northernvicarwalks – April 2021

I am sorry the blog has been ignored for ages. People make comments, which I read, but I cannot see how I get those comments on to the pages so you can read them. (I’ve just wasted an hour trying to find out – can anyone help?).

We did Holy Week on Zoom (getting far more people for Compline than when we’ve done it in the buildings) and then opened both churches for Easter Sunday morning. We asked people to book so we didn’t have too many in church – Dave Walker in the Church Times summed this Easter up.

It was good to be back, even though I have obviously put on weight.

We had snow on Easter Tuesday (which was a shock to the Magnolia tree in the garden), went to Calke Abbey, Renishaw Gardens, Hardwick Hall and Belton House.

I also decided I’d make a start on travelling all the British Rail network again. The first time I finished just before my 40th birthday, ending at Heysham Harbour station. For my fortieth Gareth bought me a new edition of “Baker’s Rail Atlas” in which he had written “Can you do it again before you pop your clogs?” The answer was “yes”. On Sunday 18 April the East Midlands Railway services between Norwich and Liverpool, which usually go from Chesterfield into Sheffield, then reverse out to go along the Hope Valley to Stockport, were avoiding Sheffield by using the curve from Dore South Junction to Dore West Junction. I have never been able to do that curve – but succeeded. That seemed a good time to start.

Later in the month we managed Bramhall near Stockport and Baddesley Clinton near Stratford.

I only walked 63 miles in the month, but I continued daily facebook posts.

This entry was posted in 1,000 mile walking, Railway interest. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *