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Home , Apley, Barlings, Stainfield

Be a responsible walker Useful information Limewoods Walks Introduction

Please remember the countryside is a place where people live and work and where Walk location: is located 9 miles (14 ½ km) The Lincolnshire Limewoods is an area Keep your eyes open – you never know wildlife makes its home. To protect the Lincolnshire countryside for other visitors east of Lincoln. Stainfield & between , and Woodhall what you might see! Spa. It is a fantastic place to explore with please respect it and on every visit follow the Countryside Code. Thank you. Starting point: Stainfield and Apley Village Hall, LN8 5JJ. ancient woodland, medieval religious The walks start from the small village Grid reference: TF 108 732. • Be safe - plan ahead and follow any signs ruins and a wealth of wildlife. of Stainfield where there was once a Parking: Village Hall (as above), by kind permission medieval village and priory. The Hardy • Leave gates and property as you find them This walk leaflet is one in a series where of the Village Hall Trustees. Gang walk passes close by the remains you can experience all this! • Protect plants and animals, and take litter home Stainfield of Abbey before going through Public Transport: For times and more information call • Keep dogs under close control The Lincolnshire Limewoods are the a woodland and across arable farmland the Traveline on 0871 200 2233 or visit • Consider other people most important examples of small-leaved to the village of Apley, again the site of www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/busrailtravel or www.lincsbus.info lime woodland remaining in Britain and a medieval settlement. As well as going Most of all enjoy your visit to the Ordnance Survey maps for the area: Explorer 273 Lincolnshire Wolds South, several have been collectively designated through mature woodland the walk also Landranger 121 Lincoln & Newark. as the Bardney Limewoods National passes through several areas of recently Lincolnshire countryside Nature Reserve. The woods provide a planted native woodland. Walk length: Hardy Gang Wood walk: longer route: 8 ¾ km (5 ½ miles) range of habitats for a variety of wildlife. which will take approximately 2 ¾ hours to complete at a leisurely pace. This leaflet is one in a series of walk leaflets produced by Lincolnshire County Council’s Shorter route: 7 km (4 ½ miles). 2 ¼ hours to complete. Countryside Access Team to help you explore and enjoy the County’s countryside. Foxhall Wood walk: 2 ½ km (1 ½ miles). ¾ of an hour to complete. If you have enjoyed these walks and would like information on other walking routes in Lincolnshire then please visit our website. Type of walks: The walks use quiet roads, field paths and woodland paths. The walks are level but may be uneven and muddy in places especially through the woodland. If you encounter any problems whilst on these walks, such as an overgrown path You may encounter stiles on the Hardy Gang Wood walk but there are no stiles on the or a broken sign post, please let us know so they can be corrected. Foxhall Wood walk. We would also welcome your comments and suggestions on the walk and leaflet to help improve future editions.

If you would like this leaflet in an alternative format or language please contact us.

The Limewoods Project aims to protect, enhance and promote the Lincolnshire Limewoods area through Lincolnshire County Council the Limewoods Partnership. www.limewoods.co.uk Countryside Access Team email: [email protected] Tel: 01522 782070 Minicom: 01522 552055 The Limewoods Project is funded by : Email: [email protected] Web: www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/countryside

Published October 2011

3 circular walks of 8¾, 7 or 2½ km (5½, 4 ½ or 1½ miles) The Walk Map The Walk The Walk

400m Hardy Gang Wood walk 4 At the fingerpost turn left to visit Barlings Map Scale: The route through the wood can get vey 10 At the road turn left and after 11 At the road turn right and after For the shorter route: Abbey and follow the bridleway over North ¼ mile wet and muddy. If you want to avoid the approximately 80m turn right onto approximately 100m turn left onto 1 Leave the car park and turn left 7 Follow the road to the right and at the bridge. To continue the walk turn wood go through the gate at point 5 , a footpath. a footpath across the field, through along the road. Hardy Gang Wood walk the next junction bear right and then right (along the ). As the turn left and follow the road for some trees and across a bridge. 8 Hardy Gang Wood shorter walk approximately 500m to a junction. Follow the track for approximately 90m turn immediately left onto a bridleway 2 Follow the road as it bends to the track bends to the right continue straight Turn left and at the next junction bear before turning right into a field and 12 Turn right and walk alongside the drain. (part of the Viking Way). left (signed ). ahead for a few metres before bearing Foxhall Wood walk right and rejoin the directions at point 7 . following the field edge straight ahead. After 150m turn left onto a footpath After approximately 900m turn left right across the field to a gate half way Cross the fields, go through a gate At the field corner turn left over a stile beside a woodland, Foxhall Wood. off the road and onto a bridleway. along the field edge. and over a bridge and continue 6 At the road turn right and walk 500m and immediately turn right and walk Walk across the fields by bearing straight on across the fields and along Don’t go through the gate but turn around to a road junction. along the field edge to a road. right towards the right hand 5 The young trees alongside the a field edge to a road. and bear right across the field to a gate and 7 corner of the copse. woodland were planted with assistance 14 Turn right and follow the road to a bridge on the edge of the woodland. from the Forestry Commission’s Follow the hedge to the right to junction. Enter the woodland and follow the JIGSAW scheme (Joining and a fingerpost, bridge and gate in 15 bridleway straight ahead through the wood. 9 Increasing Grant Scheme for Ancient Turn left and follow the road back to the corner. 6 10 Woodlands). As woodlands get the village hall and starting point. 3 Cross the bridge and go through Hardy Gang Wood is part of the smaller and more isolated they Foxhall Wood walk the gate. Turn left and follow the Bardney Limewoods National Nature become less valuable for a variety 1 Leave the car park and turn left. field edge for approximately 150m Reserve and is a Site of Special of wildlife. The JIGSAW scheme to a waymarker. Bear right across has enabled landowners to plant Scientific Interest (SSSI). Look out 2 At the junction turn right (signed Apley). the field towards a wooden for small-leaved lime, ash, hazel and new woodlands adjoining existing fingerpost in the distance. 11 For the longer route: ones. Over the past 10 years over pedunculate oak as well as a variety of 5 3 After approximately 500m turn right wild flowers in the spring including the 160 hectares of new woodland has The remains of can 7 Turn left (signed Bullington) and after onto a footpath (part of the Viking Way) common spotted orchid. been planted across the Lincolnshire be seen ahead. 70m turn right onto a footpath. Limewoods area. beside a drain. The wood is also linked with the Follow the path along the edge of 12 4 After approximately 350m turn right Part of the church nave and tower legend of the wild man of Stainfield. an area of planted trees. onto another footpath. is all that remains above ground Various stories about the wild man 13 At the road turn right, walk past the 4 8 At the edge of the arable field bear The mounds and hollows in the fields of the medieval Barlings Abbey. exist including one that states that he you have just crossed are remains church, and at the T-junction turn right Follow the path along the wood edge Earthworks around the wall indicate was a local nobleman who returned 14 right to a bridge and fingerpost that to a road. 3 3 of the medieval settlement of Apley. to return to the starting point. other buildings of the monastery. from fighting in the crusades to find will come into view. 2 It was established in the 11th century 5 At the road turn right, walk past the The abbey was founded in 1154 by his land had been given to others. He Cross the bridge and walk straight and was granted to Stainfield Priory church to a T-junction. the Premonstratensians (named after failed to reclaim his estates and took ahead along the right hand side of in the mid 12th century as a monastic The brick church of St Andrew in Prémontré in France where the first to living wild in the local woods. He 4 the drain. manor or grange. The medieval Stainfield was built in 1711 on a Turn right to return to the starting point. house was founded). The abbey became so dangerous that Francis 15 2 church at Apley remained standing north-south orientation. The lumps was closed in 1537 after the abbot Tyrwhitt-Drake killed him and in return 5 At the end of the drain walk straight 13 until the early 18th century. and bumps in the fields either side of and four canons were implicated was given the wild man’s former across the field ahead and then along The current church of St Andrew the road are remnants of Stainfield in a rebellion against the closure estates. Another version of the tale the fence line. 1 was built in 1871 on a site north deserted medieval village, the last of monastries by Henry VIII, and tells how the wild man was killed in 9 At the end of the field turn left and of the original church. remains of the village being cleared hanged. Information boards at the woodland by a group of farmers, after 50m, and before the gate, turn by Sir Philip Tyrwhitt to create formal ruins and at the road entrance to the known as The Hardy Gang, who were On a clear day you will be able to right along a footpath around the gardens in the early 17th century. abbey have further information. fed up with him stealing their livestock. Lincolnshire County Council reproduced from OS mapping with permission of the controller of Her see Lincoln cathedral on the right. Majesty’s Stationery Office (C) Crown Copyright and Unauthorised reproduction infringes edge of a garden to a road. Crown Copyright and may lead to civil proceedings. OS Licence I00025370”