Boots were made for walking

Written by Dave Askew

People simply do not believe me when I say that, from my home in East Hunsbury, I can walk to London, Birmingham, Leicester and the Wash without touching any major roads.

As Northamptonshire Walks we take roughly 450 people a month on our free Group Walks all over our beautiful County, but one of the most popular we do is actually ‘my doorstep’ walk. We’ve even had people come from as far away as Spalding to join us. What they cannot fathom is how they can walk for over two hours through beautiful, and varied, parks with incredible history, peace and wildlife, whilst being in a large housing development.

We call it the Hunsbury Pocket Park Walk and I’ve attached the link so you can try it yourselves. Starting outside the Collingtree pub in Butts Road we pass through to Penvale Park and then into

Grange Wood Park, which, I have to admit, is my “go to” park at all times of the year. It doesn’t matter how many times you walk there, you’ll always see something different… the snowdrops that give way to the daffodils and then the incredible carpets of bluebells in May. And, depending on the time you visit, the birdsong. Keep your eyes open for woodpeckers, jays, nuthatches and tree creepers, plus of course all those nosy squirrels and foxes and deer.

And don’t just stick to the main paths… explore some of the hidden little trails too. Back out of the woods have you ever stopped near the play area to look at the incredible variety of trees? Having lived here for 35 years, this year I discovered there are two walnut trees, both laden with nuts!

Our walk then crosses into West Hunsbury with its incredible fort before dropping down and passing Shelfleys Lake and following the river, before crossing back into our Parish once more.

Dave Askew has lived in Northamptonshire for over forty years and has always had a keen interest in walking, photography, nature and local history. In 2013, after experiencing a health scare, he decided to start the walking blog northamptonshirewalks.co.uk to share his love for walking in Northamptonshire. The blog quickly took off and today his website has more than 200 walks he’s done in Northamptonshire on it, plus another 165 outside the County, including those from his travels all over the world. In 2022 alone it received more than 1 million views!

In May 2022 he started taking people on Group Walks and now runs around 23 per month, for roughly 500 people. All the Group Walks are totally free, but you can make a donation to the day-to-day expenses if you’ve had a great time.

The Northamptonshire Walks Facebook Group has become recognised as a highly positive and supportive community that grew at an incredible

We are so lucky to have all of this on our doorsteps. Here’s that walk… https://northamptonshirewalks.co.uk/about/ walk-188-hunsbury-pocket-parks-bluebell-walk/ rate throughout the Covid pandemic and currently stands at almost 30,000 members (all with some link to Northamptonshire). You may have seen one of the 700+ Northamptonshire Walks hoodies and polo shirts out on the footpaths!

Over 200 walks we have undertaken in Northamptonshire can be found at northamptonshirewalks.co.uk plus all the links to our social media groups.

Dave can be heard regularly on BBC Radio Northampton and has appeared on both BBC and ITV television. He also writes articles for many local magazines and has featured more than once in the Daily Telegraph, promoting Northamptonshire’s hidden secrets. He’s also available for talks.

Dave has won several awards for the help his website and social media has given to people, all of which is done purely as a hobby. Indeed the Group was privileged to receive ‘The Together’ award at the BBC Make a Difference Awards and, more recently a ‘Highly Commended' Award from the Countryside Charity Campaign to Protect Rural England.

As Dave always says...”If just one of my walks has helped just one person, then it’s all been worthwhile.”