Melcol three

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Melcol here.

Walked from Colsterworth to Melton. Most of this route is good and fairly easy to walk. There is mud in places and a few sections of road walking, all of which are either very quiet or have verges or pavements.

From Colsterworth, we start through the churchyard then use School Lane to cross the Witham. A fenced track between houses leads to Old Post Lane, where we turn right then walk through Woolsthorpe, passing the entrance to Woolsthorpe Manor (Isaac Newton's house). Once out of the village we are on a quiet road with good verges. Skillington Road is also safe to walk on for the same reasons.

We then turn right on a little used but well signposted field path. The section past and through Stanton Wood is not quite as per the right of way but is fairly easy to follow, and we soon reach The Drift, where we turn left. The road into Buckminster is a little less pleasant to walk on, but there is a verge that can be used if necessary.

There is a pub and a village shop in Buckminster - we are not in the middle third yet but this may be your last chance for refreshments before we reach Melton. We turn right at the end of the village then turn left on a path which is mostly a good farm track (plenty of puddles) but the last field has to be crossed and the exit may need careful navigation to find. We cross another field to return to the B676, then use a surfaced minor road and a semi-surfaced track to reach Coston. There is a short section of road walking here that needs a little care.

Where the road bends left we take the track straight on. This starts surfaced but the final field crosssing is a little wet and muddy. We reach a T junction where we join a better track left and follow it out to Gipsy Nook. Beyond, there is a farm lane all the way to Grange Farm, but the middle section is unsurfaced, rutted and muddy, and it is not as straight as the right of way circles suggest. Beyond the farm the lane is surfaced, and leads to Freeby village where we continue up past the church. There is a small shelter with a bench here.

Having tried the shortcut path opposite and found it blocked by new fences around a horse pasture, I returned to Freeby Lane, which is quiet. Saxby Road is busier, but has a useable if narrow verge on the north side. We then cross a large sheep pasture to reach Wyfordby and follow a very quiet road into Brentingby.

The path ahead starts through a farm yard - here I made the mistake of underestimating the depth of the mud (mostly cowpats) around a parked tractor. There are footpath signs but they are not really unambiguous. Once in the fields the going is easy and the waymarks are good, though the path diverges a little from the right of way line in places.

We return to Saxby Lane just before it crosses the line of the new Melton by-pass, which is under construction and a massive scar on the landscape, so a road is the easiest line through it (Lag Lane has been obliterated). There is a pavement before long on the north side, and the rest of the walk into Melton is a simple pavement walk with pelican crossings at the main road junctions.

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