Hanbury Circular Walk part 3. Hanbury Hall/"Lower Loxley"

And here it is at the end of a newly planted avenue, Hanbury Hall - or Lower Loxley to Archers listeners. Plenty of room for Loxfest here. Archers references in white typeface. Regular blog-readers please ignore if not Archers fans!

There is a lake of sorts - though I'd call it a pond really.

The Hall is rather spectacular.

You can follow this footpath for free past the Hall, but you need to pay to walk round the grounds if you want to look round

There were lots of gardeners at work. Couldn't see Titcombe though.

I did take a closer look, just as a group of people emerged, having had a guided tour.

A mounting block makes it much easier to get onto a horse. And just beyond is the spot where Nigel Pargeter fell from the roof one New Year's Eve, which annoyed lots of Archers listeners!

The formal gardens

Inside the tea rooms. I had a ginger and cola cake. Not too sure about it, actually.

Leaving the Hall, I passed the haha (A way of having a boundary without spoiling the view from the main house.) 

Another pond in the Hall's grounds. 

 Then the path climbed another hill...

...and down the other side

A lovely old farm (Brookfield?).

Sheep in an old orchard. 

Over a railway bridge...

...and back to the canal. Dogs in life-jackets. Really?

The final bridge of the walk, over the recently restored canal.

Looking more closely, it was obviously built when the canal was disused: the green barrels keep the boats from the sides, which slope too much for canal boats - leaving only a narrow central channel

Verdict on the walk: Easy to follow, and well worth doing, whether or not you are an Archers fan. One to repeat, definitely.
Today's walk: The Hanbury Circular is well-signposted. It is part canal walk, part fields and woods, and it passes the church used as St Stephens in the Archers. It then passes National Trust's Hanbury Hall (good tea room) and heads back to the canal. It is described as 6.75 miles long, but Runkeeper made it 7.5 miles.