Tockwith ~ Easy Walk

Distance Covered: 5 miles Time to Complete Walk 2.5 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

Outside York, the lovely village of Tockwith is the destination for this walk. An ideal walk to do after a Sunday Lunch or to take your furry friends for a nice walk. Very easy to navigate the walk is mainly on country lanes and on the river embankment. Tockwith is a perfect village with two pubs, a beautiful church and the village itself will leave you envious of its residents!

General Safety Tips: No issues - a very safe walk!

The Tockwith Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough, follow the A19 to join the M1 southbound. Join the A59 heading towards York. Look for a right turn onto Cattal Street. Follow this and look for a left turn onto Cattal Moor Lane. Finally, turn left onto Fleet Lane and head into Tockwith. Parking is on the roadside near the church.

Maps of the Tockwith Walk

The Walk

From the roadside near the beautiful church (well worth a visit), head out of Tockwith, following the road as it bends into Fleet Lane, and take a right turn onto Ness Lane.

Follow Ness Lane until you come to another turn off to the left which is Whinnythwaite Lane. Follow this until you come to a barn.

Turn right and follow the grass track to a kissing gate on your left.

Follow the grass track to another kissing gate in the right corner of the field.

Turn right and go forward slightly and then head to the left straight across the field towards a tree.

Soon you come to another kissing gate which leads up to the embankment to the River Nidd. Turn right and follow the grass track on the embankment.

Follow the track as it bends with the river and over a stile.

Keeping on the track go through a kissing gate and over a stile.

Soon you come to an old mill over the other side of the river to your left. Go over the stile and keep ahead until you come to a branch in the path.

Take the left branch in the track and head towards a gravel path.

Go through a gate and onto the gravel path and turn left.

Follow the gravel path as it bends and arrives at a tarmac road. Turn right onto the road.

Follow this path until you come to another path to your left which is Moor Lane.

Follow Moor Lane until you come to another road. Turn right onto Kendall Lane.

Follow this lane until passing houses until you come to the main road into Tockwith.

Turn right and follow the road back into Tockwith and your car. 

Tockwith

Tockwith is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England, near the town of Wetherby and the city of York. There has been a village on the site since at least 1086 when Tocvi was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tockwith's greatest claim to fame is being used as a staging post by Oliver Cromwell prior to the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. He made reference to Tockwith in his diaries, in which he said: "If heaven should be half as blessed as the fields of Tockwith, all those who should pass St. Peter's Gate shall be met with joys unequalled".

The name Tockwith may derive from the Old English name Toc(c), and wic, which is most commonly interpreted as 'dairy farm'. The word wic was later exchanged for the Scandinavian word við(r) meaning 'wood'. The name of the village is recorded in a number of forms:

Tockwith played a major part in the English Civil War during the 17th century when the village was occupied by the Parliamentarian army commanded by Thomas Fairfax. In 1644, the Battle of Marston Moor occurred on the land between Tockwith and Long Marston. A stone monument on the road between the two villages commemorates the site. Cromwell mentioned the village favourably in his diaries; "If heaven should be half as blessed as the fields of Tockwith, all those who should pass St. Peter's Gate shall be met with joys unequalled".

RAF Tockwith was opened on the western edge of the village in November 1941. Most Royal Air Force bases are named after the parish in which their headquarters are located in, but to prevent confusion with RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk, the base was named RAF Marston Moor.