Rogation (from Latin rogare, “to ask”) is a Christian tradition of prayer, fasting, and processions—often called “beating the bounds”
Not being a religious man myself, I still like the idea of hanging onto customs. One particular custom is the Rogation Walk, where the community would walk the parish boundary.
Now in its twelfth year, the Whitacres, Lea-Marston and Shustoke (WLS) group have organised a Rogation Walk around the parishes.
We had agreed at our Wednesday night drinking session ‘cycling club’ meeting to take part in this years walk.
Officially, the walk starts in Whitacre Heath before moving on to Lea Marston, Shustoke, Nether Whitacre and Over Whitacre visiting the parish churches en route.
As my knees have been giving me some gyp of late, I thought it prudent not to over do it on the walk. Therefore, I planned on getting an X13 bus to Coleshill and walking to St. Johns in Lea Marston and pick up the walk from there.
I checked my usual bus times app to discover a bus would be leaving at around half eight.
With all my gear packed, I took a steady stroll to the bus stop only to discover (via the info display) that the first bus of this BANK HOLIDAY wasn’t until half nine !
After a bit of umming and ahhing I decided to walk down to Coleshill but pick up the walk a little after Lea Marson.
I strolled on through Water Orton, past the HS2 workings and onto Coleshill Parkway. From the station I made my way alongside Hams Hall Distribution Park until a point where the Rogation walkers would join up. I had arranged to meet up with friends (Neil, Paul, Janet and Wendy) at this point but as my timetable was all over the place I had a wait of nearly an hour. I did chat with a few birders and discovered that there were Marsh Harriers and Peregrin Flacons in the area along with otters in the river.
Around about half ten, the first of the walkers appeared and shortly afterward I was joined by my possé. I was given a badge which hopefully would get me some goodies at the remaining stops. At this point, I had already walked around 4.5 miles and Neil’s watch said almost the same so I wouldn’t be getting off with a shorter route.
I was still on familiar ground as this is the way I often walk to The Griffin. We walked through one of the Whitacre’s (possibly Nether Whitacre) before crossing a stile and proceeding along the edge of the field before entering Colin Teall Wood. This little wildlife oasis was left to the parish by, you guessed it, Colin Teall in his will back in 1966. Thanks Colin.
As we walked alongside the railway, we (all right – probably just me) were treated to the sight of a Colas tamping train passing us, similar (if not he same) as the one I spied at Coventry a couple of weeks ago. As the nearest to a train nerd that we had in our little group, I explained what it did.
After crossing the line I extended my nerdiness as I identified a class 66 hauled freight train passing by.
When discussing this walk in the pub last week, I’m sure that the plan was to turn right here and make our way around Shustoke reservoir but instead, we chose to go left and follow my usual Griffin bound course.
We were joined by some friends on this section as we all then continued on to The Griffin for lunch. Technically, lunch was provided at St. Cuthbert’s church but we brought our loaded paper plates to enjoy with a pint on the patio of the pub. The landlord was not too happy as they were serving their own food but he said nothing to us. With lunch out of the way, we returned to the church to pick up the path down to the road which was followed to Furnace End, passing the site of the long defunct Shustoke Railway Station – now the Station Hotel.
A short slog up a hill brought us to St. Leonards where we were treated to strawberries and cream served with a glass of wine. All very nice.
Instead of returning to the Tamworth Road for the final leg to St. Giles, we took a minor road (Sandy Lane) before heading across fields to pop out on the outskirts of Nether Whitacre for the final stop and cake.
I restricted myself to the one cupcake but some may have partaken of more (no names, no pack drill).
The actual, official, walk does continue back to the starting point but our’s stopped here.
After a short rest (and more cake) we decided, after checking the Real Ale Finder app (available on Apple and Android) to have a pint of Exmoor Beast in the nearby Dog Inn. However, on entering we discovered that said beer wasn’t available (app hadn’t been updated) so we didn’t bother.
At the start of the day, Neil had left his car at The Dog then had a lift with Paul to the start where Paul left his. Now was time to reunite owners with their cars before all of us returning to the Griffin for a debriefing.
I had messaged Sue and she met us at the pub. After agreeing that we’d all had a great day out and a couple of pints of Jaipur, it was home via the Chinese ahead of a soak in the hot tub.
Overall, I was well happy with my performance, having covered over eleven miles with a few climbs and some rough terrain.
If nothing else goes wrong, I should be able to complete my MS Walk which takes place in a little under six weeks time.
My knees had not given me any real problems and on the following day were just ‘ordinary’ sore as opposed to painful.
It would appear that consistent walking may be the answer, so I’ll try and get out most days. I’ll be returning to The Griffin tomorrow afternoon (around seven miles) so may take a rest day today with a gentle spin on Zwift later.