Holy Trinity Churches.

In fact, it was an excellent start to the day. The sun was out and the track to Wentworth  from Elsecar was a nice mixture of field and wood walking. As soon I left King's Wood I could see the tall spire of Wentworth's Holy Trinity Church and I headed off towards it. The path into Wentworth was a little overgrown, but wasn't much of a problem. Wentworth is a very twee village. There is the 'old' and the 'new' Holy Trinity Church. I went to visit the old one first. I disturbed a squirrel that was carrying an apple in its mouth that was almost as large as its head. I followed it down the path to the remains of the church. The tower and part of the chapel is still standing, but only the south wall of the nave remains. The church dates from the 14-15th century. I returned back down the path and headed across to the much larger 'new' church. The spire on this church  is massive and heads up to the skies like a Saturn V rocket. It was designed and built by John Loughborough Pearson. I only mention this since it seems such an odd middle name. He certainly did a good job. I walked around it and it seemed dramatic from every angle.

I followed the Trans Pennine Trail towards Wentworth Woodhouse. I came across a squirrel that was nibbling the seeds out of some wheat. I've never seen one do that before. A quick pavement plodding section and I was soon at the entrance of Wentworth Woodhouse. I started walking down the drive. I hoped the Duke was home and had put the kettle on.

Money Talks

The view opened up as I walked down the drive. In the far distance, sat on top of a hill, I saw a structure that I took to be the Mausoleum. My attention though was drawn to a massive building on my right hand side which was the Stables. The mind boggles as to why they thought they needed such a large and grand structure to house a few horses. I guess it was all about making an impression though. In yesteryear, as people came down the driveway and saw this huge structure, they must have thought as I had just done: 'Crikey, if they have so much money to build this thing to look after a few horses, they must be rolling in the stuff!' 

Of course, in terms of Dick Swinging the House is entirely on a different scale. It has a front façade of 606 feet, more than any other house in the country. It certainly is impressive. I'd approached from the side and wanted to take a closer look, but a sign on an access gate warned me that I should only proceed further if I intended visiting the House.  I heard a noise above me and looking up, I briefly saw a glint of light as the sun reflected off a circling Predator drone above me and so I decided not to proceed. Signs warned me that if I didn't want to empty my pockets into the Estate's coffers then I should only stick to the public footpaths on the Estate.  This was a shame since I'd planned to use a direct road to the Mausoleum that a notice now informed me was private. Although the Estate offered excellent views I got that the impression that non-paying visitors were an endured inconvenience. The area cried out for a few benches so that people could sit down and appreciate the scenery before them, but I didn't find even one on the Estate...at least the non-paying part. 

Mausoleum

The Doric Temple was fenced off from the non-paying public. I got close enough to shove my nose through the wire grid, but I didn't see anything there that would have justified an £8 admission. Dozens of cows were laid down in the Deer Park. I tried to remember whether that was a good or a bad thing in terms of weather prospects. A couple of Red Deer grazed nervously near to them. The road that served as the public bridleway continued in a south-eastwards direction. I saw from a map information board that a public footpath went up from the road to the Mausoleum. It didn't quite reach it though on the map, and given from what I'd seen so far, I guessed that there'd be no access to the Mausoleum itself. Even so, I decided to proceed with the 30 minute out-and-back trip to see how close I could get. About a 100 metres was the answer. Barbed wire prevented the public from getting any closer, although given the flattened grass on the other side I think a few people had hopped over the fence in the past. Frustratingly, trees had been planted around the Mausoleum and these prevented me getting a decent view. I turned around and headed back to the road. 

Greasbrough

In my initial route planning, I'd hoped to pick up a marked trail along the Dog Level Pond. This was a bit of a misnomer since it was definitely a lake, rather than a pond. A 'Private. Keep Out' sign scuppered that idea. I looked at the OS map and picked out a route on public footpaths that took me back  to Wentworth House. It meant following a road along the outskirts of Greasbrough, but at least it made the route circular. I continued along the road up to Greasbrough and then followed the road to the public bridleway that would take me back into the Estate. My impression of Greasbrough from its northern front was of a Chinese Wall of three storey housing blocks.  The pavement was a few yards from the road though and so my 20 minute Greasbrough experience wasn't that bad. 

I took the public bridleway into the woods and after a short while was thrown out on to the edge of a field. The track was pretty clear though and I gradually made me way in a loop back to the middle of the Estate.  There were good views northwards and, on the horizon, I could make out the Hoober Stand Folly on Hoober Hill. There were pretty views of the lakes at Dog Level Pond. Signs warned me that the bank sides were private property. Somebody drove up in a Range Rover, got out and completely ignored me. He headed off towards some Fish Botherers on the lakeside. A farmer was flinging shite on a field next to the footpath (or rather his shite-flinging machine was) and I waited for a while to let him run out before proceeding further. I reached the same public bridleway through the Estate that I used this morning, and I started heading back to Wentworth Woodhouse. 

Greasbrough

The House was a lot busier now. There was even a coach parked on the drive. In Wentworth, I at last found a bench and sat down to have my lunch. An elderly couple approached with Costa mugs and gave me a look that suggested that I was sitting in their favourite spot. It certainly is a pretty village, although quite busy with traffic. I returned to Elsecar more or less on the same route that I'd used in the morning. I could see the large housing estates of Hoyland on the hillside over to the north. How odd that we allowed houses like those in Hoyland and that of Wentworth Woodhouse to co-exist. How did that happen? 

The carpark was so full at Elsecar that somebody had even had parked in the 'dog shite' slot. There was no getting away from it, the walk had slightly disappointed me. The views of Wentworth Woodhouse, Stables and of the Estate were amazing. It was just that I'd expected to see a bit more access for walkers within the Estate, and that was frustrating. I'd set my expectations too high. The Holy Trinity Churches were an unexpected, not-so-hidden gem though.