After the attack from the elements that DVWG suffered last time out today’s 7.6 mile walk from the picturesque village of Heath was the complete opposite with an abundance of spring-like sunshine making this a very nice walk.

Setting off from the village car park we passed the site of Heath old hall and then followed the towpath of the Aire & Calder Navigation towards Stanley Ferry, pausing for a break at the Shanti Tea Boat which was moored on the stretch before the marina.

After passing Stanley Ferry we continued along the towpath before taking a footpath southwards along field edges to Top Farm. After crossing the road we continued along a bridleway, being forced to avoid our planned route passed the remains of Newland Hall due to footpath flooding, and eventually emerged at St Peter the Apostle Church at Kirkthorpe where we were enlightened by Andrea Turner and Neil Holland to the presence of the graves of 9 Benedictine Nuns who fled France to avoid the revolution.

We also diverted slightly to see the village stocks before returning to the bridleway which led to the road back to our start point in Heath where some of us retired to the King’s Arms for a traditional after walk pint, and in some cases, a Sunday lunch!

A warm welcome to Kim Loring who walked with DVWG for the first time today and well done to Jane Love who passed 200 miles walked this season.

Sunday saw DVWG enjoy a trip to Nottinghamshire to an area not walked very often by us for our Church Warsop and Cuckney Walk.

Starting from St Peter & St Paul Church we headed north west across fields before walking through the edge of some woodland to pick up a track towards Cuckney. Just before reaching the village we had a short climb up Mill Hill before dropping down to pass the school.

Walking through the village, headed up past Cukney Water Meadows to the village of Norton where we joined the Robin Hood Way, initially for a section of rood walking before branching off to take a byway through woodland to Hazel Gap, opting to stop for short break at the Lord George Bentinck Monument.

Continuing along the Robin Hood Way we walked through Gleadthorpe Breck Plantation, passing a number of farms and then took Broomhill Lane bridleway back into Church Warsop.

A good 8.2 mile walk for our group of 14 in which we welcomed Angela Kerley on her first walk with us. We hope you hope to see you again!

It was a great night on Friday night for After Dark 11 in cold, clear, dry and icy conditions. A depleted party of 22 for the walk, however just the walk going ahead at all after a 2 year hiatus and the current Covid situation was a bonus.

The pie n peas provided by The Ash Inn was up there with the best ever, they truly did us proud.
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Thanks to everyone who supported the walk.

DVWG's final walk of 2021 was a walk around the Swinton/Wath area looking at the sites of the lost canal tunnels, guided by Ken Wyatt, who have us some great historical insight too.

Fortunately, for our ten attendees, the earlier rain had stopped by the time we set off on the walk making for a pleasant 5.5 miles walk, albeit a bit muddy in places. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has walked with DVWG during 2021 which has been another difficult year thanks to Covid.

Happy New Year to everyone and we hope to see you in 2022. 

A 7.3 mile walk this morning for eight of us this morning with a route around Wombwell and Hemingfield crossing the TPT, Elsecar Canal and Gypsy Marsh.

The walk was punctuated with a coffee stop at the Elephant & Castle in Hemingfield, thanks to Carol Taylor for buying us all a hot mince pie and cream.

After the walk we enjoyed a quick drink at the Old Moor Tavern before going our separate ways.

All that is left is to wish everyone who has walked with us in 2021 a Merry Christmas.
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Please stay safe guys, we hope to see you on our Swinton Walk during the holiday period.

Our “summer” evening walks concluded tonight with a Wentworth Walk, passing Needles Eye crossing fields to Elsecar returning to Wentworth via the TPT and Mill Lane.

Thanks to everyone who has supported our evening walks since April, there have been some great new walks.

Don’t forget to book for our after dark 11 and pie n pea supper which takes place on January 7th.
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Finally we are delighted to announce Tricia MacDuff as DVWGs new Social Officer looking after all our social events from the beginning of 2022.

DVWG headed to the Yorkshire Wolds for today’s 8.5 mile circular walk from North Cave this morning. Starting at All Saints Church in lovely autumn sunshine our group headed south across the recreation ground before joining a minor road and passing the hamlet of Everthorpe.

After crossing the A1034 we gradually ascended Little Wold before turning left opposite Little Wold Vineyard, descending Comber Dale. At this point the weather changed and we endured an icy rain shower before the rain cleared as we made our way along a bridleway towards Drewton Dale.

At a junction we headed right to ascend Drewton Wold to take a path towards the busy B1230. Opting to walk along with inside of the field hedgerow rather than on the roadside we followed the road for a short way before taking a path along the northern edge of the woodland of Austin’s Dale.
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We then dropped down to and walked through the Drewton Manor estate which brought us back to the A1034. A short walk northwards along the pavement brought us to a path past Drewton Farm and through fields back to North Cave.

Well I don’t often get chance to post after DVWG walks these days, however I am really pleased with this years evening walks, which although intended as summer evening walks are still continuing.

Tonight’s 5 miles Wombwell Walk proved to be a real gem too, taking in Wombwell Partk, The Elsecar Canal, TPT and just about everything in between.

A walk we’ve never tried before which is worth a repeat, in daylight !
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Thank you to everyone who continues to come along and support our walks.

After trudging through heavy rain for over 7 miles this morning the skies cleared suddenly and the final 20 minutes or so of today's Alkborough walk was beautiful.

Just 3 people turned up to brave the elements but they dwindled to 2 as Emma Rodwell turned back after 3/4 of a mile, leaving just Steve Pennock and Keith Fox to soldier on.

With little visibility and horizontal rain at times it was just heads down along tracks and paths to Winteringham and then out to Whitton. Here we followed the banks of the Humber back to Alkborough with the rain stopping and the sun coming out just before we reached the village, with a double rainbow on view for a short time looking back towards the Humber Bridge.
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We therefore took advantage of the dramatic improvement in the weather to divert to 'bag' the trig point near the Old Vicarage. This increased our mileage for the walk to 8.9 miles.

A small group of 5 set off from outside Bolsover Castle for our circular walk to Sutton Scarsdale Hall and back, following the road around the side of the castle and dropping down a steep hill to pass New Bolsover model village.

A short stretch southwards on the Stockley Trail followed before we took a footpath around the southern end of Carr Vale Flash Nature Reserve and then crossed fields to take a road across the M1 motorway.

Following a short stint on the road we took a path on the right which took us towards Sutton Scarsdale Hall, or rather the remains of the bulk of the shell of the hall. We opted to extend our route by just under a mile by continuing along to the public access to the Hall site before returning to our original route.

Our route then took us along a track and across more fields to take a path northwards alongside the M1 which eventually took us under the motorway, heading eastwards. After being forced to climb over a tied up gate to continue along the path along a field edge the route turned northwards towards Mill Farm from where we crossed a style to access the Peter Fidler Nature Reserve.

Taking in a short section of the reserve we then left the reserve to walk alongside the main A632 for a short distance and then took an angled path back up the hill to Bolsover Castle, retracing our steps back to the start.
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Well done to the 5 people who completed this walk, we certainly knew we’d done the last up hill stretch!