken in the only place to offer shelter.  The bus stop - eventually shared with Banbury bound pensioner shoppers.

Lunch done, we tour the Church, looking for the bunting that proclaims the end of this great adventure.  We make do with finding the last Millennium Way Sign post.

Middleton Cheney Church

The End (or Start of the Millennium Way)

A mile left to get us to where we can really celebrate.  We head back along the Jurassic Way, through the grounds of Chacombe House.

The Pub is down there, somewhere

We find the George and Dragon.  The packed lunch was possibly the best decision that we could have made, as the kitchen is closed for refurbishment.  Fortunately, the beer was in top condition.

Don't see Everards brews too frequently and it was a pleasure to be re-acquainted with their Tiger Copper Ale in a busy pub.

Wi-Fi made use of to share the news that the journey was over.

Mrs Mappiman uploading Facebook Photos and forgetting the Sleet

The Millennium Way proved perfect walking inspiration and is perfectly maintained.  A full summary of all 44 stages can be found here.

31/12/16 - The Griffin, Chipping Warden - Millennium Way Stage 43

Distance - 10 Miles
Geocaches - 6
Walk Inspiration

A weather warning for fog on the last day of the year.  There is no choice but to head out.  I am committed to doing a walk per month on the Millennium Way, as I work my way through the 44 stages.  I cannot afford to fail on the penultimate leg and tomorrow will be too late.  A new month.  A new year.

Like many legs before it, this starts at a pub.  I spied the Griffin at Chipping Warden on Stage 42 and it looked a fine example of a great countryside pub.  I am sure it will provide suitable  refreshment after this ten mile monster - the longest of all the stages.

The walk is a figure of 8 in the largely flat Northamptonshire countryside.  The early stages share the route with a Battefield trail.  You have to love this country.  To the untrained eye, this may look like a pretty ordinary field but 500 years before I was born, it was the scene of a major battle in the War of the Roses.  There are information boards and signage to link this site with other battlesites (Egdehill, Cropredy) in the area.

Edgecote Battlefield.

There's also a handful of geocaches in the area.  In Northamptonshire, they don't like to give hints.  At the end of the walk, I am quite pleased with my haul of 6 found, 1xDNF.

If I had set off later, there could have been three pubs to visit.  Its a shame that I have to miss out on the three conies at Thorpe Mandeville.  It was a fine enough looking pub on its own, but the date on the sundial showed just how old the building could be.

Drovers Inn - The Three Conies

1622 - Hardly seems credible.

After the Church Micro Geocache, its over fields (given over to the production of electricity) to Culworth.  Another fine Church (alas, the Church Micro was the DNF) and the promise of another pub.  At 11am, I knew it would be too early and I head back onto the paths.

Little to report as I make my way to the apex of the figure of 8 on a long stretch of countryside.

The Centre of the Figure of 8

The walk does have one last surprise, the C18th Edgecote House and Church.  If it looks familiar, its because it was used in the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice on the BBC.

Sweeping into Edgcote

Pride and Prejudice

I arrive back at Chipping Warden at the pub friendly time of 12:15.  Change of boots and I am in for a first ever Marstons Bitter.  My hopes for the pub were met - a nice village boozer.  One couple eating, one bloke at the bar with the paper and another getting excited by the horse racing.

Marstons Bitter.  Paper Reader.

Fog permitting, the Millennium Way will be completed, on track, in Jan 2017.

26/11/16 - The Red Lion, Cropredy - Millennium Way Stage 42

Distance - 8 Miles
Geocaches - 3
Walk Inspiration


The countdown to the end of the Millennium Way begins in earnest.  Just three stages left.

A return to Cropredy - a small, two pub town on the Oxfordshire / Northamptonshire border.  I've walked here once before, breaking up a journey back on the M40.

Straight down onto the canal, where a full on regatta is taking place.  A few paces before heading East alongside the River Cherwell, passing Prescote Manor.

Canal Action

Prescote Manor

The walk takes me across fields and along lanes, passing through Wardington and Edgcote, finding the only caches of the day, before deliverance in Chipping Warden.

Nice looking place, Chipping Warden - proud of its history.  There are information boards to the civil war battle sites and a town standard featuring a medieval yokel bothering the farm stock as a WWII Lancaster Bomber flies overhead.   Two pubs, but the Rose and Crown looks long dead.

Chipping Warden Church

Yokel. Pigs.  Bomber.

The Millennium Way shares paths with the McMillan Way over farmland.  Route finding is easy, in a first - someone has spray painted the footpaths.  These lead back to the Oxford Canal at Claydon Locks.

Easy Path Marking

Picking up the Oxford Canal

No one else using the towpath today - I have two quiet miles passing moored barges, a couple of boatyards and a marina.

Just the post walk refreshments to knock off.  Cropredy has two pubs - The Brasenose Arms is shunned for the Red Lion.  It must have been the advertising.

Good Advertising

But Someone's not been paying their dues

The pub is picture post card perfect.  Thatched roof building in a terrace of similar buildings along a hidden, very narrow lane and directly opposite the Church.

The Red Lion

I deboot, enter and get looked up and down by the two old boys at the bar who are getting tips on the use of Tinder from the young bar man.  The Scot sees potential but the cockney is horrified at the type of woman who would advertise.  I am forced to invade their space to eye up the wares.

A top quality Purity Ubu was chosen in preference to the ubiquitous Doom Bar.

Purity - Not Hook Norton

29/10/16 - Saved by the Merrie Lion - Millennium Way Stage 41

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Geocaches - 3
Pub - Merrie Lion at Fenny Compton
Walk Inspiration - Stage 41 of the Millennium Way



Back on the Millennium Way.  The countdown begins - just three more stages left.

Hopefully this is the lull before the storm.  Little to commend this walk.  The Northamptonshire/Oxfordshire border offers little for the rambler.  The only drama of the day is walking through a field containing a bull.  Even he was that bored that he gave me nothing to write home about.

I look at the route.  Its a figure of 8.  We are meant to start at Claydon but research shows there is no pub.

I'm not having that.

Instead, we park at the apex of the 8 - at Little Boddington.  Directly opposite the Carpenters Arms.  I have brought Mrs Mappiman with me and I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to feed her after the walk.  It was with some relief that I saw the sign saying "Thursday Night is Burger Night"

Promising, they have a kitchen!

So we head south to Claydon.  Quick Geocache (the only one officially on route) and then we are out into the flat bovine fields.

As Interesting as it gets

Cross the Oxford Canal and follow the paths rather than the sat nav.  Miss a stile in a field corner and end up in a dead end at the back of a farmers kitchen window.  Route retraced into the Bull Field.

Claydon?  What have you got?  The OS Map shows an alternative to pub entertainment could be had in the museum.  No evidence of it on the ground.  Internet based research shows it was a private museum.  Before it closed down for good.

I pity the Claydonites on the upcoming long winter evenings.

Claydon Church

I spice the route up on the way back by avoiding some fields at the Canal and continuing along the lane.  There are an additional two geocaches to bag.

It's then an uninspiring walk through crop fields to get back to the pub.  The top loop of the figure of 8 could not be faced - especially as it was getting perilously close to a time when pubs stop serving meals.

As well as the sign for food, the Carpenters Arms carries a Cask Marque seal of approval.  My mood lifts but not for long.

We walk in and they are having some sort of meeting.  Possibly about the impending HS2 Railway Line.

Stop HS2.  Unless it goes through Claydon.

We are instantly asked if "We are Local?".  I reply with "We are merely ramblers in need of sustenance".

Our response is met with the "The Pub Is closed".

Now, 1pm on Saturday seems a strange time to close the pub.  Especially when its full of people.

I ask incredulously when they are actually open.  Conflicting answers from two people and a barely credible "Sunday Lunch Times only" and we are off before I argued about Burger Night.

Unlike the League of Gentlemen's Royston Vasey - we manage to leave the local pub for local people.

Fortunately, this presented an opportunity to try the Merrie Lion in Fenny Compton.  I have driven past it three times on the Millennium Way and it looks inviting.

Opening Times Dictated by the Corner Sun Dial

Also Cask Marque accredited, we were met with a wonderful welcome, table service and one of the finest meals we have ever had out.  All for £30.05, with four free humbugs when we paid up.

The day is saved.

The Fenny Pride - A local Pint for Strangers

11/09/16 - The Plough, Upper Boddington - Millennium Way Stage 40

Distance - 5.5 Miles
Geocaches - 0
Walk Inspiration
Pub - The Plough, Upper Boddington, Great Oakley Wot's Occuring

The rules are that the last available weekend day of the month has to be spent on the Millennium Way.  Completing September's walk on the 11th suggests I am in for a busy Autumn.

This leg starts at the village that time forgot - Upper Boddington.  I can't think it has changed much in decades.  Wikipedia lists activities as "Darts and Skittles" at the Plough Inn.

A decent ramble can also be had.  But don't think of Geocaching... there are none.

Like yesterday's walk, nothing happens.  Unlike yesterday's walk, this was completed in fine weather on excellent paths that matched the OS Map and constant stunning views in all directions.

Just how walking ought to be.

Fields at the Start

MW drops down between an avenue of trees

Super Skies in Northamptonshire

I'm all done by midday, ready to be the first punter in the lovely looking thatched Plough Inn.

Perfect Village Inn

There's two doors to gain entrance.  I try the one labelled "Smoking Room".  It's bolted.  For a moment, I fear it may be a dead pub.  Success is achieved at the next door, where I realise the owners have been watching my futile attempts to gain access through the window.

Still, provides a conversation starter.

The pub is all little rooms, with stone flooring.  Three real ales on - and when in doubt, I used the maxim to go local.  Great Oakley Brewery is down the road in Northamptonshire and I've not found their beers before.

"Wot's Occurring" was slightly better than it's terrible name.  Obviously the head brewer is a fan of Sky's Stella.

Wot's Occurring Punter #2 

29/08/16 - The Red Lion, Hellidon - Millennium Way Stage 39

Distance - 5.9 Miles
Geocaches - 4
Walk Inspiration
Pub - The Red Lion, Hellidon, Doombar

Once again, the Millennium Way delivers us to another piece of beautiful England.  If it wasn't for this long distance path, I doubt we would have ever found Hellidon - just inside the Northamptonshire border.  Another new county for the MW.

As per usual on these short walks, we start (or finish) at a pub - the Red Lion looks impressive enough and gives us something to look forward to.

We stride out on country lanes, picking up a couple of random caches and crossing the border into Warwickshire.

Looking forward to her post walk continental lager and lime

Lane Walking, Early Doors

Gentle Warwickshire Glory

Little to report, apart from gorgeous blues skies and fields where we play guess the vegetable.

It's no hardship to come back into Priors Marston again.  Especially as we re-visit the Hollybush.  This has to be "Pub of the Millennium Way".  I even get the honour of being the first punter to scan in the Cask Marque logo from their newly erected certificate.  For a more detailed review, see last months blog.

Half Way Pit Stop

The return to Hellidon is as gently impressive as the outward route.  A circuit of Hellidon Hill and across the golf course, busy with Bank Holiday golfers.

All very pleasant

View from Hellidon Hill

Into the village to pick up the last caches of the day.  Walking chat is mainly about how easy it is to find these beautiful, timeless villages in Britain.

All that remains to check out the pub and get a photo of a TB found in Greece that wants to be photographed next to pubs, breweries or distilleries.  I can certainly help with that mission.

Happy to help - next time out, I will drop it off.

The Red Lion was doing a decent trade.  We managed to bag the last available outdoor seat but to be honest, we would have been better off in the coolness of the low ceiling bar.

Decent stop for a very keenly priced lunch.  Slightly disappointed with a limited choice of Courage Directors or Doombar.  Went for the latter.

It was as lifeless as the picture indicated.

But the ham and eggs / fish finger sandwiches were delicious.