Difficulty: Easy
Walk Source: Walk 2 in the Jarrold Short Walks book 'In and around the Vale of York'
Today was a wet and miserable day, and I was feeling a bit poorly in the morning. But by the afternoon I decided that I might feel a bit better after some fresh air, even though it was raining. So I put on my waterproofs and grabbed my walking boots, and off I went. The start of the walk is only about a 20 minutes or so drive out of York on the A1079, so I was soon there.
I parked the car on the side of the road, next to the church, in Bielby, walked down Mill Lane towards the canal. Following the instructions in the book I walked to the end of Mill Lane, and at the Old Mill (now a private house) I crossed the bridge and turned right at the fork in the road along the banks of the canal.
It having rained the whole day, the grass was wet, but the path was still not too bad. The pylons crossing the path were not very pretty, and a bit noisy, but the path was still peaceful and calm. The canal was quite overgrown, and along the bank was a hawthorn hedge, just starting to sprout. And every now and again I spotted a white swan or two, floating and grazing in the canal. Some of them were also nesting on some absolutely huge nests in the middle of the water.
When I came to the Coat's Bridge I stopped and had a look at the lock in the canal before crossing the bridge and joining the path along the other side of the canal, in the opposite direction, walking back towards the village. The lock that used to raise the canal from the river has been restored, and looks quite pretty - it makes an interesting little stop.
The walk back was quite uneventful, until I came to another pretty bridge, a metal swing bridge.I crossed it and again turned back on myself, as the bridge is farther along than the village, and one has to turn back a bit. This side was, for me, the best bit. There was a charming small war memorial stone, erected in the memory of two 2nd world war soldiers who died after their plane crashed at the site. Following on from this was a mud path sneaking through some trees; it was like walking in a tree tunnel. The path wasn't too bad today, but I can see it being slippery after several days of rain.
Finally I was back where I started at Mill Lane, the walk had taken me about an hour, and I felt refreshed and calm.
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