The document provides information about upcoming events and walks for the Sleaford Ramblers group. It discusses a quiz night fundraiser for the group in March and the departure of long-time members Sheila and Norman Pratt who are moving to Northern Ireland. It also summarizes decisions from the January committee meeting, including confirmation of the June coach trip to Buxton led by Nigel Venables. Details are provided on several upcoming scheduled walks between February and April.

1. Editor: Keith Thompson Dateline: Sleaford Wednesday 16 th February 2012
Photograph by kind permission of Chris Woods A new Year and new opportunities.
The committee have arranged an action
packed year once again. Next month we
have the Quiz night at the Solo Club; the
difference this year is that the proceeds of
the raffle are not being passed back to the
Club funds but instead are being used to
subsidise the buffet. We might even get a
“£10.00” meal for £6.50 and, if last year is
anything to go by, a fun packed evening as
well. Donations for the raffle would be
appreciated.
Sheila & Norman Pratt are leaving us
at the end of the month to sail away (by
Flybe of course, the Irish sea is far to rough for sailing) to new shores to spend more time with their
grandchildren in Northern Ireland. They joined the Boston Group in 1999 when they went on a walk to Surfleet
and have lived in the same house in Boston (the house that Norman built as they say) for over 46 years but they
have walked with and been good friends of the Sleaford Group for a long time. Sheila has been very active in
Lincolnshire Ramblers where she was Area Treasurer up to the end of last year and amongst other things has
organised the bi-annual coach trip to Scotland for Boston Group which members of many other groups have
taken advantage of. She was also Secretary of Boston Group between 2000 and 2005. There have not been
many Sleaford Group walks over the last few years which Sheila and Norman have not been on and we have
usually enjoyed their company on our coach trips and social events. Many of us are very sorry to see them go
and will miss them but they will be back in the short term any way as they have one more trip to Scotland in
September and they will be on the Lincolnshire Wolds Walking Festival at the end of May. We may have to give
some thought though to their offer to host the Sleaford coach day trip in June next year! In the meantime I
know many of you will want to wish them well in their new life and hope they find good opportunities for
walking near their new home.

2. The Committee had much to get through at their meeting early in January as it was the first time they had
met since the AGM, the Christmas social programme for 2011 had to be reviewed and a social programme for
2012 had to be agreed. You can read elsewhere the decision concerning the bus trip in June and the reason for
that decision, you can also see that we have decided to have another Quiz night at the Solo Club instead of a
Spring dinner and there is also preliminary details of Nigel's walk for the June bus trip. If the decisions
regarding social occasions are not what you want to see then please let us know or, better still, take up the
Chair's invitation to attend our committee meetings. The Next one is on Tuesday 10 th April 2012.
You will find a form at the end of this Newsletter for those who wish to go on the trip to Buxton in
June which is led by Nigel Venables. The price for these trips is set at a level which covers the cost of the coach
if 38 people travel and if, as happened last year, we do not get 38 people travelling then we lose money and we
cannot do that too often so if you do not support the coach trips we shall have to discontinue them.
For this year's trip we sent enquiries out to 8 coach companies in the area and whilst AC Williams were not the
cheapest they did provide us with a competitive price and we have experienced the quality of their vehicles and
service before so we placed the order with them at about £8.50 per seat (for 38 seats). This price was slightly
higher than last year because the mileage is higher and prices in general have risen. However, as many of you
know the company has run into difficulties, an Administrator has been appointed and if we had left the order
with them we may, or may not, have had a coach for our June trip. We could not take the risk so we cancelled
the order with AC Williams and placed it with A & P Tours but their price was slightly higher than AC Williams
which means the price per seat moved up to £10.00.
The good news is however that Nigel has organised two excellent linear walks for this trip. One walk goes from
Buxton (where the coach will drop everyone off) to Bakewell (were the coach will pick up) and a shorter walk
which which ends before Bakewell (where the coach will pick up on its way to Bakewell to pick the other walkers
up). In addition of course both Buxton and Bakewell have plenty to offer those who do not want to walk.
sleafordramblers.co.uk has been launched in beta form. You can only get at it by typing
sleafordramblers.co.uk in the address bar on your browser; a search engine will not find it yet. There is work
to do but hopefully we are getting there. The intention is to make our walk programme and Newsletter
available on the web and to give prospective members the opportunity of seeing what is on offer with an easy
method of contacting us. You will see that there are links to “facebook” and “twitter” for those who want to
communicate with us in this way. We are trying to do this without cost to the Group and so far we have
succeeded in designing the web page this far and registering the domain name on that basis but we are short of
web knowledge or experience so if any member can help us we would appreciate it.
Dog Etiquette Dogs are generally welcome on all our walks. Occasionally however it may be necessary to
not have dogs on a walk for a lot of practical reasons and in such cases the walk leader will make this known in
his description of the walk; on other occasions it may be necessary for dogs to be kept on a lead for all or part
of a walk. There is an obligation on dog owners to observe some sensible rules and ensure that the dog is well
behaved. It is a criminal offence to allow animals to foul public areas and or to worry farm animals and dogs
found to be worrying farm animals can be shot. We have received a number of complaints about an incident
on a recent walk when a dog fouled the verge and the owner did not pick up after it. Out of respect for the

3. environment, the law of the land and the reputation of the Group, please make sure you do not allow your dog
to foul public areas.
Walks
19th February 2012 – Partney Bridge – Russell is the walk leader – 10 am start
The 9.5 mile Wolds’ walk around the Lymn valley assembles at the ‘Blue Hill’ lay-by near Partney Bridge.
Weather conditions will determine the route however an anticlockwise route is planned taking in the villages of
Partney (via the old brick pit and The Grange), Skendleby, Dalby (passed the Hall), Langton, Sausthorpe &
(skirting) Hundleby. The terrain is a largely track and grass fields with some road and field paths to walk along
and gradually ascents.
4th March 2012 – Blankney – Ivan is the walk leader– 10 am start An exquisite 8 miles amble
across the wild and windswept Chaplins' Estate. Visiting the famous spot in the fen where Edward the Caressor
went down on one knee and serenaded Daisy Warwick with that fine old Victorian ballad, "I've got a lovely
bunch of coconuts." So overcome with emotion was Alice Kepple she divested herself of her riding gear before
propelling herself head first into the stagnant Car Dyke. So alarmed was the resident rabbit population by Alice
emerging from the murky waters covered in glory they promptly disappeared down their burrows and weren't
seen again for at least a fortnight, well it was springtime! All this and more will be revealed, well not quite all,
on this fascinating ramble.
18th March 2012 – Culverthorpe – Mike is the walk leader – 10 am start Culverthorpe park,
Oasby, Aisby, Green Lane, Dembleby, Aunsby, Culverthorpe. 10 miles.
1st April 2012 – Stamford – Ian and Jenny are the walk leaders– 10 am start Bath Row Car
Park, Stamford The walk takes us through Stamford and picks up the Torpel Way, a footpath linking Stamford
with the outskirts of Peterborough. We will be close to the river Welland and the disused Welland canal as we
make our way to Barnack and the Hills and Holes nature reserve, a good place to stop for lunch. Our return
route follows the Hereward Way through attractive Burghley Park before we drop down to Stamford returning
over the water meadows to our start. About 9.5 miles.
15th April 2012 – Biscathorpe – Dave and Joan are the walk leaders– 10 am start Park by
the church in the picturesque Biscathorpe Park for a 9.5 mile walk led by David and Joan. The walk takes us to
Gayton le Wold and Donington on Bain, with beautiful views across The Wolds, before returning to Biscathorpe
along the Viking Way.
26th April 2012. - Heydour – Nigel is the walk leader – 7 pm start
We walk towards Kelby before turning back to Aisby and across the fields to the Nightingale Plantation before
heading to Oasby and on back to Heydour

4. 29th April 2012. - Tattershall – Caroline is the walk leader– 10 am start This is about a 9.5
mile walk, starting at the Tattershall Castle car park, on field paths, roadside paths, river banks, quiet lanes and
woodland paths, which may be muddy in places – so be warned! We’ll walk through the back end of Coningsby,
taking a track over to the Black Holt which will give you a brief view of RAF Coningsby airfield and some of the
bunkers used by the RAF (and lots of high barbed wire fences!) We’ll then walk across fields back into
Coningsby and then take a stroll along the banks of the River Bain, branching off to Tattershall Thorpe Carr,
where we’ll walk through a wooded area containing disused RAF huts and buildings. A bit more field walking
and we’ll be beside a quiet ‘B’ road which will take us back to Tattershall.
3rd May 2012. - Sleaford – Keith & Shirley are the walk leaders -7 pm start Park near the
old signals box in White Cross Lane about half a mile from the junction of Mareham Lane and White Cross Lane,
cross the road and through the woods to Scredington. Walk through the quiet roads of Scredington to
Northbeck and then towards Burton Pedwardine before turning north towards Belhouse Farm and then along
White Cross Lane back to the car. About 4.5 miles
10th May 2012. - Threekingham – David is the walk leader - 7 pm start From the Three
Kings car park, Threekingham, be south westerly along field paths, under the dismantled railway to arrive at
Horbling. The return route is partly minor road and field path, back to Threekingham.
13th May 2012. - Collingham – Ivan is definitely not be the walk leader– 10 am start
In a change to the advertised programme, we understand that Niiel Garton is the walk leader and as this will
be the first walk he has led for us, we welcome Nigel to the elite band of walk leaders. He has not let us
have any details of this walk at the time of going to press.
17th May 2012. - Blankney – Sylvia is the walk leader - 7 pm start From Blankney we head
towards Scopwick, moving on to the Brick Yard Plantation, then passed Hall Farm and back to Blankney. The
walk is mainly farm track and is excellent under foot whether conditions are wet or dry.
Items for Sale or Wanted
Please email your advertisements for inclusion in the next Newsletter and make a contribution to our funds of say £1.00 per
insertion per issue:
Part of The Ramblers’ Association Email address: sleafordramblers@gmail.com
Web site: sleafordramblers.co.uk
A Company limited by guarantee Telephone Number: 01529 300104
Fax: 0870 7060224
Registration number 4458492 Address: 15 Clay Hill Road, Sleaford NG34 7TF
Charity Registration number 1093577 Walk-day Mobile: 07504 074925

6. BOOKING FORM
A coach trip to Buxton & Bakewell on Sunday 10th June 2012, leaving
from The Hub Car Park on Eastgate Sleaford at 8 am
Please book me................places for which I enclose herewith cheque
to the value of £......................... (£10.00 x number of places booked)
Name:
email address:
Telephone Number:
Cheque payable to Sleaford & District Ramblers Group, should be sent to Julia Pepper, 1 The Row,
Swaton, Sleaford, Lincs, NG34 0JJ to arrive not later than Friday 1st June 2012.