Ecton and Butterton Walk

As it was to be the best day of the weekend we chose to walk today. 

We have numerous books on walks, and walks taken from newspapers and magazines, so choice is not a problem. Finding quieter routes at the weekends can be. Today we chose well. Although we started at Hulme End on the Manifold Track, we were soon off this main walking and cycling route and completely on our own. Bliss!

There was a sponsored walk on starting from Hulme End in aid of meningitis, so we did meet up with these walkers a couple of times.

We passed a curious house called Radcliffe's Folly, built by Arthur Radcliffe a local Conservative MP. It has spires and battlements......?

This route then took us up over Ecton Hill. This area had been extensively mined for copper. We passed an 3 storey building which was once a pub called Pepper Inn to quench the miners thirsts.

We then walked along a small valley between the Wetton Hills to Wettonmill, where we stopped for a quick coffee.

Our next stop was the village of Butterton, where one of my friend's family is from. We sat in the churchyard, under a yew tree for shade, while we had lunch. Butterton is a doubly thankful village. This means that all members of the armed forces from the village survived both World Wars.

Our return leg included walking through the village of Warslow, and  fighting our way through some very thorny shrubbery (!) before rejoining the Manifold Track for a short while before we reached Hulme End again.

A very satisfying 9 miles. We encountered these belted galloways not far from Wettonmill, all squashed in one end of their field.