(S/E) Starting your walk from Ludford Village Hall, where there is ample parking and picnic tables, walk to the main road A631 and carefully cross the road, turn right and head through the village. Continue past the White Hart Pub and the church on your left and the old village school on the right. Look for the waymarked footpath on your right at a break in the hedge, carefully cross the road and follow the path across the field as it bears diagonally left.
Fanny Hands Lane - this lane towards the west end of the village was voted amongst the top ten 'smuttiest' street names in the country by a national newspaper a few years ago. Fanny was Frances, wife of a local farmer, John Hand, who named the lane after her in the early 1900's. Their milking parlour, where Fanny worked, has now been converted into a holiday cottage at the bottom of the lane.
(1) When you reach Girsby Lane, turn right and follow the road past the edge of the airfield until you reach Wykeham Lane, on your left. This is a tarmac farm track, with a tall stand of trees on the right. Take this track and walk towards Wykeham Park, crossing the River Bain as you do so.
(2) As you walk up to the Park, you will see the remains of the East Wykeham medieval village on your left as you walk past farm buildings and cottages. Continue straight ahead onto the tarmac farm track and at the junction of Wykeham Lane with the A631 carefully cross the road and turn left.
East Wykeham – the remains of the deserted medieval village of East Wykeham are on your left as you walk past the Wykeham Hall farm buildings. During the early part of the 14th century the impact of famine and climate change, as well as the move to sheep farming, caused a decline in the local population. The Black Death in 1348-9 decimated what remained of the village community.
(3) Take the first right turn signed for Great Tows. At the next junction take the left fork and head towards Tows Farm, keeping the farm buildings on your right.
(4) Continue along the road as it bears left and, as the road bears right, go straight ahead, following the field track with the hedge on your right as it dips then rises again. You are now at one of the highest points of the walk with fantastic views for miles.
(5) At the top of the field, follow the waymarker and turn sharp right, again keeping the hedge on your right. Follow the track around the perimeter of the field as it turns left and eventually comes out onto the Binbrook Road.
(6) Turn left onto the Binbrook Road, follow it around the left hand bend and continue up the hill. At the waymarked gap in the hedge on the right, take the footpath across the field, heading towards the edge of the village with the remaining stump of the windmill to your right.
The Windmill stump has the distinction of being the remains of the last newly built windmill in Lincolnshire. It was built in 1889 by Saunderson but ceased to be operational by 1930. The sails were taken down in 1932 and the tower reduced to its current height after the war.
(7) Walk down Sledge Hill, by kind permission of the landowners, go past Sledge Hill Cottage on your left, turning left at Horseshoe Cottage into Stocks Hill, noting the stocks on the green, Emerge onto Magna Mile at the Church.
(8) Keeping to the right hand pavement walk through the village, passing the 101 Squadron Memorial at Lime Villas and eventually returning to the Village Hall (S/E)
