Graveley, Yelling and Papworth St Agnes

Yelling's village sign, bordered with oak leaves, shows the church with farming and cricketing scenes. On top of the hill is the church of Holy Cross, which is mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Survey and features Norman arcades on the north side. Every spring, a daffodil festival is held in the thatched barn at Church Farm, one of several 17th-century houses in Yelling.

Leaving the shelter of the village, the breezy hills — brown-coloured in autumn and green in spring before the gold of the corn — are crossed. The path leads to tiny Papworth St Agnes, almost derelict in the mid-1970s. Since then, old cottages have been restored and new houses built. The 19th-century church, stone and flint-chequered, is protected by the Friends of Friendless Churches.

There is another grass meadow to cross, full of moats and strange humps where old habitations once stood. Finally, on the return to Graveley, the arable fields open out again and the skies above look far and wide.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.