Hovingham

After just one phone call the night before, from Elaine Broderick, my wife Gwyneth and I picked up Elaine in Richmond and headed for Hovingham. We arrived in good time and found "Jeans" Jeff already waiting for us in the village hall car park in this lovely village a few miles south of Helmsley.

On a beautiful sunny Bank Holiday Sunday morning, we expected soon to be joined by throngs of keen SOC walkers, but it was not to be. Bearing in mind the length of the journey for some people, we hung around until 10.10 and then the select band of just 4 of us set off.

Heading east from the village, we soon picked up the track which follows the route of the old branch line from the East Coast main line at Thirsk to Malton. The line operated from 1853 until closure in 1964. The station at Hovingham had been named "Hovingham Spa" in an effort to attract tourists to sample its spring waters, but this obviously wasn't enough to save it from Beeching's axe. After a couple of miles, we turned south to the village of Slingsby, passing the ruins of its castle among the trees. The castle was built in the 17th century by Sir Charles Cavendish, but never finished, as Sir Charles picked the wrong side - the Royalists - in the English Civil War, so was forced to flee to exile in Hamburg, and never returned.

After a coffee stop under the shade of a tree on the village green we crossed the Helmsley-Malton road and started the only significant up-hill stretch of the walk: up Slingsby Bank to join the Centenery Way path along the distinct ridge running along the South edge of Ryedale. Here woodland to the South provided welcome shade, while to the North we had good long range views of the North York Moors. Continuing East wonderful views soon opened up of the parkland of the Castle Howard estate, and the house itself in the distance.

A sharp right turn and a walk through shady woods, then open fields, brought us to the pretty and very affluent-looking little village of Coneysthorpe. When I'd approached the village on the reccie a few weeks before, I had come across a fox casually trotting along the path towards me, but he was nowhere to be seen today. Once again, a shady spot under a large tree on the village green was chosen for lunch. No convenient seating was provided here, so Gwyneth and Elaine picked up one of the bench seats on the green and carried it to their chosen spot. Jeff and I chose not to assist and to sit on the grass for fear of a reprimand from some over-zealous Parish Councillor.

After leaving Coneysthorpe we skirted the edge of the Castle Howard estate, with more views of the lake and house, and, after a short road stretch headed back North though more pleasant woodland towards Slingsby. When I'd reccied the walk I'd continued to the top of Slingsby Bank Wood from the other direction and then headed West through the woods at the top of the bank, but this path had proved rather dark and overgrown with nettles and brambles, and to-day two of us were in shorts! So this time we turned left before the wooded bank and walked though open country, in now quite hot sunshine, to pick up the Ebor Way path South of Hovingham. This well-used route didn't however prove nettle-free as Elaine and I found out on a short narrow stretch of path on the edge of a wood. Nevertheless, turning North again, we were soon on a good high level track with more fine views all round, and then, dropping down, our destination of Hovingham came again into view.

Here we found that the Malt Shovel pub was right next to the car park - surprise, surprise - so we enjoyed a welcome drink at an outside table, still in pleasant sunshine. It had been a very enjoyable day in a lovely part of Yorkshire. Just a pity that there weren't more of you there to enjoy it.

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Hovingham

Richard Wright