Meandering mindfully around The Outwoods

This weekend I had the joy of spending some time in The Outwoods: luckily it was Saturday and not earlier in the week, so the temperature was a tropical +6 degrees, rather than the minus figures it had been during the week, although thermals and walking boots were still the order of the day!

I hadn't realised I'd already written so extensively about The Outwoods, on here, and I've had a couple of guest blog posts featuring the area too - see the full list below - which cover some of the memorial benches, the sculpture trail, and a bit of history. 

Anyway, this time I was actually attending an art event, the first of which was led by Andrea Abbatangelo. It was all to do with Charnwood Forest applying to become a UNESCO GeoPark [1] - I guess a group similar to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but for geologically interesting ones - and Charnwood Forest certainly is that!!

Initially, we did 'exercises' up near the car park (because we were attending some other events, we actually drove to The Outwoods, which isn't something we normally do!). This involved describing something we'd seen as we arrived at the woods, and taking some time to scan interesting looking things, before using microscopes (attached to mobile phones) to look at some things close up. It's very strange what you can see, or what you think you can see when you look carefully and closely at something.

I suppose our walk could have been described as a mindful walk, as we took our time, and closely observed our surroundings. In truth, although I don't normally take my time, I do tend to stop and look at details wherever I am, and I do sometimes wander around just observing anyway - call it psychogeography or flanerie!

Anway, after we'd finished the event in the woods, we had a very welcome lunch stop in the cafe, and some interesting chats with other participants, before moving off to Woodhouse Eaves to hear a talk from another artist. Frances Scott, with her partner, David, had researched The Outwoods, and revealed that Roger Mason had not been the first person to find the Charnia fossil somewhere in the Charnwood Forest in 1957, but that it had first been found by a schoolgirl, Tina Negus, a year earlier, but not been recognised by her teachers for the importance it really held. Her part in finding this fossil was finally acknowledged in 2004, but I admit to not knowing anything about his until now. After a Q&A session and a another round of chatting, we then made our way to Nanpantan ...

Can you believe that although I have been to Nanpantan Hall a few times, I have never been to St Mary's church. Sure, I've walked past it numerous times, and written about it, but never been in, and actually, in truth, I didn't go into the church this time, either, as the artwork was in the church hall, and presumably the church was locked (I didn't check). We stepped into a darkened room and were treated to a couple of films made by / of Becky Lyon, who also has an installation at Morley Quarry in Shepshed, although we didn't have time to visit on this occasion. I must say, it was pretty mesmerising!

As we were leaving the church hall, we took a slight detour and view the poignant war memorial, had a much better look at the bellcote and bell than can be seen from the road, spotted some sheep, and some interesting stones, dedicated to a former owner of Nanpantan Hall.

All in all, a very good day, especially as I could immerse myself in nature, appreciate some art, and learn something new!

Here are some photos of my day - enjoy!  

  

[1] "UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. Geoparks are areas of exceptional geological significance. All of the UK’s geoparks have internationally significant geology, but what makes them special is that they are community-led partnerships that promote an appreciation of natural and cultural heritage while supporting the sustainable economic development of the area, primarily through geological and eco-tourism."

Here are some of my earlier posts about The Outwoods:

O is for Outwoods 

Walking from Loughborough to The Outwoods and Back - guest post

Outwoods Sculpture Trail 2022

Outwoods Sculptures in town

Memorial benches

Walk to Oaks in Charnwood via The Outwoods

New Year walk to The Outwoods 2016

Life in locked down Loughborough

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Meandering mindfully around The Outwoods. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/01/meandering-mindfully-around-outwoods.html [Accessed 21 January 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

O is for Outwoods

O is for Outwoods – and another update for an entry in my book, ‘A-Z of Loughborough’!

I am thankful that I took the opportunity to go for a long walk in some of the areas surrounding Loughborough yesterday, on what was a beautifully sunny and clear afternoon, after a morning of heavy rain. Not only that, I’ve just read that the next phase of the project to return the Outwoods to its ancient woodland species is about to begin, and much of the Outwoods will be closed from 1st November until 24th November while many of the non-native trees, mostly conifers, are felled. I wrote about the first stage of this project in the book, so I’m keen to keep up with the progress of the work. There are some FAQs about the project on the council website, but essentially, the non-native trees are being felled to allow more oak trees to grow, and to encourage the growth of flora on the woodland floor.

On my walk, I took the path off Valley Road where it joins Belvoir Drive and headed up to the Outwoods. Along the way I passed the site of the new cemetery, which is beginning to take shape, and from the fields close by there were some lovely clear views of Loughborough.

Part of the new cemetery

Nanpantan Sports Ground

Reaching the Outwoods itself, I stumbled upon a memorial bench, and then took a very circuitous route, eventually ending up in the car park off Breakback Lane, where I saw all the work that’s been done on the ranger’s hut that is going to be a café.

 

Artwork in the wood

Then I followed the path that runs parallel to the road, before exiting onto the road, and then turning left into the bridleway that is Brook Lane. I walked all the way along Brook Lane, where there were some fabulous views back across Loughborough, and I noticed I could even see Stanford Hall from there.

Stanford Hall in the far distance

Looking back at the Outwoods from Brook Lane

Brook Lane came out at the junction in Woodhouse Eaves, where the Bull’s Head is on the corner, and after a quick cuppa in the local cafe, I walked to the village hall, but took the path just before the hall.  A new tree had been planted here, in honour of people who had died during the pandemic.

This particular path took me all the way to School Lane in Woodhouse, and I walked up past Pestilence Cottage, and stopped to look at the memorial at the church, and the new memorial bench in Woodhouse, which was close to the church.

Crows' nests

From here it was an easy walk through the village of Woodhouse, and at the end of the village I turned down the path to Beaumanor Hall, taking the right-hand path to come home via the path alongside Mucklin Wood, and then through the Grange Park Estate.

 

The Lodge to Beaumanor Hall, designed by William Railton,is currently for sale

         

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough 31 October 2021

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2021). O is for Outwoods. Available from:https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/10/o-is-for-outwoods.html  [Accessed 31 October 2021]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

You can leave comments below, but do check back as my reply will appear here, below your comment.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne                 

Loughborough Mela and other local events

Last week I wrote about the misplaced milestone which lies outside the Organ Grinder pub on Wood Gate, and I had intended to follow-up with the story of another misplaced milestone (although that is not an accurate description), but lack of time meant this didn’t happen. I’ll follow this up in a future post, as I have a hankering to tell you about my exciting weekend, last weekend! 

As it happened, last weekend turned out to be a busy one, and I spent a lot of time actually being lynneaboutloughborough – that is, out and about in Loughborough or the surrounding area – and loving every moment of it! now, had I been a bit more organised I could have been out and about at even more places and events, but as I really am not – organised, that is - I ended up in the same place two days in a row, and so missed out on a visit to St Paul’s church in Woodhouse Eaves, which was having an open day!! I have a liking for that particular village and church because OH has run the Woodhouse May Day Challenge a couple of times, the people in the village are lovely, my neighbour exhibits at the annual art exhibition, the churchyard contains some lovely Swithland slate gravestones, and a few years ago I helped out with some research into William Railton, the architect behind Nelson's column in London, and the architect of St Paul's church in Woodhouse, amongst many others.

Anyway, back to the places and events I did manage to visit! Usually I walk to Quorn, but as there was so much happening this weekend, I drove the short distance, so I could go to the community centre in the park and view the new community heritage boards. This turned out to be a lovely space, the walls bedecked with about a dozen information boards, covering the local aspect of general topics like transport, education, religion, and pubs, alongside boards relating to Quorn families, Quorn industry and the like. Just the right amount of information and pictures were offered so I could read and absorb, but not get bored. And, of course, I could relate much of this information to Loughborough’s own situation – I feel another blog post coming on … Well done, Quorn Local History Group for an excellent display! 

Oh, and just in case you're not aware, there are campaigns out there to ensure that undesignated footpaths that are used regularly are reported as such, so that they can continue to be used, rather than closed off, and there are a couple between Quorn and Loughborough that are in danger of ceasing to be traversable.  

 

I admit I’m not one for big, crowded events, so standing at the edge of a marquee on the parish green, between the parish church and Fearon Hall, in Loughborough, I was probably the only person who was relieved that the 5,000 people who normally turn out for the Loughborough Mela, didn’t manage to make it this year. Having been cancelled last year, the event did go ahead this year, although on a somewhat smaller scale. This didn’t, however, make it any lesser an event than it usually is, and it was so exciting to be out and about, bumping into friends I hadn’t seen face2face in quite some time, and being entertained with music and dancing. Had I not been rushing back for Sunday lunch, I’d have tucked into some of the delicious food that was on offer, too! Anyway, I look forward to going again next year, probably as soon as the event opens, before it gets too busy!

 

And so, back to Quorn!!! Again by car, mostly down to lack of time, but also because I didn’t want to carry fold-up chairs a couple of miles!! The excitement this time came from listening to a concert performed by the Hathern Band in the park – an event that I always go to. Again, this didn’t happen last year, and in fact, this was only the second concert the band had done since March 2020, the first being only the previous weekend when they played at Oakham Park. So, as well as great music, it was also fab to be able to chat with friends both in the band and in the audience, and eat cake – and even the heavy downpour of rain couldn’t dampen the spirits!

 

I wonder what next weekend has in store for me?! Anyway, do pop back to the blog as it is regularly updated, and I just might be able to deliver that post about misplaced milestones soon …       

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough 24 August 2021

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2021). Loughborough Mela 2021 and other local events. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/08/loughborough-mela-and-other-local-events.html  [Accessed 24 August 2021]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

You can leave comments below, but do check back as my reply will appear here, below your comment.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne