The 'Tour de Yorkshire' Is Coming To Doncaster

A short walk visiting the villages of Pickburn, Brodsworth, Hooton Pagnell, Stotfold, and Thurnscoe.

The 'Tour de Yorkshire' cycle race is coming to Doncaster on Saturday and I was hoping to walk through several of the pretty villages along part of the route. It's forecast to rain pretty much all day and so I decided to do the walk today. Unfortunately, after a glorious start, the weather deteriorated and by the time I got off the bus back in Doncaster Town Centre it was hailing, followed by sleet.

So...I only reached one of the villages along the route, Hooton Pagnell, one of my favourite places; it was bedecked with blue and yellow bunting and there were blue and yellow spray-painted cycles everywhere. I had great fun tracking them down; I photographed all of those I found and have included most. I had intended to keep a tally but I forgot to take pen and paper with me; I lost count in my head after two quite long conversations with a cyclist who was doing this stretch of the route in the reverse direction, and the jolly old lady who lives in Corner Cottage, possibly the most beautiful cottage in the village. 

I got off the bus at Pickburn and took a roundabout route using a couple of footpaths to reach Brodsworth.

I walked through the village and then took a footpath which zigzags up the hill to reach a field of rapeseed. The path continued in a straight line through the crop; it looked as though the path had only just been cleared by the farmer because there was a significant amount of stubble remaining. A field of rapeseed is not nice to have to walk through, it ruins your clothes with the oil and the unpleasant smell. I doubt this field would have presented a problem though since there was a fallow field only a few yards away which could be walked across.

There's a shallow valley across the middle of the field, interestingly the rapeseed on the south facing slope was in bloom and bright yellow, whereas the north facing slope wasn't. Fascinating...for me to observe anyhow.

More photographs of Hooton Pagnell now, this time not featuring any bikes.

  

I'd made an early start this morning and so although it was only eleven o'clock I ate my sandwiches sitting on the seat at the top of the steps which lead up to the church. You can see them in the bottom left corner of the final photograph.

I could see, and feel, the bad weather approaching, and so made a decision to cut the walk short and take the footpath to Thurnscoe to catch the bus back home.