Mad for the West Leake Hills

About trip

The villages of East and West Leake, located near Nottinghamshire'€™s border with Leicestershire, were recorded in the Domesday Book as ‘Leche’. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘watermeadow’, since both lie on Kingston Brook, a tributary of the River Soar. Although the Church of St Helena in West Leake has medieval origins, it has been extensively modernised, and includes a tiny bellcote (with two bells) rather than the usual spire or squat tower. In the churchyard you will find a ‘living willow seat’, which, as its name suggests, is a wooden bench with a back made of live willow. Completely Cuckoo? North of the West Leake Hills is the village of Gotham (pronounced ‘Goatem’), and in medieval times a group of purported lunatics lived in the woods near by. Today, near Leake New Wood, the names of Cuckoo Bush Farm and Cuckoo Bush Wood record their strange antics, for according to folklore the so-called Gotham Fools tried to hedge-in a cuckoo so it would sing to them all year (it flew off, of course). They also burned down a forge to rid it of a wasps’ nest, and tried to drown fish in buckets. Their bizarre activities were later detailed in a book entitled The Merrie Tales of the Mad Men of Gottam (1630) and developed into something of a folk story, so that ‘cuckoo pens’ became a joke name given to small hillside crofts or enclosures. The book describes the events at Gotham: ‘On a time the men of Gottam would have pinned in the Cuckoo, whereby shee should sing all the yeere, and in the midst of the town they made a hedge round in compasse, and they had got a Cuckoo, and had her put into it, and said, Sing here all the yeere, and thou shalt lacke neither meat nor drinke. The Cuckoo as soon as she perceived her self incompassed within the hedge, flew away. A vengeance on her said they, We made not our hedge high enough.’ However, their apparent madness was not quite what it seemed, for according to local sources it was a deliberate ruse to deter the visiting emissaries of King John, who wanted to build a royal hunting lodge on their village land. They reasoned that the King would want nothing to do with a community of lunatics, but whether this was true or just an attempt at face-saving has been lost to time. Gotham is still remembered for its madmen, and the village pub is even called the Cuckoo Bush. As an old nursery rhyme goes: ‘Three wise men of Gotham Went to sea in a bowl. If the bowl had been stronger My story would have been longer.’ While you're there: A couple of miles (3.2km) from West Leake is the village of Kingston-on-Soar, where the Church of St Winifred’s contains an elaborate monument dedicated to the local Babington family, involving columns covered with intricate tracery. In 1586 Antony Babington led a failed plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. He paid for the deed with his head. What to look for: As you stand on Court Hill, gazing out over a largely rural South Nottinghamshire, you may be surprised to discover that far below your feet is an important gypsum mine (the large works, near East Leake, are partially glimpsed a little further on). Gypsum, or hydrated calcium sulphate, is used for making cement and plaster, including plaster of Paris. Its many forms include selenite (transparent), satin spar (fibrous) and alabaster (used for ornaments). Where to eat and drink: West Leake’s pub is The Star, on Melton Lane, just to the southwest of the village. It’s known locally as Leake Pit House, since it once incorporated a pit for cock-fighting. The pub is more than 200 years old, with an open fire in winter and colourful hanging baskets in the summer. Directions: Walk across the road from the church, half-way along West Leake’s main street, to cross the stile opposite. Go between houses and directly out across an open field. Go over the stile at the far side and turn right to follow the field-edge path to the end. Go through to the next field and turn left. Now follow a clear route alongside the hedge, past a choked pond (often dry in summer), and out across the middle of subsequent fields on an obvious farm track. Far away to the left are the massive cooling towers of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station – quite a juxtaposition to the lovely countryside immediately about, don’t you think. When you arrive at a wide gravel track, turn right and follow this as far as the edge of the woods, marked by a yellow-topped public bridleway sign and a notice warning you to go no further. Go left before the hedge and after 275yds (251m) turn right for a bridleway route (waymarked with blue arrows) up the steep hillside between the trees. At the top this becomes a clear, straight path through the attractive mixed woodland of Leake New Wood. When you reach the far side go through a gate and cross to the far side of the field. At a junction of bridle paths, go through the gate and turn right to walk along the initially open hilltop, with expansive views to your left over the Trent Valley towards Gotham and distant Nottingham. Continue along this easy, panoramic route via Court Hill for almost 1 mile (1.6km). Beyond the trees of Shiddock’s Spinney a golf course appears on your left. At a fork of paths keep right so that you end up alongside the arable field on your right and not the fairway on your left. 6 At Crow Wood Hill you reach the bend of a semi-surfaced lane. Turn right and follow its southwesterly route across the open fields of Fox Hill, with wide views over to the red-tile roofs of East Leake. When the drive turns into Fox Hill Farm go straight on along a clear field-edge track ahead, and ignoring a path off to the left, follow this long, straight route back down to West Leake. The vista now stretches out southwards, where the wooded ridges of Charnwood Forest (especially Beacon Hill and Bradgate Park) dominate the skyline. At the road junction at the bottom go straight on for the centre of the village.