25-Nov-2021
Newark folk (well, the ones I know anyway...) talk about going round Hawton and Farndon when they mean going the long way to get to somewhere, as opposed to taking the direct route.
But going round Hawton and Farndon is actually a very pleasant thing to do...
Farndon is about 3 km from Newark. We've walked the river here before, but it's always worth a return trip:
Clapper gates. Apparently, they're "unique to the navigable reaches of the River Trent"
There's always something interesting in the marina...
Staythorpe power station
Averham Weir
No fisherpersons that day
Bit by bit we're notching up the km signs on the River Trent
The river was alive with geese that day
New to me was Farndon village itself:
The autumn colour is still fantastic
St Peter's. The current construction dates back to Elizabethan times, but there have been churches on this site probably since the 11th century
New to us both was the Willow Holt, "one of the few remaining survivors of the working willow holts that were a feature of many Trentside villages". Basket-weaving, it seems, was a well-known traditional industry in these parts.
I had no idea there were so many kinds of willow...
Even closer to home is Hawton, a tiny village that is primarily famous for the Easter Sepulchre housed within its parish church, All Saints. We have yet to see inside, but it's another very attractive building, the earliest part of which dates back to the 13th century.
A return visit to Hawton today, the first cold day of the season...