One Down, Two To Go

Finally, it was time to do the guided walk around Hunstanworth. This is the route that me, Dawn and LTD reccied a few weeks ago and, that I reccied once again last Wednesday.

I was a bit disappointed to find that the three trees blocking Footpath No1 in the parish of Hunstanworth had not yet had the delicate attentions of a chain saw ( I suppose these things sometimes take a while to resolve) and so, I altered the route to avoid any dignity-defying scrambles through the branches and twigs for a short road-walk from Baybridge to Hunstanworth.

By way of compensation, we visited the grave of William Snowball wot got his head battered-in on New Years Day 1880 at Belmont farm above Baybridge, an ‘Orrible murder which remains unsolved to this day. Did the housekeeper do it? Or was it the housekeeper’s stalker who’d appeared suspiciously in the area a few days earlier. Or had Snowball upset somebody on his New Year Eve pub-crawl in Blanchland and Baybridge (this is not possible nowadays by the way as there’s only the one pub) Or was there a long-standing feud between Mr Snowball and one of his neighbours? The cops failed to address this particular question. Anyway, somebody landed a fatal blow to the back of Mr Snowball’s skull with a lump-hammer in his own mistle whilst his old dad and the housekeeper waited up for him to return. But how did the housekeeper get his blood on her pinney?

Some say, that if you were to camp outside the now derelict Belmont Farm on New Years Eve that you might imagine that you hear the words “I’ll get you Snowball” followed by one or two dull thuds and a bit of a squeak…..    I have no evidence at all to support this.

On the day, just 8 people turned up to enjoy all this effort, plus the stewards Neville and Ann, who did a fine job, specially with the particularly awkward and electrified stiles with big drops down the other side wot happen on this route.

I have nothing much to report about it, really, except to say that I have three walks on the Durham County Council guided walks programme and that these will likely be my final three. Every now and then I feel the need to change things so that Things don’t get too stale. And Durham County Council are giving me lots of excuses to make the changes. I have Things in the pipeline and Things Planned.

Sometimes, life really is too short. Far too short. Two more to go. (If they don’t ban me for not having a passport-sized photograph for my identity badge before then)
The walk is ten or eleven miles depending on diversions and options.