Wistow ~ Medium Walk

Distance Covered: 7 miles Time to Complete Walk 3 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A great walk for getting those steps in or taking your dog for a long walk. Starting from the village of Wistow make your way through fields to the village of Cawood and then a long walk on the embankment of the River Ouse. Due to the long distance this is classed as a Medium Walk but the route is easy to follow and navigational skills are not really required.

Virus Awareness: No issues

General Safety Tips: Check for any increase in the level of the River Ouse before you start the walk. Part of the route is on a fairly quiet road - walk facing the traffic and on the grass verge where possible. A long of part of the walk is on the river embankment which is exposed to the elements. Take sunscreen or wrap up depending on the weather.

The Wistow Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough, head onto the A19 to reach the M1 southbound to junction 42. Join the A63 and then turn left onto the A162. Drive through South Milford and then turn right onto the B1222 which leads to the village of Wistow. Parking can be found on where the road widens just on the outskirts of Wistow on Marsh Lane and is free of charge. If full there is another car park further on, shortly after on your right. 

Maps of the Wistow Walk

The Walk

From the car park head to the right back into Wistow.

Turn into a road with double no entry signs.

Walk past the church on your right.

Pass the Black Swan pub on your left.

Turn left onto Station Road

At the next junction head right

Head down the road keeping to the verge when possible.

After a while when the road bends to the left keep ahead onto a track.

Follow the track ahead

Look for a signpost shortly and head to the right.

In this field head half left to the end of the hedge crossing a ditch

Go straight ahead with another ditch on your right. Look for a footbridge and cross over it to the other side.

On the other side turn left and head down until you come to another footbridge. Turn left and cross over the footbridge.

Go straight ahead in the field with the hedge on your right.

In the next field keep ahead towards the gate in the hedge on your left.

Go through the gate and keep straight ahead in the next field towards the brick house.

Turn right when you come to the road.

Shortly after you pass the house, turn left onto a path.

Cross over a footbridge.

Turn right and head down the field edge with the hedge to your right

Follow the path until you come to a road

Turn right and keep to the grass verge facing the traffic and follow the road into the village of Cawood.

Arriving in the village keep straight ahead at the roundabout

When you come to a fenced area on the road, cross over to the other side and follow the side lane ahead.

Follow the road as it passed the beautiful church in Cawood.

Pass the church and keep ahead on the road. Look for a stile to your left and head towards the river.

Reaching the river turn right and follow the grassy embankment for just over three miles.

Follow the river embankment as it twists and turns with the river. Look for a building on your right and then turn right on to the path just beyond it.

Turn left and keep on the path when you come to a car park.

Follow the track back to your car.

Wistow

Wistow is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Wistow lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north-east of Huntingdon, near Warboys. Wistow is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.

Wistow has also been known as:

• Wystowe (10th century, 12th century),
• Kingestune (id est Wistow 10th century),
• Kingestune (11th century).

Wistow is a small, rural village located in a small secluded valley off the Ramsey to St. Ives road, through which runs Bury Brook. Wistow is a farming community that has grown up around the central features of its church and manor house.

In 1085 William the Conqueror ordered that a survey should be carried out across his kingdom to discover who owned which parts and what it was worth. The survey took place in 1086 and the results were recorded in what, since the 12th century, has become known as the Domesday Book. Starting with the king himself, for each landholder within a county there is a list of their estates or manors; and, for each manor, there is a summary of the resources of the manor, the amount of annual rent that was collected by the lord of the manor both in 1066 and in 1086, together with the taxable value.

Wistow was listed in the Domesday Book in the Hundred of Hurstingstone in Huntingdonshire; the name of the settlement was written as Wistou in the Domesday Book. In 1086 there was just one manor at Wistow; the annual rent paid to the lord of the manor in 1066 had been £9 and the rent had fallen to £8 in 1086.

The Domesday Book does not explicitly detail the population of a place but it records that there were 33 households at Wistow. There is no consensus about the average size of a household at that time; estimates range from 3.5 to 5.0 people per household. Using these figures then an estimate of the population of Wistow in 1086 is that it was within the range of 115 and 165 people.

The Domesday Book uses a number of units of measure for areas of land that are now unfamiliar terms, such as hides and ploughlands. In different parts of the country, these were terms for the area of land that a team of eight oxen could plough in a single season and are equivalent to 120 acres (49 hectares); this was the amount of land that was considered to be sufficient to support a single family. By 1086, the hide had become a unit of tax assessment rather than an actual land area; a hide was the amount of land that could be assessed as £1 for tax purposes. The survey records that there were thirteen ploughlands at Wistow in 1086 and that there was the capacity for a further three ploughlands. In addition to the arable land, there was 24 acres (10 hectares) of meadows, 1,892 acres (766 hectares) of woodland and a water mill at Wistow.

The tax assessment in the Domesday Book was known as geld or danegeld and was a type of land-tax based on the hide or ploughland. It was originally a way of collecting a tribute to pay off the Danes when they attacked England, and was only levied when necessary. Following the Norman Conquest, the geld was used to raise money for the King and to pay for continental wars; by 1130, the geld was being collected annually. Having determined the value of a manor's land and other assets, a tax of so many shillings and pence per pound of value would be levied on the land holder. While this was typically two shillings in the pound the amount did vary; for example, in 1084 it was as high as six shillings in the pound. For the manor at Wistow the total tax assessed was nine geld.

By 1086 there was already a church and a priest at Wistow.

Langsett Reservoir ~ Easy Walk

Distance Covered:  3.5 miles Time to Complete Walk: 2 hours

Suitable for dog walking: Yes

A great walk to complete after a Sunday lunch, very popular with the good folk of South Yorkshire and beyond! Situated on the edge of the Peak District the walk travels the boundaries of the reservoir and then onto the moors and back to the reservoir again. Parking is free at the Langsett Barn car park and it can get busy at the weekend. 

General Safety Tips: It can get muddy after rain - take a walking stick and sturdy boots. The open moorland part of the walk is exposed to the elements - wrap up well! There is a brief climb onto the moors.

The Langsett Reservoir Walk

Getting There

From Middlesbrough follow the A19 to the M1 southbound towards Leeds. Leave the M1 at Junction 37 just outside Barnsley. Follow the Whitby Road onto the A628 which goes through an industrial estate and then towards the reservoir. The car park is a right turning and is well signposted. There is a cafe called the Bank View Cafe for refreshments after the walk.

Map of the Langsett Reservoir walk

The Walk

Start the walk by heading to the south of the car park near a display notice and past the picnic tables.

Head down the path which leads to the edge of the reservoir.

Make your way along the edge of the reservoir which continues for some time with great views of the reservoir along the way.

Eventually the path climbs up and then down on the left towards a bridge. 

Cross over Brookhouse Bridge.

You need to head left but the gate may be padlocked so instead go through the gate on your right and double back onto the path on the right.

Follow the path ahead which bends around to the top.

At the top, head onto the open Moors with great views of the reservoir below.

At the top of the moor follow the path as it descends to the left.

The path is an easy route to follow as it gradually descends passing the remnants of the North America farm.

Head through a gate.

Follow the stony path down and cross over a stream.

Turn left and follow the path ahead

Head through a gate

Keep on the main path and go through another gate.

Keep ahead on the road until you come to a vehicle barrier

Straight after the vehicle barrier head left up a path to some buildings.

When you come to a road at the top, turn left and follow the road.

Almost immediately, turn right and follow the track ahead.

When you come to a road, turn left and follow the road as it bends to the left.

Keep on the road as it passes the reservoir on your left.

After you cross the reservoir, look for a building with a signpost to your left.

Turn left and follow the path and go through a gap in the wall

Go through the gap in the wall and turn right and head back to the car park

Langsett Reservoir

Langsett Reservoir is in Yorkshire, England, near the villages of Langsett and Upper Midhope, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The reservoir was constructed between 1898 and 1904, and is now managed by Yorkshire Water. Fed by the Little Don or Porter River, it is around a mile long, and supplies water for Sheffield and Barnsley via the Langsett Treatment Works

Construction of the reservoir began in 1898, the logistics of getting the workforce and materials to Langsett caused great difficulty as most of them came up from Sheffield. This involved a journey over four different stretches of railway line, the first leg was from Sheffield Midland Station to Deepcar, this was followed by a journey to Stocksbridge on the Samuel Fox and Company private line. From the Samuel Fox steelworks a new one mile long line was built to reach the Underbank Reservoir to join up with the Water Authority track up to Langsett Reservoir.

The reservoir is 125 acres (51 hectares) in area with a depth of 97 feet and has a holding capacity of 1,408 million gallons, making it the largest of the water supply reservoirs in the immediate Sheffield district. The catchment area is the Langsett Moors to the west and this covers an area of 5,203 acres (2,105 hectares). The embankment is 1,156 feet (352 metres) long with a height of 117 feet (35 metres) from the bottom of the old river bed. The embankment is 720 feet (219 metres) wide at the bottom tapering to 36 feet (11 metres) at the top and contains 900,000 cubic yards of infill in the puddle wall and concrete trench, making it one of the largest earth embankments in Great Britain. The minor road (Midhope Cliff Lane) which runs across the embankment is thought to be the longest single carriageway of any reservoir in Great Britain. The embankment road has a sharp bend in it as it joins the A616 main road, this was a last minute change in construction plans, as keeping it straight would have meant the demolition of the Waggon and Horses public house. The reservoir was completed in 1904 when Alderman T.R. Gainsford closed the valve in the Langsett tower and the reservoir started to fill up, he was then presented with a golden key by the engineer William Watts.

Local depopulation was used in the early part of the twentieth century to improve the water purity, and six farms were abandoned these included Brookhouse farm and North America farm, the last farmer left around 1907. The ruins of North America remain to the south-west of the reservoir even though it was used for target practice during the Second World War. In 1962 conifers were planted around the reservoir as shown on the map, with the aim of providing a habitat for many species of indigenous wildlife. This plantation is called Langsett Woods. In recent years the woods have been restructured with most of the coniferous trees being felled and being replaced by oak and birch trees in an effort to create a new upland oak woodland. In 2007 a pond was created near Brookhouse Bridge at the western end of the reservoir to help dragonflies, frogs, newts and toads establish new colonies.The Pennine peaks of Pike Lowe (478 m) and Hingcliff Common (358 m) lie to the south and south-west of the reservoir, respectively. The area is used for sheep farming and grouse shooting, and it is popular with walkers,mountain bikers and bird watchers with treecreepers, woodpeckers and owls to be seen in the vicinity.