The forecast rain didn’t materialise so we had a dry if slightly grey walk from Upton House, which is on the Edge Hill escarpment, of Civil War Battle fame.

Leaving Upton House we soon were walking through a large bean field, but we saw lots of sky larks who were in full liquid song.

We soon turned along the Macmillan Way (named after the cancer charity) which went through a lovely peaceful valley. In fact it was so relaxing I forgot to take any pictures until later.

We soon arrived at the picturesque Shenington where we distributed ourselves around the village green for lunch. We were buzzed by gliders coming in low to land at the nearby gliding club.

We then passed by the gliding club and stopped to watch a launch. What we learned was that the pilots were extremely fussy about window cleaning, it takes about 15 opening and closings of the canopy before you are ready to launch. This club launches by winch so eventually when they were ready the glider was pulled up in the air after a very short trundle along the ground, perhaps only 20 metres. It was all so quick and fascinating I again forgot to take any pictures of the take-off, though Anna rescued me, with a great picture of the glider shooting upwards. We later got to see that the bag attached to the cable was a parachute for when it was released.

We then circled around and walked along the top of the escarpment, a pleasant wooded path that opened up to a vista across the wide valley below. This was the view of the general area of the Battle of Edge Hill (Sunday, 23 October 1642, between King Charles I’s army and the Parliamentarian Army, the first major battle of the English Civil War). Unfortunately the information sign was too weathered to be of use.

We then returned to Upton House, where some of us took advantage of a cup of tea and a chance to see the gardens before returning. An easy 7 mile walk, with great English countryside scenery. Thanks to Robert for leading!