The walk starts from Harby Church. The parish church of All Saints, Harby, was consecrated by the Bishop of Nottingham in August 1877. It is in the Early English style and consists of chancel, nave, north chapel (used as a vestry) and organ chamber, south porch, tower, and 120-foot (36.5-metre) high spire. It was built in local Lincoln Heath stone, and above the east-facing tower door there is a statue of Queen Eleanor. There is also a plaque in the church marking her death in 1290.
From the start, the walk takes you through Harby village. The manor house of Richard de Weston, where Queen Eleanor died, has gone, but there is a small section of the moat in the field next to the churchyard. The original chapel that Edward I built to his Queen's memory has also gone, but two items still remain in the parish church: the plain Norman doorway to the vestry and the 14th-century font.
From Harby, the route takes you along the green lane known locally as Clay Lane, across intensively farmed land. After barely one mile, the lane crosses the trackbed of a disused railway line. The ambitious Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway Company was formed in 1891. This was rather later than the great days of the railway, and although the company kept its title, it was never to reach either Lancashire or the East Coast before it was taken over by the Great Central Railway Company. The central section of the line, from Lincoln to Chesterfield, was opened in 1897. The line, which was 55 miles long, cost £2,500,000 to build; originally there were stations at Harby and Skellingthorpe.
After a further mile, during which time you cross from Nottinghamshire into Lincolnshire, the walk arrives at Skellingthorpe Woods, once owned by the Forestry Commission and designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is a mixed woodland with conifer plantations. Birds include breeding whitethroat, chiffchaff, and willow warbler. There are many wildflowers, including stitchwort, bluebell, and selfheal, which attract butterflies and other insects, and the snuffle of hedgehogs can be heard in the undergrowth. Much of the land around this area, particularly the woodlands, forms part of the Doddington Hall estate.
From the woods, a green lane takes you to Doddington. In Anglo-Saxon times, the village name was derived from "town or settlement of Dodings". It was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1085 under the heading "Land of St Peter's Abbey, Westminster" as the manor of Doddington. Its distance from Westminster caused it to fall into the hands of the Pigot family from the end of the 12th century until the late 15th century. Subsequently, the manor and land were kept by several other families until the 19th century, when the present owners of Doddington Hall, the Jarvis family, acquired the estate.
The parish church of St Peter was also mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the present church stands on the original site. The circular font from around the mid-13th century still remains, and the nave and east window date from the late 14th century, with some rebuilding taking place during the 18th century.
Doddington Hall is one of the most beautiful Elizabethan mansions in England. It was completed in 1600 by the architect Robert Smythson, and the outside looks just as it did then. Inside, it has elegant Georgian rooms containing fine furniture, pictures, textiles, and porcelain, reflecting over 400 years of continuous occupation. There are formal walled knot gardens with a courtyard entered through a Tudor gatehouse, rose and shrub gardens, a turf maze, wild gardens, bulbs, and fine trees, alongside several nature trails.
The route takes you across the Doddington Hall estate, with views of the hall and then over arable fields, to return to the starting point of the walk in Harby village. Not far from the finish — perhaps half a mile — you cross back into Nottinghamshire after your brief exploration of the western extremity of Lincolnshire.
