Dennis Fox was a Parish Council member and keen walker who created a circular 17.75 mile walk around East Leake for the Millennium celebrations in 2000.
Pictured: Dennis (left) walking with the Rushcliffe Ramblers at Latrigg Fell, near Keswick in 2008.
Dennis named the walk “The East Leake Challenge” and he first led it on 18th June 2000. It is a circular route following the ridges which encircle the East Leake area. These hills are not particularly high (80 – 90 meters) but they afford some spectacular views in all directions.
These are historical routes as two of the ridges provided prehistoric tracks: The Streetway followed the line of the ridge from Rempstone to West Leake and the Portway went along the ridge of what is now the golf course past Cuckoo Bush Farm towards the Trent. When you walk these paths, you are literally walking in the steps of the people who first settled this area long before the Romans were here.
Dennis passed away last April and Rushcliffe Ramblers decided to lead three walks in his memory. One of which took place on 27th June, but the next two are detailed below:
- The original 17.75 mile East Leake Challenge walk (now about 19 miles due to footpath diversions) will take place on Sunday 4th July at 9.00am from the car park in the centre of the village next to the play park. This will be the 21st anniversary of the inaugural walk (which was on 14th June 2000).
- A shorter walk following most of the same route will take place on Sunday 5th September, starting at 10.00am from the car park in the centre of the village, which will be about 10 miles.
Details of all of these walks can be found on the Rushcliffe Ramblers website, www.rushclifferamblers.org or by emailing [email protected]
A leaflet showing the route of the walk is also available from the Parish Office in East Leake.
Rushcliffe Ramblers are a friendly group of walkers in the Nottingham area, organising walks every week usually of around 8 or 9 miles. The majority of these walks are on Sundays but we do arrange shorter mid-week walks of 4 to 5 miles ending at a pub for lunch. We also arrange walking weekends and holidays, and social events. New members are very welcome to join or just come along to try us out. Details of all of the planned walks are on the Rushcliffe Ramblers website, www.rushclifferamblers.org