Where Is That Bloody Book?

It's been a while since my last blog, but I have been busy, not just looking after the chickens you understand, I've been exploring the world of South Kesteven! For those of you that are non the wiser, South Kesteven is a district in South Lincolnshire and probably one of the great undiscovered areas of the country.

I do enjoy my walking, but let's get it out there straight away, Lincolnshire, doesn't have mountains or the rugged landscape enjoyed by other areas of the country, it does however, have some beautiful countryside for you to enjoy. It was once said that "any fool can appreciate mountain scenery, but it takes a man of discernment to appreciate the Fens". So without a doubt this walk will appeal to everyone reading this blog!

The world is a small place, little did I realise when I decided to walk the 130 mile South Kesteven Round (SKR), that the creator of the walk and author of the book to support it was the Stepfather of a friend of mine in the village where I live. We discovered this connection when I'd found Robert (found as in through research, he wasn't lost meandering around the South Kesteven countryside) and we'd met in a lovely real ale pub in Castle Bytham to discuss all things SKR.  

I'd dropped across the book of the South Kesteven Round a bit by accident, in fact I'd acquired it through ebay as the book is no longer in print, paying double the face value only to find it had a university library stamp on the inside cover. I think that is what's loosely called entrepreneurship. The book sat around for a while, I'd dipped in a few times, but never got going and eventually the book, maybe feeling a bit unloved, found a place somewhere out of sight, waiting for that moment of rediscovery.

Having completed the 290 mile coast to coast Macmillan Way in 2019 I was looking for a new walking challenge in 2020, little did I know at that stage that lockdown meant the furthest I was going to walk was around my garden twice a day! It suddenly came to mind that I had a book about a continuous walk around the South Kesteven area, but where was it? I described it to my wife to see if she might have seen it, I mean if it wasn't right in front of me, she must have tidied it up somewhere, right? I'm not sure if it's a man thing or not, but I'm useless at finding stuff, I mean the thing I'm looking for could be in my hand, but I just wouldn't see it. So after a couple of days of huffing and puffing and to be honest a pathetic attempt at trying to find the book, my wife gave in and asked what it was I was looking for. But even after her patient and methodical search and rescue attempt, the book remained elusive. "Don't worry, it'll turn up" were her very wise words, but at that stage this statement was like a red rag to a bull and things started to head downhill. Thinly veiled accusations that she had probably thrown it out were voiced, I mean it was more of a domestic than grounds for divorce but you get the gist. After a further few days, as is usually the case, my wife was proved right, and the book did indeed re appear, in my bedside cabinet. Well for certain I hadn't put it there! 

Holywell

Anyway, the book found I could now start the exciting bit of planning the walk. Not only does the book contain the walk description, but it is also packed with information about the history of South Kesteven. Don't get me wrong this is no geeks history trail, but I never realised how steeped in history the area is. As the walk unfolds you can't help but be surprised and impressed by the influence through the ages that the people and places of South Kesteven, have had. So I thought I'd do some Googling to find out what people thought of the walk, but nothing came up. I checked if it was mentioned on South Kesteven tourist sites as a way to attract visitors into the undiscovered Lincolnshire countryside, but no, nothing! 

I couldn't help but think there was something in this walk for everyone, Whether you live in the South Kesteven area and want to explore and discover more about where you live or if you are looking for a walking holiday in the unspoilt Lincolnshire countryside. I really liked the way the walk had been put together, with small local walks building to bigger sections leading to the full 130 mile round. So if you are looking for a gentle Sunday meander that ends up in one of the great village pubs (and why wouldn't you!), you'll find a walk here, or you are wanting to do the full walk but in manageable chunks you can, it's really up to you. So I decided if I was going to do this walk, there had to be an opportunity to bring it back to life and share it more widely, making it available for everyone to enjoy as Robert had originally intended.   

So I made contact with the team at Discover South Kesteven and met with them in February 2020. They were keen to share the walk on their website, but ideally wanted a link to a site of the walk. Mmmmm well, yes I'm sure I can do that, how difficult can it be to build a website? I think I said at the time that I thought I could do the whole thing in a couple of months. Maybe in retrospect it was a slightly optimistic and little did I know that in about 6 weeks time no one would be walking anywhere. 

Castle Mound at Castle Bytham

There was also the small problem of finding Robert to make sure he was happy for me to use his material and publish the walk on a website. Where do you start? I'd never had to try and locate someone before, but it looks quite easy when you see someone doing it on a television crime drama. I guess I did what most people would do and entered his name into a Google search. After a bit of digging around I hit the jackpot as it turned out that Robert was linked to an educational establishment, and after a few emails I was in touch. We arranged to meet in Castle Bytham, which by the way is on the route of the walk and did indeed have a Castle. The Castle was built in Norman times, before that the village was called West Bytham, on so many occasions you find a village name giving you a clue to its history or location. The Castle is long gone now, but the 90ft  mound on which it stood is still very much there. 

I met Robert in the Castle Pub and over a couple of pints he told me about the background to creating the Round. He had always had a passion for walking and had completed some long distance walks such as the Viking Way, Pennine Way and South West Peninsular walk. Then after completing both the Leicestershire and Rutland Round he wondered why there was no such path around the South Kesteven. So he decided to create the South Kesteven Round, which would connect the Market towns of Grantham, Stamford, Bourne and Market Deeping as well as passing through 42 lovely villages. Robert talked about what started simply as a desire to create a continuous walk quickly became a labour of love as he started to research the villages he visited realising how steeped in history the area was. As the evening ended Robert said he was delighted with the renewed interest in his walk and kindly agreed to let me use his hard work to share on a website.

So that was it, all set and ready to go with my next epic walking adventure, this time with the additional feature of building a website. What could possibly get in the way? 

Coming next - in my next blog I will take you through some of the discoveries I make along the way and my attempts to build a website of the walk.

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