LEISURE TIME ALFORD

DIRECTIONS Local attractions Leave the car park using the entrance by Five Sailed Windmill, East Street, Alford. Tel 01507 462136. 1the toilets, and turn right towards Open: All year (selected days off peak). Disabled access. Barclays Bank and the square. Continue Working windmill that produces a full range of flours and down Church Street before turning right in wholemeal. front of the church, following a brown Animal Gardens and Seal Sanctuary, North ‘Windmill’ sign. End, Mablethorpe, LN12 1QG. Tel 01507 473346; website mablethorpe-seals.co.uk. Continue along the main road’s Gunby Hall, Gunby, , Lincs PE23 5SS. Tel 01909 2pathway, bearing left following the 486411 or email gunbyhall.ic24.net. Open: House and direction of another ‘Windmill’ sign (sp gardens – April to the end of September on Wednesdays A1104). Pass the magnificent working five- from 2-6pm. Gardens only – Thursdays from 2-6pm. sailed windmill, pausing to visit if you National Trust. Disabled access. choose, before continuing along the road.

Before the de-restriction road sign, turn 3left following a green public footpath Follow this arrow to the left keeping a Tourist sign ‘To Alford’. Follow the right side of a 8dyke to your right. Follow the hedge information hedgerow before veering left at the end of untilpost, the wooden found tobridge the left upon of which a lone istree. 7-8 West Street, right (the dyke is now on your right). At the field, following a yellow arrow over a another public footpath sign. Cross this Alford, the end, cross another stile, and bridge, wooden boardwalk. Head around the back before turning left to skate around the left Lincolnshire andTurn continue left to walk down along a narrow the pavement, grassy path. of a football pitch before veering right, side of the field, following another dyke. LN13 9HT. Tel Gopast through the ‘Alford the Historic kissing gate, Market and walk to following another yellow arrow. Walk aheadCross the dyke where marked by arrows, 01507 462143; 12 Town’ sign,the road. but very soon carefully cross the through a metal kissing gate where you turnand immediately turn right to the road. email road and turn right to follow the signpost ‘To left, keeping to the left side of the field. alfordinfo@e- Mill Rundle Walk’. Keep close to the dyke Cross the stile and road, and pass the lindsey.gov.uk. until the field’s end, and then cross it before Don’t pass through the gate ahead – entrance to Mandy’s Plant and Garden 9 immediately turning left. At the path’s instead turn 90 degrees to your right Centre. Continue ahead before turning left 4 crossroads keep ahead before turning right towards a wooden kissing gate marked withjust before a tree plantation on your left, at another dyke, following the public a yellow arrow. Pass through this before following a public footpath sign. Keep the footpath sign (the dyke is on your left). heading diagonally to the next field’s far plantation briefly to your right before right-hand corner, towards a bridge. turning left at a dyke (your back is now to the trees). Cross the dyke at the wooden At the public footpath sign, turn Pass over the river and then bear right railed bridge and then continue straight 13left across a stone bridge and 5through a metal kissing gate. Then bear ahead following a yellow arrow through a continue towards the houses. Go through left to diagonally cross the field to a metal clear trail in the field’s planting. a metal gate, cross the road, and continue gate in its far corner. Pass through another ahead down a narrow footpath that runs metal kissing gate and then keep to the left behind some bungalows. Just past the At the end veer right to follow the Walk on the side of the field towards a wooden gate, bollards turn left, and at the T-junction dyke (on your left), and cross a stile following a barbed wire fence. 10 keep right. Pass straight over the entrance before turning left (again, following an to ‘Wood Road’ and then at the T-junction arrow). Go across another wooden stile and Go over the stile at the end of the field turn right. and veer left and then right towards the continue ahead following an arrow up the 6 left side of a field, first following a dyke and houses. When you reach the tarmac lane turn At the main road junction, cross the then a hedge. Cross another wooden railed right and follow this all the way to the house road ahead (Hamilton Road) and bridge and continue straight ahead, still 14 and farm. But just before the buildings, cross continue down South Street, first passing a following yellow arrows. WILDSIDE a stile just to the left of a ‘Hazardous red postbox on your left, and then the Substances’ sign. Follow the direction of the Memorial Park Trust Recreation Ground. Cross the next wooden bridge on arrow ahead along the fence line. Soon you’ll return to the car park. 11your left and then immediately turn JO VAUGHAN TAKES A SHORT DRIVE Head through a gap in the fence, still 7skirting the buildings, before crossing TO THE MARKET TOWN OF ALFORD another stile beside a stone water butt. Alford: 4.6miles/7.4km Walk towards a bush in the middle of the Lake House TO EXPLORE SOME OF HER LOCAL field, and cross the stile behind it. Now A1104 turn left (following a yellow arrow). The Ailb LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTRYSIDE ‘moat’ is to your left, but leave it as it soon curves 90 degrees to the left, turning right A1111 EADING SIXmiles down difficult, and there’s also a Craft Ailby W and following the yellow arrow towards Farm ALFORD House the road to Alford from the Market on Tuesdays and Fridays both a hedge and another yellow-arrowed Bilsby HClub’s Hawthorn Farm site during the summer months. AilAilb wasn’t the original plan. According to Plantt P local OS maps there are loads of footpaths Bilsby House to explore directly from the site, POTTERY although in reality many of these are General information P closed or inaccessible. NEAREST CLUB SITE: Hawthorn Farm LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Easy But it’s worth the short drive if only to Caravan Club site, Crabtree Lane, CAR PARKING: Car park adjacent to see Alford’s five-sailed working windmill Sutton-on-Sea, Mablethorpe LN12 Alford’s library, found just off South Rigsby JorichJoJ and its old-fashioned town centre. This Farm 2RS. Tel 01507 441503 Market Place. Cost: £1 for four hours. walk takes you past the windmill, then DISTANCE: 4.6 miles/7.4km There’s plenty of room, although into the attractive surrounding TERRAIN: Tarmac and grassy paths overspill car park has a height barrier of A1104 B1196 countryside. NUMBER OF STILES: 8 2.2m (7ft 4in) Holt A general market takes place here on ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT: Ordnance REFRESHMENTS: Alford town centre Well Poultry Tuesdays which could make parking TurnT Houses Survey Explorer 274 TOILETS: Car park Sleights Ivy House Holt Farm

28 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE www.caravanclub.co.uk JUNE 2006 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE 29