Kimnot one

Verified Slow Way

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I walked Kimberley to Nottingham. No stiles no gates and a good surface on the countryside section. Safe road crossing at busy locations. While the section out of Kimberley offers some countryside it does involve a climb to achieve the good views. As noted the footpath at Swingate is pointless and the there and back is greater than the plot records so stay on the track which is adopted highway.

The Mulberry Tree Cafe at Strelley Hall was open, 9.30 to 4pm seven days stated the sign while the Broad Oak had a board stating opens at 11am but the doors were still closed approaching noon.

From here it's road walking, some quiet side streets where pavements are for parking, not people. Looks like it could use the park at Bilborough coming out of Denewood Crescent. From here the roads get busier but there are shops and services along the way and buses should you be tempted to take the easy option.

Walked from Nottingham to Kimberley. A good, direct route that is easy to follow, but an awful lot of it is on pavements, and it might be possible to design a greener alternative, though the options for doing that without a significant increase in distance are rather limited.

Leaving the Council House in Nottingham, we cross the Market Square and tramlines and walk up Angel Row and the pedestrianed Chapel Bar to the roundabout, where we cross to the right side of Derby Road using pelican crossings. At Canning Circus we continue half right onto Alfreton Road, which we follow for some distance, past Gregory and Radford Boulevards and over the railway bridge to the junction with Aspley Lane, where we turn left along a wide tree-lined road. We cross the ring road at another pelican crossing and proceed into Aspley, eventually turning left down Glencairn Drive and right on Kingsbury Drive past the modern catholic church and the schools associated with it. We go right at Beechdale Road and left along Denewood Crescent to Chingford Road. At Wigman Road we cross and head straight on, then right along Melford Road, which leads to a green space where we join Strelley Road, crossing Bilborough Road and continuing into Strelley, an interesting old village with a pub. Part of the pavement of Main Street is very old, belonging to the historic Monks Way.

We follow Main Street to the M1 bridge, which we cross and then turn left. At the end of the first field we turn right and follow a good but partly unsurfaced path into Swingate. There is a minor error on the GPX file approaching Swingate village - it is easier to stay on the Swingate road rather than following the Robin Hood way straight on, and it is not possible to proceed straight on through the houses as the map shows.

We follow Swingate and High Street over the A610 and stay on High Street where the main road goes right onto Green Lane. We turn right into James Street which leads to the Kimberley meeting point.

This is a functional route. By nature of the start and finish there is a lot of roadside walking. I started at Kimberley. The first 3 miles to Strelley include the quiet roads leaving Kimberley, through Swingate and over the countryside to Strelley. There is a short section where the route leaves Swingate where we follow a narrow muddy path (but this can be avoided by sticking to the road to reach the same place). There is a tea-room at Strelley Hall and and we pass the Broad Oak pub. The next section from crossing the western ring road through the Broxtowe / Strelley estates is on the pavements of quiet residential roads. Once we get to Aspley Lane there are a variety of shops and we're on bus routes. From here into the city is straight forward navigationally, on the pavements of busy roads converging in the city centre. I would say that the first three miles were worth a 4 stars, scenically, but overall it is a functional rather than an enjoyable route. There were no steps and the surfaces were all firm (except the short section of muddy path near Swingate).

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