Heckington and Great Hale

The route begins near the railway station and close to the Pearoom Craft Centre. This building dates from 1870, and until 1961 it was used as a warehouse for sorting peas. Subsequently renovated by the Heckington Village Trust, it now includes craft workshops as well as a gallery with displays of work from all over the country.

Just over the railway from the craft centre is Heckington's unique eight-sailed windmill. There has been a windmill on the site since Michael Hare built a five sailed model in 1830. It was not widely used and changed hands several times before a thunderstorm damaged it in 1890. Two years later, its owner, a Mr Nash met John Pocklington, who had bought a redundant mill with eight sails at nearby Boston, and the two men made a deal. Skirbeck Mill was stripped of its parts, put into the stricken tower at Heckington, where Pocklington set up a bakery and milling business.

The bakery and milling business operated for around 50 years, until operations ceased in 1946. By 1951 the mill began to decay, and recognising the importance of the windmill, Kesteven Council bought it for £2,000 in 1953, and began to restore it. Since 1973 it has been administered by Lincolnshire County Council and was restored to working order in 1986. The windmill is now a visitor centre, gallery and tea-rooms.

Each pair of sails spans a diameter of 70 feet (21 metres) at optimum grinding speed. The tips move at 25 miles per hour (40 kph). They are fitted to a cap that revolves on top of a six-storey, 60 foot (18 metre) brick tower. A fantail on the back of the cap keeps them pointing into the wind.

The village church of Great Hale, which once belonged to nearby Bardney Abbey, lost its chancel in the middle of the 17th century, but remains a striking building with long aisles and a spacious porch. Its rugged tower is Saxon, dating to perhaps a century before the Norman Conquest. There are two notable 17th century memorials. One shows a Robert Cawdron and his 21 children, and the other Robert Cowdron, presumably one of the twenty one, who died in 1665, the year of the Great Plague.

The walk out onto Great Hale Fen crosses the line of Car Dyke. Along with the Fosdyke, this is the only Roman-built canal in Britain. The first known reference to it was in the Danelaw Charters, where it is called Karesdic, the ditch of Kari, although its origins clearly predate the Danes. Archaeologists disagree as to whether it was a purpose-built canal or a large catchwater drain that was also used to transport.

As in many places along its length, silting here has reduced it to an insignificant drain. However, it originally ran for some 56 miles (90 kilometres), from the River Nene, east of Peterborough, to the River Witham, just south of Lincoln, where it marks the western boundary of the Fens. Its character varies along its length, parts appear to follow the natural landform, while other sections of it are clearly man-made.

The return route follows Great Hale Drove, one of the ancient routes across the Fen. This road twice crosses the railway line to Heckington. Laid in 1857 by the Boston, Sleaford and Midland Counties Railway, the line was soon taken over by the Great Northern Railway. It is now part of the British Rail line that runs between Nottingham and Skegness.

The railway line was enormously popular in its early years. Every Feast Wednesday, all the children from the local Sunday schools went on a special excursion train to Skegness. The train was so long that it had to stop twice at every station, so that passengers were able to get on and off.

The centre of old Heckington lies to the north of the railway. The village is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1083 as Echintune, and was held at that time by Gilbert de Gaunt under the Crown.

The only time Heckington appears in national history after that was in the time of James I, when Henry 9th Lord Cobham of Heckington and his brother, George, were convicted of high treason. George was executed, but Lord Cobham was reprieved. He died in poverty in 1619.

The Nag's Head, in the High Street, lays claim to have once numbered the highwayman Dick Turpin among its overnight guests. This is not inconceivable; at his trial in 1739, Turpin was convicted of stealing a mare and foal from Heckington Common.

Across the green is a group of Gothic almshouses, erected in 1888 as a result of a bequest by one Henry Godson. In 1905, four more were built by the church, thanks to the generosity of his kinsman, Edward Godson.

The church itself, dedicated to St Andrew, is one of the finest in the county. It is the third church to have been built on this site. Almost all of it dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and it is in the Decorated style - for many the finest form of Gothic architecture - throughout.

The exterior features a handsome corbel-table and some splendid gargoyles. The nave, chancel and transepts all have large windows with geometric tracery, while the well proportioned tower is topped by a handsome spire.

Inside there is a fine tomb belonging to Richard de Pottesgrave, who was Chaplain to Edward II and Edward III and paid for the building of the chancel. Probably the church's greatest treasure is its Easter sepulchre, widely considered among the best in England, which is wonderfully well carved.

Not far from the church, and on the other side of St Andrews Street is Church House, a former Wesleyan chapel that now houses a permanent exhibition detailing the history of the church. From here, it is an easy walk through the village, back to the Pearooms.