Gadgie Walks: Bolam Angerton Middleton Shaftoe

Bolam, Angerton, Middleton, Shaftoe (Northumberland) March 11th.

Regular readers will be right in thinking they have followed this walk before but my job is to record gadgie walks, not find new ones although fresh fields are always welcome.

Today seven of us (John x 4) Brian, Margaret and I are starting and finishing a walk from St. Andrew's Church in Bolam. Several ways to get to the start, we went through Ponteland, turned off right at Belsay for Bolam and just beyond the lake turned right up the hill and then to the church where you can park all day for free. You may use the lake car parks for a fee.

The weatherman said fair today with rain late afternoon.

The map to use is OS Explorer 325 Morpeth and Blyth.

St Andrew's Church Bolam. Beautiful little church with a Saxon tower and mostly 12 and 13 Century body. The small window is where a WW2 bomb penetrated the wall but fortunately failed to explode.

Parked outside the church, preparing to walk. The seven of us walked in formation at times.

Margaret John C

Brian John H John L

Me John Ha

(Slowest at the back! )

We headed off through the church yard, passing the tower and going through a gate into fields.fairly dry after recent rains with one soggy stream to negotiate before we came to Angerton Steads, farm and bungalow with its own tennis court too. Continuing north and being good boys we walked the edges of fields, crossing a dismantled railway line converted into track for horse training, until we reached the next farm at Low Angerton.

Low Angerton and the River Wansbeck.

Just beyond the farm we crossed the river and a little further on at a finger post turned west to cross a series of fields to Middleton Mill. At times the path is close to the river:

Further on the path crosses a field sprouting this year's crop. Last time we came this way the field had a fine growth of oil seed and although the farmer kindly leaves a path through it, tall plants crossing the way kept tripping us. Not his time though. (mile 3)

So different from the last time!

At Middleton Farm (mile 4) we walked the farm road and turned left, crossed the Wansbeck and almost immediately followed the sign post on the right, walked a short way across a field to a shelter wall like a flattened V and decided it would make a good spot to Herb.

Herbie time: Viennese whirls, biscuits, flapjacks, savoury and sweet from Mrs A and a special biscuiut John L said he had stolen from a hotel. It's not really stealing if they are in your romm though is it. Discussion on which book we remembered reading first; Tom Sawyer, Wind in the Willows, Famous Five and so on.

Lunch over we resumed, walking to the next farm at Middleton South (mile 5) and then across more fields towards Shaftoe Crags, passing a Standing Stone on the way.

Standing stone, standing alone, a sort of singular henge.

Turning south east we followed a track lined with sorry looking trees to a gate where we turned south, passing the entrance to the Salters' Nick (a gap in the crags) and on to Shaftoe Grange. On previous occasions we have walked the few yards up to the rock known as Piper's Chair but today we followed the path below it to East Shaftoe Hall.(mile 7)

East Shaftoe Hall, it doesn't really slope.

The farm road beyond the farm is partly a concrete road and partly laid with old concrete railway sleepers which came all the way from Glasgow! Makes a mud free walk anyway. At the nd of the track, Bolam West Houses we turned right towards Bolam Lake Country Park. The plan to take the footpath on the west side of the lake was scuppered when a couple of men who were tidying up timber from recent storms told us the way was passable but difficult. We took their advice and a little further down the road entered the park and walked the footpath round the east end of the lake, taking time to admire the wooden chairs: