Garendon Park

I've taken to doing a bit more walking around the Loughborough area lately and I've found some really lovely walks right on my doorstep! In May I took myself off up the A6 towards Hathern and parked in the top end of the layby on the way back into Loughborough, so I could walk to the Bavarian Gates. As it happened, in the end I carried on, over the stonebow bridge and into Morrisons car park! On the way I passed some lovely wooden sculptures in the children's park behind the new houses on Darwin Crescent, the newish development on the way to Hathern, an elephant's foot, some fabulous trees, a striking telegraph pole, some beautiful buds, a lovely moss-covered stone seat, the Obelisk (built by Ambrose Phillips in 1730) and the Bavarian Gates, designed by the architect William Railton, who was also responsible for the original monastery buildings at Mount St Bernard's Abbey (the current ones being designed by Pugin), Copt Oak, Woodhouse Eaves, Groby and Thorpe Acre churches, Beamanor Hall, and Nelson's Column (but his design for the new Houses of Parliament only came 4th!)!

Here follows a photographic record of my walk.

If you're interested in doing some further reading, here's a couple of interesting links:
http://www.thorpeacre2000.freeuk.com/garendon.htm
http://www.lrgt.org/uploads/Autumn_Newsletter_09.pdf