Par for the course- a vist to the countryside with the kids

Now that we have a car, and far fewer people are honking at me when we leave the driveway, I decided to take a trip with the kids for the afternoon. I found this great book about kiddie-friendly hikes in the county of Nottinghamshire. Some are nearby, and others are an hour or so away. So we decided upon visiting the earthwork remains of a medieval castle in the small village of Laxton, about 40 miles from our town. I should have realized the remoteness of the village when my satellite navigation system couldn't find it in its database. But I managed to get directions to something nearby and we were off!

After sitting in stalled traffic for twenty minutes, we had a very pleasant drive through the countryside. Mallory napped and Quentin snacked. It was great. I've even reached the driving level of eating, cell-phone dialing, and radio-station scanning while driving- all with a stick shift!

When we got to the town, we drove up the one street to find the visitor centre. You'll be very surprised to hear that it wasn't clearly marked. But we found it. The visitor centre was just an open room in an old house with pictures. An elderly man followed us in. I think he was the town historian, given he was born in the village in 1925 and has never lived anywhere else. Between my American accent and his hearing aid we understood roughly every third sentence. But it was so delightful to talk to him! As we walked off to find the castle trail, he mentioned a small footpath behind the old church.

I found out later- and I'm kicking myself for not reading this before out trip- that the church possesses the 12-century tombs of the family that lived in the nearby castle, one of which has the oldest OAK effigy in the county (most tomb effigies are stone). How cool!

We eventually located the public footpath that I thought went to the ruins. My book literally said, "turn right at the old phone box near the church." The path looked more like a tractor trail, but we marched on nonetheless. At the end of the trail, we noticed a fenced area with horses. My book said it was a cricket field. Really? That sounds messy. We actually turned back, disappointed. The kids were complaining about being hot and Mallory refused to walk on the trail. Plus it was lined on one side with stinging nettles- I guess it's the English way of deterring trespassers. A "No trespassing" sign would be too obvious. Both kids were stung of course and cried. I"m sure the whole village heard us.

I admitted defeat when we found a second path- a bridleway- that ran parallel to the first one. It too ran into a cow pasture. So I gave in and we turned to leave. At the church gates, a villager walked by us and I asked him about the earthworks. He pointed to the original trail...and blah, blah, blah, we were on the right track the whole time. But you have to enter the cow pasture to find the ruins. Really? He also warned me of having kids in the cow pasture, and I thought he meant because of the steep ruins, etc. So we turned back to hike to the cow pasture. At this time, I noticed the small sign hidden near the man-gate.

Once through the gate, we spotted the earthworks in the distance. Then we noticed the cows. They had calves. The cows stood up and fanned outwards in our direction, suspicious of our intentions. (Refer to "Adventures at Wollatan Park" in the June blog archives.) Mallory screamed, "I scared of the cows, mommy!!" So I held her, and we scaled the outer earthwork farthest from the ferocious beasts. We took some pictures to prove we had been there. Then Quentin noticed a brown cow by itself nearby grazing. He astutely asked, "is that a bull, mom?" Silly boy, of course not! Not one minute later we heard some kind of hissing. I turned and it's the cow! It's hissing at us! And yes, I observed at this time, it's a bull. We exited calmly. I stopped to read the sign. Within the text that mentions the school groups who visit the land,etc., there's a small phrase, parenthetically: "beware of the bull."

Even though it was kind of a crazy visit, I still loved it. I've been really wanting to go somewhere off the beaten path. Everything is so crowded here. So Laxton was just the right thing for me, just not my kids. The village itself is really interesting: three large fields have been commonly shared among farmers since the 12th-century. They use a system of crop rotation to maintain the health of their fields. Other common land is used for grazing- hence the cows in the castle ruins. I like the adherence to tradition- why change a good thing if it works?